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Abortion Facts and Information

If you are, or someone you know is, on the brink of choosing to abort your unborn child, we urge to make sure you know exactly what the choice is that you are making. Because once you make this choice, you and you alone are responsible for it and you will have to live with it for the rest of your life. It is no small thing to kill an unborn child. And an uninformed decision is no decision at all.

In the words of Sarah Smith, who survived an abortion in which her twin brother lost his life, the reality of the choice is that: "Most men and women who involve themselves with abortion don’t know what they’re doing, as [was the case with] my parents. Many women who demand the right to an abortion say, "It’s my body, it’s my choice." Let me make one thing very clear to you today — my mother’s choice was my death sentence. It is not only a woman’s body we are discussing in an abortion. It is the entire flesh and blood of someone just like me." 

There are serious risks, both physical and psychological, associated with abortion. And during the abortion procedure, your unborn child is likely to suffer agonizing pain. Therefore we urge you to make an informed decision. The information below is provided to help you do that. Since the information provided is quite extensive, a Table of Contents is provided as a link so you can navigate back and forth easily.

In addition to the information we provide, there is also an excellent booklet available on the US state of Texas Department of Health website. Here's the link: http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/women/hb15_intro.htm ~ the booklet is entitled "A Woman's Right to Know". You have a right to know exactly what you are doing before you make a final decision.

Table of Contents
List of Abortion Related Topics on This Page

When does life begin?                                                Feet of a 10 week fetus
In 1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the question: When does human life begin? Appearing to speak on behalf of the scientific community was a group of internationally-known geneticists and biologists who had the same story to tell, namely, that human life begins at conception - and they told their story with a profound absence of opposing testimony.

Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard medical School, gave confirming testimony, supported by references from over 20 embryology and other medical textbooks that human life began at conception.

I think we can now also say that the question of the beginning of life — when life begins — is no longer a question for theological or philosophical dispute. It is an established scientific fact. Theologians and philosophers may go on to debate the meaning of life or purpose of life, but it is an established fact that all life, including human life, begins at the moment of conception.

I have never ever seen in my own scientific reading, long before I became concerned with issues of life of this nature, that anyone has ever argued that life did not begin at the moment of conception and that it was human conception if it resulted from the fertilization of the human egg by human sperm. As far as I know, these have never been argued against.

— Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics and physician at the Mayo Clinic
(Cited in a 1981 U.S. Senate subcommittee report to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee)

To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion ... it is plain experimental evidence.

— "Father of Modern Genetics" Dr. Jerome Lejeune.

By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.

— Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic

The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception.

— Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law professor, University of Tennessee

I am no more prepared to say that these early stages represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty . . . is not a human being.

— Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

To say that the beginning of human life cannot be determined scientifically is utterly ridiculous.

— Dr. Richard V. Jaynes

Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind." And on the Supreme Court ruling "Roe v. Wade", "To deny a truth [about when life begins] should not be made a basis for legalizing abortion.

— Dr. Landrum Shettles, sometimes called the "Father of In Vitro Fertilization"

. . . either the justices were fed a backwoods biology or they were pretending ignorance about a scientific certainty.

— Professor Eugene Diamond, professor of pediatrics, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine;
visiting professor, Rush Medical College; and acting chairman, Department of Pediatrics at Loyola University.
He has served as president of the Illinois Academy of Pediatrics and is
currently chairman of the Bioethics Section -- American Academy of Pediatrics.

This website http://www.physiciansforlife.ca/whendoes.html provides an excellent treatment of when life begins.

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Samuel Armas' tiny hand grips Dr. Joseph P. Bruner's finger just as Bruner finishes returning him to his mother's womb.

Bruner, director of fetal diagnosis and treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was performing a cutting-edge procedure on the 21-week-old fetus.

Read the rest of the story at
http://www.tennessean.com/sii/99/09/07/fetus07.shtml

Samuel Armas' tiny hand reaches out of the womb to grip 

Dr. Joseph P. Bruner's finger. (Photos copyright/ Michael Clancy)

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These sites
http://www.secondlookproject.org/fetaldevelopment/
and
http://tennesseerighttolife.org/human_life_issues/human_life_issues_chronology_new_life.htm 
also provide excellent overviews of the development of your unborn child.

Ever wonder what you looked like before you were born. View real time 3D Ultrasounds
Click Here

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Roe v. Wade 

. . . the US Supreme Court decision that put us on the road to "abortion on demand"

Click on the picture to read the actual text of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that allowed abortion on demand in the United States and later influenced Canadian abortion policies.  You can listen to oral arguments; and review other important abortion-related US Supreme Court Cases.

Ever wonder who is Jane Roe of the Roe v. Wade United States Supreme Court decision  of January 22, 1973.  She is Norma McCorvey.  In testimony to a Senate Subcommittee on the eve of the 25^th Anniversary of  that decision, January 21, 1998, she explained that not only did she lie, she was lied to by her lawyers.   Norma is now a committed pro-lifer and with deep sincerity prays there will be no 30^th Anniversary of that court ruling.  Click here, here or here to read more about this.

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The "facts" about abortion

"This man came into our clinic and he took every one of our receptionists, all of the nurses, anyone who would be on the phone, and he took us through an extensive training period where we learned how to sell abortions over the telephone so that when the girl called, we hooked a sale so she wouldn't go down the street and get an abortion somewhere else, and so that she wouldn't adopt out her baby or so that she wouldn't change her mind. We were doing it to get her money. It was for the money." Click here to read more of this former abortionist's story.

From Chapter Three:

Abortion is a surgical procedure in which a woman's body is forcibly entered and her pregnancy forcibly "terminated."  Because it is intrusive, and because it disrupts a natural process (pregnancy), abortion poses both short-term and long-term risks to the health and well being of the aborted woman.  Abortion is never without risks.

Statistics on abortion safety are hard to gather. 

The reporting of complications is almost entirely at the option of abortion providers.  In order words, abortionists are in the privileged position of being able to hide any information which might damage their reputations or trade.

What is discussed here are minimum rates based on partial studies. The information is voluntarily reported, and therefore does not reflect the full picture of what is actually happening.

Although the rates of complications cannot be accurately known, the variety can be. 

Over one hundred potential complications have been associated with abortion.  Some of these complications can be immediately spotted, such as a puncture of the uterus or other organs, convulsion, or cardiac arrest.  Other complications reveal themselves with in a few days, such as a slow hemorrhage, pulmonary embolisms, infection and fever.  Still other complications are long term in nature, usually the result of damage to the reproductive system, and may result in chronic infection, an inability to carry a subsequent pregnancy to term, or sterility.  These latent complications may not be apparent until a later pregnancy is attempted or until the uterus is so infected as to require removal.  Thus, an abortion recorded as complication-free in a short-term study might in fact have caused long-term damage.  Thus, as many investigators have discovered, short-term studies of abortion complications reveal only the tip of the iceberg.  Indeed, the longer women are kept under surveillance after an abortion, the higher are the reported rates of latent morbidity.  Women who may appear physically unaffected by an abortion after a one-year follow-up may be found to be severely affected by the abortion as much as ten to fifteen years later.

     Almost 90 percent of all abortions are performed by suction curettage, commonly known as vacuum abortions.  A cutting instrument attached to a high powered vacuum is used in this procedure.  It has 29 times the power of a household vacuum.  [A] German study found that the total morbidity rate for vacuum aspiration abortions exceeded 31 percent.  In a few recorded cases, abortionists have inadvertently sucked out several feet of intestines in a matter of only a few seconds.

The nine most common "major" (strictly defined to include only life-threatening) complications resulting from vacuum abortion are:  infection, excessive bleeding, embolism, ripping or perforation of the uterus, anesthesia complications, convulsions, hemorrhage, cervical injury and endotoxic shock.  "Minor" complications include:  minor infections, bleeding, fevers and chills, second degree burns, chronic abdominal pain, vomiting, gastro-intestinal disturbances, weight loss, painful or disrupted menstrual cycles and Rh sensitization.

