It seems, however, that the more evidence which emerges about the harm abortion causes, the more the supporters of abortion insist that abortion not be restricted. Dr Prakesh Shah. the study's author, said:
"I think it should not be used as a way of saying, this is bad and we should not be doing this kind of thing. There is an association which we should be aware of, and we should let mothers be aware. I don't want unintended pregnancies to increase."And Professor Philip Steer, editor in chief of BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the journal in which the study was published, said:
"The most important message is not that this should be used in any way to prevent women having a termination of pregnancy. The effect has to be balanced against the serious effects of forcing women to continue with unwanted pregnancies. Any medical procedure is likely to have side-effects."Dr Shah and Professor Steer unwittingly highlight several key points to be made against abortion:
- Abortion IS bad. As well as being lethal to unborn children, it is bad for mothers and bad for children born to women who previously had abortions.
- Doctors and medical bodies often fail to make mothers aware about the dangers of abortion.
- Abortion can't prevent unintended pregnancies. In fact, the availability of abortion may increase the number of unintended pregnancies (the phenomenon of "moral hazard", as explained by Professor David Paton)
- Abortion is not a right - the law should (and still does in Britain, at least in some circumstances) prevent women having abortions.
- Abortion is not merely the "termination of pregnancy" (birth is the normal termination of pregnancy) but the killing of an unborn child, an innocent member of the human family, whose equal right to life is upheld in international human rights law
- The overwhelming majority of pregnancies are the result of consensual sexual activity. And although some pregnancies may be unwanted or unintended, and some expectant mothers may have conflicted emotions about their unborn child, no child is ever in fact unwanted. As the late Mother Teresa said: "Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!"
- Abortion may be a medical(ised) procedure, but it is not medical treatment. It cures no illness and heals no wound - in fact, it creates new ones. The high risks identified in the study are not mere standard side-effects. Does Professor Steer really think the health and maybe even the lives of future generations should be airily dismissed in the name of the ideology of choice?
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