Blog for Abor--er, uh, Choice Day

Every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, pro-life groups and individuals gather and march, in Washington DC and throughout the nation, to protest the government sanctioned killing of over 50 million unborn humans in the years since Roe v. Wade. These marches have been incredibly effective at spreading the ugly truth about abortion, and have also served to make our strength known to politicians nationwide.

In light of their poor attendance to past events, it's no great wonder that when NARAL and other abortion advocates launched a counter-event, they chose an online forum. After all, online seems to be the only place they can compete in any real numbers. While the nation is still close to a 50/50 split down the "abortion" line, anti-abortion forces are stronger in conviction and motivation as a whole.

This year, NARAL kicks off its sixth "Blog for Choice Day," wherein they ask abortion advocates to blog about so-called reproductive freedom and the 'necessity' of choice. The response from anti-abortion groups is simple: Ask them what choice they mean.

So, let's talk about "choice," shall we? What does the infamous term "reproductive freedom" really mean? What is a "choice" as NARAL, NOW, Planned Parenthood, and Emily's List (among others) define it?

Abortion is an ugly word. It refers to the process of ending the life of a growing human at his or her most vulnerable. Because this is usually done early in the course of a pregnancy and the mother is not exposed to such facts as the true development of the human life inside of her, the ultrasound photos/video of her womb, and the biological, scientific definition of a human fetus, pro-abortion forces have by-and-large been able to hide the brutal truth of abortion from women experiencing a surprise pregnancy.

The facts on abortion are this: in the moment when a human sperm meets and joins with a human egg, a life is begun. That life has human DNA, unique from the DNA of either parent. That life begins rapidly to shift from a relatively static existence as two pieces of potential into a growing and developing human form. Although we cannot immediately see in a zygote/blastocyst/embryo the human form, it cannot be denied that the growing life inside the womb in that instant is a distinctive human being.

Abortion stops that life. There are a number of ways in which this is achieved. Starvation is the first. Rising in infamy and popularity is the RU-486 abortion and other similar abortion pills. These pills work through the chemical mifepristone by suppressing the hormone progesterone in the woman's body. Progesterone supplies nourishment through the uterine lining to the developing baby, and suppresses uterine contractions which could otherwise serve to flush the uterus, and with it, the growing human life. RU-486, though the least invasive abortion procedure, can also be one of the most physically difficult, as it essentially boils down to days and days of horrific cramping and bleeding.

Another way of ending pregnancy, this one declining in popularity, is through chemically burning the contents of the uterus, including the life within. The developing baby is burned with a saline solution and the chemical solution causes the uterus to contract. This form of abortion requires artificially dilating the cervix as well.

Possibly the most infamous form of abortion in use currently is also the most common surgical abortion nationwide. This is called the suction-aspiration abortion and is a particularly brutal manner of killing the human life, involving inserting a cannula (suction tube) into the uterus and sucking the developing baby into the tube. Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director, describes this process in detail as she saw it on an ultrasound:

My eyes shot back to the screen again. The cannula was already being rotated by the doctor, and now I could see the tiny body violently twisting with it. For the briefest moment it looked as if the baby were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then the little body crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then everything was gone. And the uterus was empty.

 When she partook in this abortion, Abby Johnson was the director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, TX where the first 40 Days for Life campaign was held. This abortion was performed on a 13-week-old human fetus.

The most controversial and brutal forms of abortion are late-term abortion procedures such as those performed by the late George Tiller. These are done a number of ways, most commonly beginning by using an injection to the baby to induce heart attack and then inducing labor. Late-term abortions which have been famously outlawed include delivering the baby to his or her head and then suctioning out his or her brain tissue, fully delivering a baby and then allowing him or her to die from lack of care, and other equally horrific procedures.

So, when NARAL speaks of "reproductive freedom," what do they mean? Setting aside for a moment the debate about the birth control pill, which I have briefly touched upon previously and will go into more detail about later, the reality of the fact is that by "choice" and "reproductive freedom", abortion rights groups are advocating the legal sanctioning and even funding of their perceived right for women to have their already alive, already developing human babies killed.

The fact of the matter is that abortion preys on women and children. Abortion rights groups make money, lots of money, off of intentionally misrepresenting the fact that by choosing to end your pregnancy, you are choosing to end a life. If abortion were, in fact, rare, as Planned Parenthood and other providers indicate that they want, abortion rights groups would suffer. And abortion rights groups don't want to lose money.

There is big money in the "services" of "choice."