Dilation and curettage is very similar to suction curettage but is used primarily in late first trimester and early second trimester abortions.  It differs from suction abortions in that instead of vacuuming out the "products of conception," the abortionist manually dismembers the fetus and scrapes the organs out of the uterus and into a basin.  Because it uses sharper instruments and involves more scraping, D&C abortions typically result in much greater blood loss and a higher rate of overall complications.  The types of complications associated with D&C abortions are virtually the same as with vacuum abortions, but are approximately 20 percent more frequent.

     A high risk of infection is common to all forms of abortion.  In one series of 1,182 abortions which occurred under closely regulated hospital conditions, researchers found that 27 percent of the patients acquired post-abortion infections resulting in fevers lasting three days or longer.  The infection rate from outpatient "abortion mills" is probably much higher.

     Mild or severe infections may extend from the uterine lining to the fallopian tubes or to organs adjacent to the uterus.  Scar tissue left by the infection may block the fallopian tube, resulting in total or partial infertility and an increased probability of ectopic pregnancies.  If a chronic infection results, a total hysterectomy may be required several months or even years after the abortion.

     Cervical damage is extremely frequent in young women pregnant for the first time, because the cervix is much more rigid in women who have not previously given birth.  This fact is particularly unnerving since nearly 60 percent of all abortions are for first pregnancies.  Most of these women will later seek a "wanted" pregnancy, but because of cervical damage they may instead face the traumas of repeated miscarriages and premature births.

     According to one study, the risk of second trimester miscarriage increases tenfold following a vaginal abortion.  Similarly, the risk of premature delivery also increases eight to ten times.  Though normally only five percent of all babies are born prematurely, this rate jumps to 40 percent among women who have had abortions.  In anther study, a researcher found that 48 percent of the women studied suffered from abortion-related complications in later "wanted" pregnancies.  Women in this group experienced 2.3 miscarriages for every one live birth. (Emphasis added.) 

     [A] ... study performed by California researchers found that the risk of breast cancer doubled among women who abort their first pregnancy....

     The explanation for increased breast cancers and cervical cancers among aborted women lies in the unnatural disruption of their changing bodies.  Early in pregnancy, the breasts and uterus undergo a rapid growth and change.  Suddenly disrupting these changes before their completion may render these cells susceptible to "neoplastic stimuli" (tumor initiation) or might hasten the growth of cells which are already malignant.

     Japan has had the most experience with legal abortions.  It was first legalized there as part of the population control measures established during the American occupation following World War II.

     According to one Japanese study, women undergoing abortions experienced the following complications: nine percent were subsequently sterile; 14 percent suffered from recurring miscarriages; 17 percent experienced menstrual irregularities; 20-30 percent reported abdominal pain, dizziness, headaches, etc.; and there was a 400 percent increase in ectopic pregnancies. 

     The safety record of abortion is dismal.  The reported (emphasis in the original) rate of immediate complications following induced abortion is fully ten percent.  The frequency of late complications is not documented in American statistics, but based on foreign experience, long-term complications can be expected in from 17 to 50 percent of all aborted women.  Most of these long-term complications result in partial or total infertility, and an increased risk of ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages and premature births.  These risks are especially high among young women who have not yet had their families.

You may wish to visit this http://www.cwfa.org/library/life/2000-02_pp_a-risks.shtml site for additional information and insight on the physical risks of abortion.

Psychological Risks of Abortion (Source: http://www.mrtl.org/home.html)
The following information has been taken almost exclusively from ABORTED WOMEN, SILENT NO MORE, by David C. Reardon, Loyola University Press, 3441 North Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657, (c) 1987.  Most of it is direct quotation. This is an excellent book. 

From Chapter Four:

     Even more so than with physical complications, the psychological damage caused by abortion is practically impossible to quantify.  Once again, the lack of comprehensive studies in America is due in part to obstructionism by abortion providers who keep few if any records.  But even assuming that complete records were kept, psychological complications are never easily quantified. 

     Even when more objective studies are done, the biases of researchers may still be evident, particularly in the ways they define "significant psychiatric sequelae" (aftereffects). 

     Besides the dispute over defining "significant" sequelae, the process of documenting the rate of post-abortion sequelae is further complicated by delayed reactions.  A woman that a six-month post-abortion survey declares "well-adjusted" may experience severe trauma on the anniversary of the abortion date, or even many years later.  This fact is attested to in psychiatric textbooks which affirm that:  "The significance of abortions may not be revealed until later periods of emotional depression.  During depressions occurring in the fifth or sixth decades of the patient's life, the psychiatrist frequently hears expressions of remorse and guilt concerning abortions that occurred twenty or more years earlier."  In one study, the number of women who expressed "serious self-reproach" increased fivefold over the period of time covered by the study. 

     The following is an assortment of figures given in various studies.  The standards and definitions used in each study were different, and so the results cannot be added together or compared in any meaningful way.  But the general trend strongly supports our own survey findings that significant post-abortion sequelae are common.  (Not all the report summaries listed by Reardon in the original text are listed below, rather a few have been purposely selected to illustrate what are the more dramatic numbers.)

     A European study reported negative psychiatric manifestations following legal abortions in 55 percent of the women examined by psychiatrists.

     Another study of aborted women observed that 23 percent suffered "severe guilt."  An additional 25 percent were classified as suffering from "mild guilt" and exhibited symptoms such as insomnia, decreased work capacity and nervousness.

     One doctor reports:  "Since abortion was legalized I have seen hundreds of patients who have had the operation.  Approximately ten percent expressed little or no concern....  Among the other 90 percent there were all shades of distress, anxiety, heartache and remorse."

     Although, for various reasons, it is difficult to quantify and qualify the various negative psychological consequences of abortion on women who have undergone the procedure, it is possible to list the general types.  They are guilt and remorse, broken relationships and sexual dysfunction, depression and sense of loss,  and deterioration of self-image and self-punishment.  These consequences can lead to, among other things,  child abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual coldness or promiscuity, shortness of temper, sleeping problems, problems with maternal bonding with later children and suicide.

    Abortion has also been identified as the cause of psychotic and schizophrenic reactions.  Symptoms frequently include extreme anxiety and feelings of paranoia.

     Who are most likely to suffer psychological trauma from abortion? According to a report by a group of psychologists headed by Dr. C. M. Friedman:

     The literature on abortion and our clinical experience both indicate that there is a greater likelihood of post-abortion psychiatric illness in situations in which any of the following elements are present:  coercion, medical indications [including abortings to save the life or health and eugenic abortion of a possibly handicapped child], concurrent severe psychiatric illness, severe ambivalence [i.e. when the woman wants a baby, sees this preborn as her baby, or feels she is its mother], and the woman's feeling that the decision is not her own [i.e. is required by needs and circumstances outside her control].

     Note that the list of "worst candidates for abortion" includes women who would need abortion for the "hard" cases:  to save her life or health, in cases of rape and incest, and to prevent the birth of a handicapped child....  [T]heir inclusion here demonstrates what can be considered a general principle:  The more difficult the circumstances prompting abortion, the more likely it is that a woman will suffer post-abortion sequelae.  (Emphasis in the original.)

You may wish to visit this http://www.abortionconcern.org/ site for some stories of women who have suffered the psychological trauma of abortion. This http://www.afterabortion.org/ website is also an excellent resource.

Also see 

• UN GENDER COMMITTEE ADMITS LEGAL ABORTION UNSAFE FOR WOMEN
• WOMEN WHO ABORT: THEIR REFLECTIONS ON THE UNBORN; and
• GROUNDBREAKING BOOK ON ABORTION'S IMPACT REISSUED

elsewhere in this website.

