'Legal Abortion Saves No One'

Here is a message from Pro-Life, Philippines, that I received today. It is a response to the demand of the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York, that abortion be legalised in the Philippines.

Legal Abortion Saves No One


Abortion does not protect women's rights; rather, it violates the right to life of all. Pro-Life Philippines is outraged by the recent demand of some so-called women’s rights advocates for legalized abortion in the
Philippines. Abortion is itself a blatant violation of human rights and its legalization is is a clear violation of our Constitution. It is unacceptable on any grounds.

Central to the misguided call for legal abortion are three premises: that illegal abortions cause maternal death and illnesses; that rape victims should be given the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy; and that poverty causes poor women to turn to unsafe abortions.

On the first premise, we reply that all abortions are unsafe and are not medically necessary. Abortion advocates themselves have stated that “risks associated with induced abortion increase as the pregnancy progresses.”

They also failed to mention the numerous adverse effects of committing abortion physically and psychologically. Some of these women who committed elective abortion remain barren for the rest of their lives. Studies have also linked induced abortions to breast and ovarian cancer. Operation Outcry and Canada Silent No More have collected over 4,000 testimonial declarations from women suffering after legal abortions in developed countries.

In cases of rape, we see that abortion does not solve the problem but instead aggravates it. The crime of rape is not the fault of the child; why should the child be punished for it?. Further, killing the child does not redeem the rape victim, and may in fact drown her in deeper remorse. If the rape victim does not want the child, she can always give it up for legal adoption. No one need be killed.

Finally, if poverty drives some women to abortion, the solution is to address the causes of poverty. Legalizing abortion does nothing to solve the problem. The government should instead minimize graft and corruption, foster good governance and implement economic reforms. Legalizing abortion will never alleviate poverty. In fact it could even exacerbate the economic situation by depleting our nation's most valuable and productive resouce: our people.

The legalization of abortion is not necessary to assist poor women in crisis pregnancies. If the government is serious in its efforts to remedy this dilemma, it should provide counseling services especially for post-abortion mothers; better education, maternal and child care services, economic and social development programs that will lower the incidence of rape, incest, sex outside of marriage and other causes of unwanted
pregnancies. Young women need to be educated on fetal development, the consequences of sex outside of marriage, and on natural family planning.

Pregnant women need support and help, not abortions. We should be saving lives, not taking them.

Pro-Life Philippines calls on our legislators to reject the malevolent urge to kill the weakest members of our future generations. Help us defend our pro-life country and our families who are threatened by the culture of
death. Abortion saves no one, but it does destroy an innocent life.