Getting Wise to the Lies

The numbers have abortion advocates running scared. Twelve years ago, 49 percent of all women between age 18 and 29 thought unrestricted abortion should be the law of the land. Today, just 28 percent of young women hold this view. Those who promote -- and profit from -- abortion are trying to figure out what's going on. Alexander Sanger, chairman of International Planned Parenthood, complains that the numbers are "unbelievably shocking." And he warns: "It's not just the numbers that are down ... It's the enthusiasm." When Sanger visits colleges, he finds that many no longer have an abortion rights group. But, as he told GLAMOUR magazine, he "has yet to visit one that doesn't have a strong, vocal faction of pro-life women." Abortion advocates are astonished because, after all, these are the very women who are supposed to want abortion rights the most. A story in GLAMOUR magazine, titled "The mysterious disappearance of young pro-choice women," came up with several possible answers. Among them are three reasons. First, young women now take abortion rights for granted. Second, they think good birth control will make abortion obsolete. And third, they've seen ultrasound pictures of unborn babies. GLAMOUR gets it partly right. But the magazine neglects the most important reasons. First, since pro-choice women aborted their daughters, those daughters didn't grow up to advocate for abortion rights. Meanwhile, pro-life women have taught their daughters why it's wrong to kill unborn children. Second, today's college kids know that some of their sisters and brothers are missing because their mothers had abortions -- and they know that, under different circumstances, they themselves might have been aborted. Third, women who abort are breaking through the media blackout to tell their stories -- telling younger women how their bodies were damaged by so-called safe, legal abortions -- describing how their abortions led to infertility, and to emotional pain that won't go away. They're talking about the proven link between abortion and breast cancer, about the higher suicide rate among women who abort, and about women who are killed by chemical abortions. They're revealing the fact that huge numbers of women regret their abortions for the rest of their lives. In short, young women are finally hearing the truth about abortion: it doesn't get rid of a "blob of tissue" -- it kills a living baby. And it's not the "safe surgery" that advocates claim: it carries terrible risks and long-term consequences. The fact that so many women have suffered at the hands of the abortion industry is tragic. But it's wonderful news that so many young women are finally getting wise to the lies. We will never win the abortion war without winning the hearts and minds of the American people -- and especially young women. This is why we must keep telling young people the truth behind abortion. And we must continue helping women in crisis pregnancies through groups like Care Net and the Nurturing Network. For 32 years, support for legal abortion has been based on a pack of lies. But now, the truth is coming out, and young women are listening: abortion often damages women -- and always kills babies.

08/16/05