Is Abortion a women's issue?
Women are told that the decision about their pregnancy is  a woman's choice, but in fact it usually is someone else's choice. Society has put them into a position which they feel they have no other choice than to kill their baby. We need to be here to tell them otherwise. The abortion industry is big business, and it is in the business of selling abortions, not choices.

The Forgotten Victim: Many men also suffer emotionally after the abortion. They have no legal right to stop the woman from killing their child. Either they suffer guilt after pushing her into the abortion or are depressed because of helplessness from trying to save the child.

For additional information on this topic, Click Here to go to our Post-Abortion Help and Healing page.

What is Post Abortion Syndrome?
Visit the "Post-Abortion Help and Healing" page of our website for a discussion of Post-Abortion Syndrome.
You may also wish to visit http://www.gurlpages.com/ceramicgrrl/story.html to read the true stories of women who have experienced Post Abortion Syndrome.

Does the baby feel pain?
(Source: Based partly on Abortion: A Briefing Book for Canadian Legislators, Campaign Life Coalition)

The scientific evidence is clear and overwhelming that the baby most definitely does feel pain — excruciating and agonizing pain. Modern technology has given us a clear window on the womb — ultrasounds, electroencephalograms, and so on — allowing us to observe the child before birth.

In the American Medical News, February 24, 1984, Dr. Vincent Collins, Diplomat and Fellow of the American Board of Anesthesiologists, stated:

"As early as eight to ten weeks' gestation, and definitely by thirteen-and-a-half weeks, the human fetus experiences organic pain."

Dr. Collins listed the following factors as evidence that the fetus is capable of pain:

• The cortex is developed between four and five weeks of age
• Reflex actions can be observed between four and seven weeks
• Brain waves are detectable between six and seven weeks
• Nerves connecting the spinal cord to peripheral structures have developed between six to eight weeks
• Adverse reactions to stimuli are observed between eight and ten weeks
• Neurotransmitters capable of sending pain signals to the brain are present at twelve weeks

From evidence given to the Supreme Court of the United States in J.M. v. V.C., October term, 1992, we know that at seven weeks the skin pain receptors are present, and they have been preceded by the nerve fibres of the neural pathways, and the nerve junctions (synapses) with the spinal cord;  we also know that by 12 weeks, the thalamus, mid-brain, brain stem and cerebellar hemisphere have developed.

Closer to home for Canadians, Doctor Ken Craig, a researcher of pain in premature babies at University of British Columbia, told the Vancouver Province (August 30, 1995) that:

"by every measure, the fetus from 16-19 weeks reacts to painful stimulus in a manner consistent with the perception of pain. At 24-25 weeks post conception, a fetus displays all of the physiological and behavioral reactions you observe in children and adults."

Doctor Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, told National Right to Life News ("The emerging reality of fetal pain in late abortions," September 2000, p.14) that:

"careful anatomical studies reveal, in fact, that the ascending pain fibers reach the cortex by 20 weeks. They then 'sit' briefly, for a few days to a few weeks, before making their final push upward to establish their ultimate connections (synapses) with the surface gray matter neurons that register a conscious awareness of pain. Allowing some room for individual variability, the brain of an unborn child will begin to register pain impulses just after 20 weeks with ever-increasing amounts of pain reception reaching millions of surface cortical neurons between 20 and 24 weeks."

Dr. Vevette Glover, a researcher at the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London, England, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (August 28, 2000) that:

"Between 17 and 26 weeks it is increasingly possible that [the fetus] starts to feel something and that abortions done in that period ought to use anaesthesia."

According to Deborah Henry, a former abortion provider:

"At 6 weeks, brain waves can be detected. His little arms and legs are moving around. At 8 weeks, he has permanent palm and fingerprints, just like we all have now--the same exact prints. His nervous system is developed at 8 weeks. This is when all of the abortions are done. You tell me that this baby doesn't feel anything. I will tell you differently."  Click here to read more of this former abortionists story.

Still not convinced? Do you really want to know the truth? Why not "see" it for yourself. Click here to watch an actual abortion that was filmed using ultrasound technology — "The Silent Scream" — in which the fetus is 12 weeks at the time the abortion takes place.

Click Here to read about more about this topic, including its links to the abortion industry, on another very good site.

Is the world overpopulated?

One of the tools the Pro-Abortion community uses to further its agenda is the over population myth and the food shortage myth. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Consider the following:

According to United Nations 1998 world population estimates there will be nearly 6 billion people on the planet as of 1999. If you took these 6 billion people, split them up into family units of four and gave them each a piece of land 50' x 50', the entire population of the planet would fit very easily into the state of Montana (with over 300 billion square feet left over!).

Imagine yourself standing up in the middle of a square 1-1/2' x 1-1/2'. If the entire planet's 6 billion people all stood in identical squares, they would all fit within the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida (with over 9.7 billion square feet left over!).

Montana is a relatively small state in the United States. Click here to read more.

What about food shortages, the other pro-abortion myth. Click here to read more on this topic. 

What do former abortion providers have to say about abortion?
Abortion is a nasty business, as many who have worked in the industry can tell you. Meet former abortion providers and read what they have to say about abortion: Click here

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History of Abortion in Canada: Abortion Time Line
(Source: http://www.csolve.net/~reality/history.html)

1967. As Justice Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau introduces abortion reform bill.

1968. Pierre Elliot Trudeau elected as Prime Minister of Canada.

1969. Henry Morgentaler closes family practice in Montreal and dedicates himself to becoming an abortionist. Section 251 of the Canadian Criminal Code amended by Trudeau government, Canada's hellish descent into government-sanctioned abortion-on-demand begins.

1970. Henry Morgentaler's abortion clinic raided; Morgentaler arrested and charged. Number of induced abortions that year: 11,152 [according to Statistics Canada]

1971. Number of induced abortions that year: 30,949 -- close to triple that of the year before

1972. Pierre Elliot Trudeau re-elected as Prime Minister of Canada. Number of induced abortions that year: 38,905

1973. Henry Morgentaler announces that he has, illegally, aborted 5,000 children. In May of that year, he allows TV cameras to show him aborting child at clinic; abortion shown, on Mother's Day, on national TV. Arrested again, aquitted by jury. In the U.S., abortion laws protecting preborn child struck down in 46 states by Roe v. Wade decision. Number of induced abortions that year: 43,245

1974. The Quebec Court of Appeal reverses Morgentaler's jury decision; Morgentaler appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada. Number of induced abortions that year: 52,435

1975. The Supreme Court of Canada rejects Morgentaler's appeal; Morgentaler sent to minimum security "nursing home" type of prison for short period. The Parliament of Canada receives the "Petition of One Million": a list of names from Canadians across the country demanding protection for the preborn. Number of induced abortions that year: 53,705

1976. Attorney General Ron Basford orders a re-trial for Morgentaler; Henry released from prison and acquited. The Parti Quebecois, coming into power, announces that it will no longer enforce abortion law in that province.
Number of induced abortions that year: 58,712

1977. The Badgely Report, a survey commissioned by the federal government and conducted by pro- abortionist, Marion Powell, released. Document recommends further liberalization of Canada's rapidly-deteriorating abortion law. Number of induced abortions that year: 59,864

1978. Number of induced abortions that year: 62,351

1979. Number of induced abortions that year: 65,135

1980. Federal Liberals return to power after brief turn out of office. Pierre Elliot Trudeau announces plans for new Canadian Constitution. Number of induced abortions that year: 72,099

1981. Hearings completed on Constitution. Number of induced abortions that year: 71,911

1982. The Canadian Charter of Rights, which completely deny the rights of the preborn child, become part of the new Constitution. Bertha Wilson, an outspoken pro-abortionist, appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Henry Morgentaler makes plans to open up illegal abortion clinics in Toronto and Winnipeg. Number of induced abortions that year: 75,071

