Abortion myths

Murderer." "Butcher." "Baby-killer." Sometimes it seems there's no end to the invectives thrown at the pro-choice movement. But believe it or not, members of the pro-choice community don't join up because we think we fall under those labels. With the South Dakota abortion ban rapidly making its way to the Supreme Court, it is more important than ever for us to explain what we're really about. So without further ado, Princeton Pro-Choice Vox presents three myths about the abortion and the pro-choice movement.

1. If you're pro-choice, you love abortion.

I've never met a pro-choice person who tells me, "I think abortions are great! Everyone should have one!" In fact, within the pro-choice community, there are a wide range of feelings about abortion. Some of us think that abortion is not morally problematic; others think that abortion should be as rare as possible. What brings us together? The belief that making abortion a crime is not the way to go.

2. Abortion is bad for women's health.

This is a new one that's popped up in recent years as pro-lifers have tried to reform their image and erase those nasty memories of bombed clinics and murdered doctors (which, to be fair, never represented the tactics of the mainstream pro-life movement). One of their key claims is that abortion causes depression, grief and guilt in the women who undergo the procedure.

But the truth is that many women feel just the opposite about their abortions —they are confident they made the right choice. See, for example, the stories told at www.imnotsorry.net. Furthermore, the fact that some women experience negative emotions after an abortion does not justify making it illegal. Many women who give their babies up for adoption experience depression, grief and guilt. That doesn't mean outlawing adoption is a good idea.

Finally, hard evidence shows that criminalizing abortion is deeply harmful to women's health. El Salvador, a country where abortion is illegal, was recently profiled in Jack Hitt's "Pro-Life Nation," published in the April 9, 2006 New York Times Magazine. The Times' story painted a grim picture of a country where hundreds of women suffering after botched, back-alley abortions are afraid to go to the hospital because doctors are required to report signs of an abortion or face jail time. Sentences for both doctors and patients run as high as 30 years. How is discouraging women from seeking medical care and turning doctors against their patients good for women's health?

3. Making abortion illegal is the best way to prevent abortions.

A Guttmacher Institute study found that the world's lowest rates of abortion are in Belgium and the Netherlands — countries where abortion is virtually unrestricted. Why are their numbers so low? In a word, education. Both countries have aggressively campaigned to educate the population about healthy sexual decision-making and birth control, and the result has been fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions.

So if the pro-life movement is really about preventing abortions, why aren't they coming out in favor of contraceptive use and education? Why is it left to pro-choice organizations like Planned Parenthood to offer comprehensive advice on how to prevent unplanned pregnancies?

At last we see the man behind the curtain. Many of the leading pro-life organizations have ties to groups that are opposed to sex before marriage and think all Americans should be taught about sex in a way that conforms to their beliefs. The abstinence-only education programs these groups support have received millions of dollars in federal funding, but a recent Journal of Adolescent Health article by John Santelli M.D. et al., "Abstinence and abstinence-only education," found these programs to be completely ineffective at preventing teenage sexual activity, pregnancy and STDs. Comprehensive sexed programs, on the other hands, had a positive effect on all of these areas. Unfortunately, many powerful supporters of the pro-life movement prefer to ignore the significant role that sexuality plays in most of our lives, and the result is misinformation and more unwanted pregnancies.

We don't support the pro-choice cause because we hate babies or because we want women to suffer. We are pro-choice because we know that keeping abortion legal is the only way to safeguard against the tragedies we see in places like El Salvador. The way to support women's health is to teach Americans about making responsible sexual decisions — including comprehensive education on birth control methods — and let women and their doctors make decisions about abortion without government interference. Women deserve nothing less. Lindy Baldwin writes on behalf of Princeton Pro-Choice Vox. She is a graduate student in the Department of the History of Science. She is from Golden, Colo., and can be reached at mcbaldwi@princeton.edu.