1983. Largest-ever pro-life rally staged at Queen's Park in Toronto, with 40,000 in attendance. Morgentaler's illegal abortion clinics raided in Toronto and Winnipeg; he goes on trial in November. Number of induced abortions that year: 69,368

1984. Morgentaler acquitted; police raid Toronto abortion clinic and lay new charges. Pierre Elliot Trudeau resigns as Prime Minister; Brian Mulroney elected. Number of induced abortions that year: 69,449

1985. Ontario Court of Appeal overturns Morgentaler's jury acquittal. Number of induced abortions that year: 69,216

1986. Morgentaler opens up second illegal abortion clinic in Toronto; the Supreme Court of Canada hears Morgentaler appeal. Number of induced abortions that year: 69,572

1987. Number of induced abortions that year: 70,023

1988. The Supreme Court of Canada throws out what remains of the abortion law in Canada, making it not illegal (but not legal); Morgentaler acquitted; abortion clinics begin to spread like blight. Number of induced abortions that year: 72,693

1989. Morgentaler opens abortion clinic in Nova Scotia. Attempt to define new abortion law in Canada, entitled Bill C-43, introduced in House of Commons. Number of induced abortions that year: 79,315

1990. Bill C-43 approved in House of Commons. Number of induced abortions that year: 92,901

1991. Bill C-43 rejected by Senate. Since then, Canada has been without any abortion law whatsoever.
Number of induced abortions that year: 95,059

1992. Morgentaler's Toronto abortion clinic destroyed by arson; no suspects found. Ontario's NDP government uses close to half a million dollars in taxpayers' money to pay for new security systems in all Toronto abortion clinics. Number of induced abortions that year: 102,085

1993. Ontario's NDP government attempts to promote recommendations listed in "Task Force on Abortion Service Providers" -- a wish list put together by 60 abortionists and abortion advocates. Number of induced abortions that year: 104,403

1994. Morgentaler opens up abortion clinic in Ottawa, situated, symbolically, two blocks from Parliament Hill and Supreme Court of Canada Building. Number of induced abortions that year: 106,255 -- now one out of every three Canadian children aborted has his or her brief life ended in a freestanding, taxpayer-funded abortion clinic

1995. Alberta Government attempts to defund abortion, but stymied by province's medical associations. Pope John Paul II releases encyclical "The Gospel of Life" March 25, condemning evils of abortion and euthanasia.
Number of induced abortions that year: 106,658

1996. Winnipeg Child and Family Services seeks court order to get pregnant solvant-abusing mother into treatment programme; order is denied. Carleton Place mother is arrested for shooting child in her womb.

1997. Number of induced abortions that year: 111,668

1998. Number of induced abortions that year: 110,288

1999. Number of induced abortions that year: 107,627 (Ontario data not available; estimated based on 1997 and 1998 figures.

[Abortion statistics come out with about a two or three year lag, so that statistics for 2000 will not be available from Statistics Canada until late 2002 or sometime in 2003]

SINCE 1970, THE YEAR CANADA'S ABORTION LAWS BEGAN TO UNRAVEL, MORE THAN TWO MILLION (2,000,000) CANADIAN CHILDREN HAVE HAD THEIR BRIEF AND PRECIOUS LIVES DELIBERATELY TERMINATED BY ABORTION.

Do not be deceived by what appears to be a slight decline in the number of abortions. This is related to the aging of the population, especially the baby boomers who are moving beyond their childbearing years, and not to any underlying decline in the demand for abortions in Canada.

If you are from the US, see this website for history of abortion: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/index.html

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Abortion Statistics–Canada and the Provinces

Remember the overused rhetoric that life begins at birth
Now they say if you're not wanted, you have no inherent worth
When dignity becomes arbitrary, we're under an evil hex
Willing to admit our nothingness for the politics of sex
      (Francis J. Beckwith, "Politics of Sex", 1984)

In Canada, unborn children have no legal rights whatsoever and no legal protection whatsoever under the Canadian Constitution and/or Human Rights legislation. Unborn children are denied personhood in Canada, regardless of their viability. Furthermore, fathers have no legal rights whatsoever to protect their unborn children from abortion – abortion is entirely at the discretion of the mother.

Canada has not had an abortion law since 1991. Abortion is legally available on demand in Canada to any woman for any reason whatsoever regardless of age, marital status, or any other status. These reasons can include sex selection (baby is not the desired sex), genetic defect, inconvenience of the mother – any reason whatsoever, no matter how trivial it may seem. There are no legal barriers to abortion in Canada – none whatsoever. Moreover, abortion is available on demand at any time whatsoever during the pregnancy up to and including the ninth month, the final weeks and days of the pregnancy.

There are almost 9,000 recorded abortions performed each month in Canada, nearly 300 a day or about one every five minutes. These  approximately 110,000 abortions annually are paid for by Canadian tax payers. More than one-third of the women who obtain these tax-payer-funded abortions are doing so for the second and third (or more) time. In other words, one-third of these women have had multiple abortions, the vast majority are young (less than 30) and single.

While the majority of abortions in Canada are done before the 17th week of gestation (click here for pictures of unborn children in this range of gestation), there are recorded instances of abortions being performed in Canada during the third trimester, as late as the 36th week of gestation. In Newfoundland the threshold is set in the second trimester at 20 weeks or nearly five months (click here to view unborn child at 18 weeks, or click here to view unborn child at five months), however, there is currently a move afoot to raise the threshold to 24 weeks or close to six months (click here to view unborn child at 24 weeks, or click here to view unborn at six months).

During1999, the most recent year (as of February, 2002) for which published data is available from Statistics Canada, it is estimated that there were about 32 therapeutic abortions performed in Canada for every 100 live births. Put another way, at least one-quarter (32 out of 132) of all pregnancies in this Country were terminated by abortion in 1999. Statistics Canada figures by province for 1997, 1998 and 1999 are provided below. The table shows that Quebec has the highest abortion rate of all provinces (42.7 abortions for every 100 live births in 1999), however, other provinces also have very high abortion rates with the average being 32.4 abortions for every 100 live births in this country. The rate in Newfoundland is among the lowest, nevertheless more than 800 unborn children lose their lives to abortion in this province every year.

In reality, the Canadian abortion rate is much higher than is indicated by the table since not all abortions are reported as such: some are reported simply as D&Cs while other pregnancies are terminated by such methods as the so-called "morning after pill" and thus would not reported as abortions at all. Moreover, when we consider the fact that most contraceptive devices (including the pill and IUD) are abortifacients or abortion-causing agents, it is more likely that close to one-half of all pregnancies in this Country are terminated by abortion. Small wonder that Canada has one of the lowest birth rates in the industrialized world, currently well below the population replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. Canada cannot maintain its population over the long term without massive amounts of immigration. The chart below shows the number of live births per 1,000 women 15-49 years from 1971 to 2000. The downward decline has been precipitous since the 1970s when the number of abortions began their relentless upward climb. Over this period, Newfoundland has gone from having the highest birth rate in the country to lowest. 

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Abortion Methods Used in Canada

"At 6 weeks, brain waves can be detected. His little arms and legs are moving around. At 8 weeks, he has permanent palm and fingerprints, just like we all have now--the same exact prints. His nervous system is developed at 8 weeks. This is when all of the abortions are done. You tell me that this baby doesn't feel anything. I will tell you differently." Click here to read more of this former abortionist's story.

"This man came into our clinic and he took every one of our receptionists, all of the nurses, anyone who would be on the phone, and he took us through an extensive training period where we learned how to sell abortions over the telephone so that when the girl called, we hooked a sale so she wouldn't go down the street and get an abortion somewhere else, and so that she wouldn't adopt out her baby or so that she wouldn't change her mind. We were doing it to get her money. It was for the money." Click here to read more of this former abortionist's story.

• Suction Curettage
  About 90 percent of all abortions are performed by suction curettage, commonly known as vacuum abortions.  The cervix is manually dilated by the abortionist, and a cutting instrument attached to a high powered vacuum is inserted into the womb. This vacuum has 29 times the power of a household vacuum, and tears the fetus and placenta into small pieces which are sucked through the tube into a bottle and discarded. One  German study found that the total morbidity (i.e., death) rate for vacuum aspiration abortions exceeded 31 percent.  In a few recorded cases, abortionists have inadvertently sucked out several feet of intestines in a matter of only a few seconds with this high-power vacuum. Other common complications include infection, ripping or perforation of the uterus, cervical injury, and so on. See Physical Risks of Abortion for additional information on these risks.
  
• Dilation and Curettage
  Dilation and curettage is very similar to suction curettage but is used primarily in late first trimester and early second trimester abortions.  It differs from suction abortions in that instead of vacuuming out the so-called "products of conception," the abortionist manually dismembers the fetus, literally rips it to pieces and scrapes the organs out of the uterus and into a basin. A pair of forceps is inserted into the womb to grasp part of the fetus. The teeth of the forceps twist and tear the bones of the unborn child. This process is repeated until the fetus is totally dismembered and removed. Usually the spine must be snapped and the skull crushed in order to remove them. Because it uses sharper instruments and involves more scraping, D&C abortions typically result in much greater blood loss and a higher rate of overall complications.  The types of complications associated with D&C abortions are virtually the same as with vacuum abortions, but are approximately 20 percent more frequent. See Physical Risks of Abortion for additional information on these risks.

"I handled the ultrasound while the doctor performed the procedure and I directed him while I was watching the screen. I saw the baby pull away. I saw the baby open his mouth. I had seen Silent Scream a number of times, but it didn't effect me. To me it was just more pro-life propaganda. But I couldn't deny what I saw on the screen." Cick here to read the rest of this former abortionists story.

• Saline Abortion (Source: http://www.users.qwest.net/~jdean67/pladvocate/abortph1.html)
  Because of the high incidence of maternal deaths, and live births of severely damaged babies, saline is rarely used anymore BUT it is used and causes excruciating paid for the unborn child, and sometimes for the mother as well.

  Saline abortion is generally done after the 16th week of pregnancy, when there is enough amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. A long needle is inserted through the mother's abdomen directly into the amniotic sac. Some of the amniotic fluid is drawn out and replaced with a strong saline (salt) solution.

  The saline is absorbed into the lungs and the digestive tract of the baby. The outer layer of skin is burned off by the high concentration of salt. It is a long poisoning process, and the baby dies slowly.

  The woman suffers discomfort during this procedure. She can feel the baby struggle and sometimes go into convulsions. Saline solution also brings on labor, although other drugs are often used to speed labor. She will generally be in labor about 12 hours after the injection. This means that the woman is hospitalized overnight. Women are often left alone to deliver the aborted child. This can be an emotionally devastating experience.

  "One night, I remember a lady delivered and I was called to come and see her. She was going to pieces, she was uncontrollable, just screaming and thrashing. When I walked into the room I saw her little saline aborted baby. It had been born and it was kicking and moving for a little while before it finally died of those terrible burns." Click here to read the rest of this former abortionist's story.

  "The saline is injected into the woman's sac, and the baby swallows the saline. It is a salt solution. The baby starts dying a slow, violent death. The mother feels everything. Many times it is at this point when she realizes, or she is facing reality, that she really has a live baby inside of her, because the baby starts fighting violently for his life. He is running and fighting inside because he is burning. Can you imagine the pain? Pour a little bit of acid on your finger and you will realize how much pain that baby must be going through, only he is having it all over his body. This isn't just a small percentage of abortions. It happens quite often." Click here to read the rest of this former abortionist's story.

  Serious complications can occur with saline abortions. The saline solution causes a drastic change in the woman's blood-clotting ability. This means that it is very hard to stop any bleeding. If hemorrhaging occurs, the woman can die. Blood and amniotic fluid can embolize to the woman's lungs and/or brain, causing death. There is also a very high risk of infection following a saline abortion.

  Click here to view what Pro-Choice refers to as the "product of conception" that results from a saline abortion. These photos are very graphic, they are not for children and discretion is advised.
  
  Hysterotomy or Caesarean Section ( Source: http://216.122.249.80/clc/abortion_types/index.html )
  Used mainly in the last three months of pregnancy, the womb is entered by surgery through the wall of the abdomen. The technique is similar to a Caesarean delivery, except that the umbilical cord is usually cut while the baby is still in the womb, thus cutting off his oxygen supply and causing him to suffocate. Sometimes the baby is removed alive and simply left in a corner to die of neglect or exposure
  
  Partial Birth Abortion  
  This is one of the most atrocious methods of abortion. This procedure is generally used beginning at 20 weeks (4 1/2 months) into pregnancy, and "routinely" to at least 24 weeks (5 1/2 months). It has often been used much later – even into the ninth month. The Los Angeles Times accurately and succinctly described this abortion method in a June 16, 1995 news story:
  
  The procedure requires a physician to extract a fetus, feet first, from the womb and through the birth canal until all but its head is exposed. Then the tips of surgical scissors are thrust into the base of the fetus' skull, and a suction catheter is inserted through the opening and the brain is removed.
  
  In 1992, Dr. Martin Haskell of Dayton, Ohio, wrote a paper that described in detail, step-by-step, how to perform the procedure. ["Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion."] Dr. Haskell is a family practitioner who has performed over 1,000 such procedures in his walk-in abortion clinics. Anyone who is seriously seeking the truth behind the conflicting claims regarding partial-birth abortions would do well to start by reading Dr. Haskell's paper, and the transcripts of the explanatory interviews that Dr. Haskell gave in 1993 to two medical publications, American Medical News (the official AMA newspaper) and Cincinnati Medicine.

  The method of Partial Birth Abortion, or PBA, is vividly portrayed in the charts below:
  
  

  "The baby's little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall" Click here to read the rest of this former abortion providers story.

  Read more about Partial Birth Abortions by visiting
  http://www.prolifeinfo.org/pba2.html 

  You can also read more at this site: http://tennesseerighttolife.org/human_life_issues/human_life_issues_partial_birth_abortion.htm 

  Read what the American Medical Association had to say in this article
  which discusses the the medical and ethical aspects of this procedure
  and of late-term abortions in general:
  http://www.partialbirthabortion.org/welcome/what_is.html 

• Abortifacients and Contraceptives
  Only a few methods of birth control referred to as "contraceptive" are truly contraceptives. These are the condom, the diaphragm, the cervical cap, and the anti-sperm agents. Most of the others are, in fact, abortion-causing agents. Some of the more common ones are discussed below. Please note that most of the "morning after" type products can be deadly, you can read this for yourself by visiting the websites of the manufacturers of these products and reviewing the "Side Effects" information. Even the manufacturers admit that these products can kill the mother as well as the unborn child.

"The Pill"
This refers to a group of more than 50 similar types of abortifacients. These are usually taken every day, and they basically have three ways of working (This information can be obtained from any standard reference work, such as the Physician's Desk Reference — just ask you doctor about it):

    1. They prevent ovulation by suppressing the part of the brain which signals for ovulation to begin.
    2. They change the lining in the cervix to make it more difficult for sperm to pass through and fertilize an egg.
    3. They prevent implantation of newly conceived human life on the lining of the womb.

The first two of these are contraceptive in nature — that is, they prevent conception — but the third mechanism actually causes an abortion. Since the unborn child is unable to implant itself in is mother's womb, the unborn child literally starves to death and passes out of the mother's body.

Among the more serious side effects of the pill are possible infertility, cervical cancer, breast cancer, tubal pregnancy inflammatory disease, increased chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, gall bladder disease, blindness, strokes, blood clots and even death. Click here to read more about the risks.

For additional information on this topic, including scientific documentation on the abortion-causing mechanism associated with the pill, consult http://www.missionariestopreborn.com/. There are many other good sites you could consult as well, and your doctor will also be able to give you written information from the manufacturers outlining mechanisms by which the pill works.

You may also click here to read the booklet "Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?" by Randy Alcorn, Director of Eternal Perspective Ministries (http://www.epm.org/index.html).

Intra-Uterine Device (IUD)
IUDs are not contraceptive devices since they do not prevent conception from taking place. These devices, which are inserted past the cervix, are designed to induce early abortions by causing inflammation of the womb and thereby preventing implantation of the unborn child.

Some side effects of the IUD are possible perforation of the uterus, temporary or permanent sterility, tubal pregnancy, future miscarriages, pelvic inflammatory disease, and even death.

For additional information on this topic (and on the topic of abortifacients in general, including scientific documentation on the abortion-causing mechanism associated with an IUD, consult http://www.missionariestopreborn.com/. There are many other good sites you could consult as well, and your doctor will also be able to give you written information from the manufacturers outllining mechanisms by which this device works.

"Morning After Pill" or Mifepristone (RU-486)
The is a high risk therapeutic method of abortion. According the Dr. Eugene Diamond, "RU-486 is capable of producing the death of a developing unborn child through blocking progesterone receptors and with consequent disruption of the nutrient bed of the endometrium.  . . . The use of RU-486 with prostaglandins is a high-risk therapeutic method which would preclude its ever being used by women during pregnancy except under close and complex medical supervision. The current climate in the medical community is typical advocate science with an unwarranted trivialization of potential toxicity and exaggerated claims of scientific breakthrough."

Read the rest of Dr. Diamonds article at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/ru486overview.html. Dr. Eugene F. Diamond is well known as a pediatrician and educator. He is professor of pediatrics, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine; visiting professor, Rush Medical College; and acting chairman, Department of Pediatrics at Loyola University. He has served as president of the Illinois Academy of Pediatrics and is currently chairman of the Bioethics Section -- American Academy of Pediatrics.

Norplant
Norplant is a series of capsules which are implanted under the skin. It is designed to be effective for up to five years. Norplant acts as both a contraceptive and an abortifacient. Studies show that it may cause abortions fifty to sixty-five percent of the time.

A growing number of lawsuits are being filed against the makers of Norplant because of the difficulty of removal. Reported side effects include weight gain, nausea, yeast infections, and acne. The most serious side effects include heart attacks, strokes and nerve damage.

Depo-Provera
This is an injection received every three months. It acts as both a contraceptive and an abortifacient. It has the same three mechanisms that the Pill does, two are contraceptive, and one is abortion causing. Depo-Provera may cause abortions forty to sixty percent of the time. Some side effects include an increased risk of breast cancer, mood swings, blood pressure problems, and weight gain.

There are other types of abortions used in Canada that are not discussed here. For a more comprehensive treatment of this issue, visit the LifeSite Canada website. They provide a comprehensive treatment of abortion methods, including photographs of the "product of conception" that results from each method. The photos are very graphic, and are not for the feint of heart.

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The Reality of Abortion in Pictures

In Video

The reality of abortion is vividly portrayed in this video which used Ultrasound to film an actual abortion of a 12-week old fetus. This video is not for the feint of heart, and it is not for children. View discretion is advised.

To view the video, click here:
http://www.silentscream.org/silent_e.htm OR http://www.silentscream.org/video1.htm

In Pictures
Please note that the photos you will see are very graphic ~ As one person wrote, "Out of all the video games I have played and all the movies I have ever seen, I have never seen anything more violent than the pictures of these aborted babies."  Chris Daly Age: 19 Orlando, Florida

Newfoundland Right to Life Association
http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/abortionimages/index.htm

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Survivors of Abortion
Gianna Jessen; Aborted but Alive  Read the story of a young woman who has been aborted and lived to tell about it.  Gianna's testimony  was given before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 22, 1996.

My Mom tried to abort me three times  Amy Charlton survived three saline abortion attempts by her mom.  Here's her story.

To read these and other stories of abortion survivors, Click Here.

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Abortion Alternatives

• Adoption Services
  Adoption is a loving alternative to aborting your unborn child. Please contact the Newfoundland Right to Life Association. We can help you make any necessary arrangements for placing your child up for adoption. We also operate a residential maternity shelter for expectant mothers who, regardless of age or marital status, lack a supportive home environment during their pregnancy. (see next topic)
  
• Maternity Homes  
  The Newfoundland Right to Life Association operates "Elizabeth House" , and maternity home for expectant mother who lack a supportive home environment during their pregnancy. Click here to visit Elizabeth House.

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Pregnancy Support Services
The Newfoundland Right to Life Association offers a range of support services. In particular, the Association operates Elizabeth House which is a residential maternity shelter for expectant mothers who, regardless of age or marital status, lack a supportive home environment during their pregnancy.  This service is operated by the St. John's office of the Newfoundland Right to Life Association. To visit the Elizabeth House page of our website, click here. Please also see our Pregnant? Need Help? page.

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As we study the subject of abortion, it is important for us to see what the Bible says about when life begins. Some supporters of abortion try to say that the Bible teaches that life begins when a baby takes it’s first breath. They point to one Scripture as the basis for this position.

Gen 2:7 "And the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." They say that this verse teaches that life begins when the person starts breathing, and that prior to this the object in the womb is merely a potential life. We must recognize that this verse is unique in that it is referring to the first man, Adam. Adam was not born of a woman, and therefore was never in a womb. This one-of-a-kind situation can not be used to "prove" that life begins at birth.

Our next series of verses teach that life begins at or even before conception.

Ps 139:16 "Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Isa 46:3 "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived."

Judg 13:5 "Because you will conceive and give birth to a son."

Luke 2:21 "On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived."

Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

The bible frequently speaks of life before conception when it looks towards the generation yet to be conceived.

Heb 7:9-10 "(9)Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham." so to speak, "(10)For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him."

Gen 3:15 "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

2 Sam 7:12 "When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom." Onan, recognizing that life begins at fertilization, even spilled his seed on the ground to prevent the propagation of future generations.

Gen 38:8-10 "(8)Then Judah said to Onan, Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother. (9)But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. (10)What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also."

The fact that life begins at or before conception means that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is the killing of a human life.

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The Pro-Choice “Choice” 

Adolph Hitler once said: "The receptive ability of the great masses is only very limited, their understanding is small; on the other hand their forgetfulness is great. This being so, all effective propaganda should be limited to a very few points which in turn, should be used as slogans until the very last man is able to imagine what is meant by such words."

Interestingly, today's pro-abortion/pro-choice propaganda is limited to a very few points, which in turn are effectively used as slogans such as: a woman has a right to choose, freedom of choice, a woman has a right to control her own body, and every child a wanted child. 

Much of the language of  pro-choice is just as ambiguous and misleading as the language Hitler used to gain widespread support in Germany and elsewhere for the Holocaust in which more than 6,000,000 Jews were systematically and cold-bloodedly murdered while the general population, to its great shame, stood silently by. Hitler set out to exterminate an entire class of people — Jews — and they did not speak up!

Sarah Smith survived an abortion in which her twin brother lost his life — the abortionist didn't realize her mother was carrying two children, and neither did her mother. When speaking at the 1996 Congress for Life in Rome, Sarah said that the Reality of the choice is that:

"Most men and women who involve themselves with abortion don’t know what they’re doing, as [was the case with] my parents. Many women who demand the right to an abortion say, "It’s my body, it’s my choice." Let me make one thing very clear to you today — my mother’s choice was my death sentence. It is not only a woman’s body we are discussing in an abortion. It is the entire flesh and blood of someone just like me . . . Yet the people looking on at the sidelines are people like you. And I ask you today, will you speak up or will you silently look away as another person who needs your help is led to their death?" 

Sarah was one of the fortunate few who survived an abortion and lived to tell about it. Click here to read her story, and the story of others like her who survived an abortion and are willing to speak up.

Read, and think about this language of illusion for yourself by clicking here:
Language of Illusion: The Abortion Slogans

Read more about the nature of the "choice" at:
http://www.nswrtl.org.au/choice.htm

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Exposés 

The Truth About Planned Parenthood
     Source: AbortionFacts.com

This is the largest, most powerful, most effective pro-abortion, anti-life, anti-family, anti-Christian force in the U.S. and internationally. 

Planned Parenthood was essentially founded by Margaret Sanger. Starting with a radical, grass-roots movement, and moving to include doctors, Margaret Sanger established the American Birth Control League which was later to become Planned Parenthood. Because contraception was illegal before the 1920's, and remained illegal in some states until the 1960's, Margaret was only able to keep her clinics open before the '20's by smuggling diaphragms from Europe. After World War II, due to a newfound concern about population growth, Margaret Sanger was able to advocate successfully for research into hormonal contraception (which ultimately led to the invention of the birth control pill).

This woman is revered by the Pro-Choice movement. Indeed, in 1966, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) inaugurated the PPFA Margaret Sanger Award to honor the woman who founded America's family planning movement.

The following information is take from a May 5, 1996 article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled "The Repackaging of Margaret Sanger" by Steven W. Mosher. The information can be readily documented from Sanger's own writings.

This is the woman that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates (including the one in Newfoundland and Labrador) reveres — its founder, Margaret Sanger in whose name they have handed out the "Planned Parenthood Federation of America Margaret Sanger Award" every year since 1967. And this is only a smattering of some of her philosophies which continue to underlie Planned Parenthood philosophy and its activities to this very day.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is one of over 90 national affiliates of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (London). It gets about two-thirds of its U.S. financing through tax money, local, state, and national. It has five regional offices, about 160 statewide affiliates, over 900 local clinics in the U.S. Over 70 of its clinics do abortions. Its total annual cash flow is almost one-half billion dollars ($472 million in 1995). It concentrates its efforts on abortion, contraception, and sex education.

Planned Parenthood Newfoundland and Labrador is a affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada, which is turn is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. All Planned Parenthood affiliates, regardless of where they are located, adhere to same philosophies and promote the same cause. Much of the information presented below relates to the PPFA, but except for the actual facts/figures, most of it applies equally well to Planned Parenthood Newfoundland and Labrador. 

How many abortions does Planned Parenthood do?

The number increases each year as it converts more of its clinics to killing centers. In 1985 it had 51 chambers which killed 110,000. By 1994 it had 70 which killed 134,000. Every year, it refers to other facilities almost as many abortions as it does itself.

Was Planned Parenthood always pro-abortion?

In its early years of existence, Planned Parenthood limited itself to contraception and specifically opposed abortion. The following is a quote from an official Planned Parenthood pamphlet :

"Is birth control an abortion?" "Definitely not. An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it. Birth control merely post-pones the beginning of life." Planned Parenthood, Aug. 1963 1 Available from Cincinnati Right to Life, P.O. Box 24073, Cinn., OH 45224, $3. pp.

Doesn’t Planned Parenthood concentrate mostly on contraception?

In its earlier years, to a much larger extent, Planned Parenthood clinics offered contraceptive advice and aid to married women so that they could more responsibly plan their families. Because of this, it generated widespread support from many areas of our society. Those days are gone. Today its clientele consists largely of unmarried teenagers. It dispenses medically hazardous drugs (the pill) and devices (the I.U.D.), and Norplant without parental knowledge or consent. It is the largest provider of abortions in America, again, to teenagers without parental knowledge or consent. It aggressively promotes sex education that, rather than reducing promiscuity, premarital sex, illegitimate pregnancies, abortion, and venereal disease, has almost certainly had just the opposite effect. J. Ford &M. Schwartz," Birth Control for Teenagers: Diagram for Disaster," Linacre Quarterly, Feb. 1979, pp. 71-811 A. Jurs, "Planned Parenthood Advocates Permissive Sex," Christianity Today, Sept. 2, 1982

In its five-year plan, it openly stated: Our mission is to serve as the nation’s foremost agent of social change in the area of reproductive health and well being [emphasis theirs]. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, A Five Year Plan, 1976-1980, p. 5

That is hard to believe. I’ve heard that Planned Parenthood is pro-family, pro-life, and pro-child.

Their paid TV commercials say that, but their own official documents, their leaders, and their actions say quite the opposite. In 1976, the Planned Parenthood’s Five Year Plan (see reference above) laid out in detail what their goals were. We quote:

- Objective #2: "Reaffirming and protecting the legitimacy of induced abortion as a necessary back-up to contraceptive failure, and extending safe, dignified services to women who seek them."

- Purpose: "To provide leadership in making . . . abortion and sterilization available and fully accessible to all."

"The various activities that we undertake are not ‘separate’ and certainly not competing. Rather, they are all complementary parts of a single national strategy" (page 5).

"Services to be made available at all clinics include . . . abortion services (or local referral)" (emphasis in original, page 6).

- Program Emphasis #2: "Keeping abortions legal and accessible to all persons" (page 9).

Is their emphasis still on abortion?

Since the Five Year Plan above, the Planned Parenthood agenda is even more openly and militantly pro-abortion as outlined in their newest action agenda. For example, in Goal #3, they state that Planned Parenthood will " increase the number of Planned Parenthood affiliates providing early ambulatory abortion services." Planned Parenthood of America, Til Victory is Won, 1982, 1984, p. 16

"To increase the availability and accessibility of high quality and affordable reproductive health care services [abortion]" PPFA Five Year Plan 1986-1990, preamble

"Until we reach the millennium . . . Planned Parent-hood will continue to provide not only sex education and contraception, but also abortion." A. Moran, Exec. V.P., Planned Parenthood of New York City, New York Times, Dec. 27, 1982

[Planned Parenthood] is not just a social or medical service agency. It is part of a cause, a movement. One of the principles of Planned Parenthood is that reproductive freedom is indivisible. You either have it or not. Everybody has it or none has it." Don Weintraub, V.P. for Int’l Affairs, PPFA, Madison, Mar. 12, 1985

Family Planning Associations should not use the absence of law or the existence of an unfavorable law as an excuse for inaction. Action outside the law, and even in violation of it, is part of the process of stimulating change . . . of fertility regulation services or specific methods." Art. 106, p. 28, Int. P.P. Fed., Nov. 1983 Planned Parenthood has promoted a pro-abortion "comic book," geared for teenagers, entitled Abortion Eve. On the back cover is a caricature of the "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin" depicting a pregnant Mary with the idiot face of Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Neumann. The caption says, "What, me worry?"

It is the policy of Planned Parenthood to insure that women have the right to seek and obtain safe legal abortions. Planned Parenthood has the responsibility to provide access to high-quality abortion services. . . . Federation Policies, PPFA, Jan. 1986

Faye Wattleton, Pres. of P.P., said, "I make it very clear. If you’re not clear where you stand on the abortion issue, if you’re worried that birth control for teenagers encourages promiscuity . . . this [P.P] is not the kind of outfit you’re comfortable with." "The Faye Wattleton Comeback," P. Span, Wash. Post, Oct. 14, 1987

Planned Parenthood has aggressively defended abortion rights in the courts in recent years, thus dropping any earlier pretense of neutrality. The most famous case was Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, a 1990 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

What does Planned Parenthood think of Right to Life?

They have an opinion.

"In every generation there exists a group of people so filled with bigotry and self-righteousness that they will resort to any means — even violence — to impose their views on society. Today, such fanatics dominate a movement ironically called ‘the Right-to-Life,’ a movement which threatens the most basic of all human rights." Planned Parenthood Pamphlet, the Justice Fund, 810 7th Ave., New York, NY, 10019

But Margaret Sanger, its founder, opposed abortion.

Not so! Not only did she favor abortion, but she proposed forced sterilization for those whom she considered unfit to reproduce. She worked hard for a "race of thoroughbreds" until Hitler’s similar "Master Race" made that goal unpopular. She was a true eugenicist. For example, her April 1933 Birth Control Review, devoted an entire edition to eugenic sterilization.

Who did she consider unfit?

Black people, Jews, Southern European immigrants (especially Italians), but also others of "low I.Q." These "feebleminded" people were a "menace to the race." E. Drogin, Margaret Sanger: Father of Modern Society, CUL Publishers, 1980, Section 1, p. 18-24

This is hard to believe!

Margaret Sanger, the famous founder of Planned Parenthood, was supportive. She wanted "more children from the fit, less from the unfit." Birth Control Review, vol. 3, no. 5, May 1919, p. 2

This wasn’t only related to contraceptive planning. A seditor, she printed grossly eugenic material, approving of Hitler’s sterilization program (see Into the Darkness, Nazi Germany Today, by L. Stoddard, p. 196). She believed that "Negroes and Southern Europeans were mentally inferior to native born Americans." She found these people, Hebrews, and others "feebleminded," "human weeds," and called them a "menace to the race." In 1933, her Birth Control Review devoted an entire edition to eugenic sterilization. Sanger’s famous "Plan for Peace" was almost the same as Hitler’s, even going beyond it to suggest, in essence, concentration camps.

"When the world realized the logical consequences of Hitler’s hereditarian-eugenic, totalitarian type of government, Margaret Sanger’s birth-control movement had to take a quick step away from its overt eugenic language." E. Drogin, Margaret Sanger, Father of Modern Society, CUL Publications, 1979, p. 28

Tell me more.

Let us quote from her "Plan for Peace." This was little more than peaceful genocide. Margaret Sanger wanted the United States:

• To keep the doors of immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as the feebleminded as determined by Stanford-Binet I.Q. tests.
  
• To apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.
  
• To insure the country against future burdens of maintenance for numerous offspring as may be born of feeble-minded parents by pensioning all persons with transmissible diseases who voluntarily consent to sterilization.
  
• To give dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.
  
• To apportion farm lands and homesteads for these segregated persons where they would be taught to work under competent instructors for a period of their entire lives. [Practically speaking, a concentration camp.]
  
• [To] take an inventory of the secondary group such as illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope fiends; classify them in special departments under government medical protection, and segregate them on farms and open spaces as long as necessary for the strengthening and development of moral conduct." (Again, concentration camps.) M. Sanger, "Plan for Peace," Birth Control Review, vol. 16, no. 4, April 1932

But I’ve read that she was a social crusader for good.

Hardly. She said, "The most merciful thing a large family can do for one of its infant members is to kill it." 6 Sanger, "Woman and the New Race"

She herself was highly promiscuous and had many lovers. She favored "free love" for women without any sexual limits but without the burden of children. She saw "the marriage bed [as] the most degenerating influence in the social order." 7 Kennedy, David M. Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger, London: Yale University Press, 1970.

But Planned Parenthood wants to reduce teen pregnancies, doesn’t it?

Let’s be specific. Planned Parenthood wants to reduce teen births. It is not trying to reduce teen sex activity; in fact its sex education programs do exactly the opposite.

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For years the March of Dimes (MOD) has been boycotted by pro-life groups for its involvement in the abortion industry. Unfortunately, many well-meaning pro-life citizens continue to support MOD, not knowing one of the group's methods of preventing what it calls "Birth Defects" is to promote abortion.

MOD was one of the major forces behind the development and widespread use of amniocentesis in the second trimester of pregnancy. Amniocentesis is a test commonly used to determine if an unborn child has a congenital abnormality, knowledge of which can facilitate the decision to abort "defective" children.

Pat Robertson of CBN and the Christian Coalition asked those with this philosophy, "Would we have been better off if there had never been a Helen Keller or Beethoven or Einstein -- all of whom had "birth defects?"

Henry Foster, who was rejected by the Senate as President Clinton's nominee for Surgeon General, served on the March of Dimes' Medical Service Advisory committee. While on the committee, Foster admitted doing nearly 700 abortions following the results of amniocentesis. Foster also defended fetoscopic prenatal research as "clearly therapeutic" since "it was done for the same reason that we do amniocentesis, to decide whether or not the pregnancy should continue, and to provide a therapeutic abortion."

Dr. David Nathan, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard University, MOD grantee, and National MOD adviser, explained that one particularly elaborate international prenatal testing arrangement involving scientists in London, New Haven, and Boston was done in order that "knowledge go on, vital clinical testing go on, and when necessary, abortions go on."

In a letter to Congress in 1978, MOD president Charles Massey wrote in favor of legislation to fund this genetic screening. Massey notes, "The financial cost of treating and institutionalizing our severely affected survivors is staggering; we cannot begin to measure the cost."

MOD has given several grants for developing tests that can detect abnormalities in the first trimester. Prostaglandin abortionists Dr. Maurice J. Mahoney of Yale received $35,000 for research on chorionic villi sampling and for developing a prenatal diagnostic technique that would permit the first-trimester abortion of affected pre-born children. From 1989 to 1990, MOD gave $50,000 to Dr. Haig H. Kazazian of Johns Hopkins University, a staunch advocate of eugenic abortion, to perfect methods to detect, early in pregnancy, disorders such as beta-thalassemia, hemophilia A, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis - none of which is treatable in the womb.

MOD has also funded fetal experimentation and fetal tissue use for more than two decades. In the early 1970's, MOD gave $19,000 to Dr. John F.S. Crocker of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to study congenital kidney abnormalities. This study involved "60 pairs of embryonic kidneys . . . obtained from human therapeutic abortions after five to twelve weeks gestation."

In 1973-74, MOD gave $9,420 for appallingly grotesque fetal brain metabolism studies in Helsinki, Finland on living, human babies aborted by hysterotomy and still attached by the umbilical cord to the mother. The babies were then decapitated and their heads were mounted on perfusion equipment. Arthur A. Galloway, MOD Vice President for Development, defended this research, saying it was "done legally and ethically" under Finnish law; that "the investigators did not participate in the decision to terminate pregnancy;" and "they were concerned with the ethics of discarding such fetal issue without seeking to find ways to improve the life and health of live born premature infants."

In the 1970's, a MOD grant was awarded to Dr. A. de la Chapelle of the University of Helsinki for research on maternal and fetal blood cells to detect genetic conditions early in pregnancy. Some cell sources for the experiment were obtained "by open-heart puncture of 10 week fetuses that had been aborted for various reasons, not connected with fetal diseases." (Healthy babies)

MOD published Strategies in Genetic Counseling: Reproductive Genetics and New Age Technologies in 1990. The book states the March of Dimes' viewpoint that, "There is no substitution for a constitutional right to abortion which protects our fundamental rights." Fortunately, pro-life leaders say, many Americans still recognize the fact that pre-born children, perfect and imperfect, are among those with fundamental rights to be protected.

Thankfully, there is a pro-life alternative for those wishing to support prenatal research. Those wishing to support life-supporting-birth defect prevention research may send donations to the Michael Fund, a pro-life genetic research foundation seeking to protect both unborn children with defects and children and adults with defects.

Because Down Syndrome babies are often among those innocent babies killed by abortion, the Michael Fund places special emphasis on Down Syndrome research. Columnist Rich Hinshaw says, "It is one of the triumphs of modern society that the life of the average person with Down Syndrome has become strikingly normal - except that, unlike normal people, people with Down Syndrome have been targeted for elimination." For an up-to-date packet about the organization and documentation of the pro-abortion aspects of MOD please call 412-823-6380 or write: The Michael Fund, 500 A Garden City Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15146.

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