So much of the abortion debate is based on myths, bad assumptions, bad logic, or outright gaslighting through deception. For the rest of 2019 we will highlight one common abortion myth every month.
#5: Prolife people don’t care about the baby after it’s born
The Bottom Line: Prolifers do a lot to care for babies after they are born, even though these efforts are attacked by organizations that support abortion.
This myth is about deflection. Saying you support tearing the arms and legs off of a child in the womb doesn’t have a good public relations look to it. Rather than addressing the issue of abortion directly, many abortion supporters deflect the issue through ad hominem attacks against prolife people.
Here’s an example of this attack, couched in very reasonable language: “Why, as I look out on the sea of signs at today’s the March for Life, do I see nothing about maternity leave, much less paternity leave? Why aren’t expansive parental leave policies front and center on every pro-life website, and on the lips of every pro-life politician?”
It’s important to point out that the above argument defines “caring” as rigidly supporting the political policies of the abortion supporter, and assuming their policies reduce abortions. Sweden has generous parental leave policies, but has a significantly higher abortion rate than the U.S.; surely there’s more to the abortion issue than that?
Prolife people can be all over the map in terms of their support or opposition to various economic and labor policies. What unites them all is their basic belief that the unborn child deserves legal protection equal to every other human being.
Does anyone honestly believe that if the March for Life vigorously advocated for federal family leave policies, Planned Parenthood would stop taking the lives of more than 300,000 unborn children every year? Has Sweden’s generous safety net policies convinced Swedish people to abandon abortion?
Many prolife people and organizations sacrificially give to support children—and their mothers—after birth. Just in Michigan, there are more than 150 organizations that offer pregnancy and adoption help. Most of that help is free, and includes tangible goods like diapers, maternity and children’s clothing, formula, cribs, etc. These organizations have been slowly expanding for a long time.
Two weeks ago, we visited several pregnancy help agencies in Metro Detroit to help with mundane needs like water heaters and shelving. In most other places in Michigan, local Right to Life affiliates help support their local pregnancy centers, but sadly, Detroit has no local affiliate. These local centers don’t get $500 million in tax dollars or host star-studded galas like Planned Parenthood; they often survive on small budgets and mostly volunteer staffs.
How often are these help agencies and efforts featured in the media? When they are, it’s usually because they are being dumped on. The source of the criticism is because they try to convince women not to have abortions. Shouldn’t people who claim to be “pro-choice” applaud presenting women a path forward to choosing not to have an abortion, and applaud the volunteers willing to walk with them down that path?
This extreme opposition to prolife pregnancy help organizations isn’t just rhetoric. California attempted to infringe the free speech rights of pregnancy help organizations, forcing them to actively advertise tax-funded abortions. The U.S. Supreme Court rebuked that attack on the First Amendment in NIFLA v. Becerra in 2018.
It’s not just California. Currently abortion supporters seek to eliminate a small portion of the Michigan budget dedicated to helping provide women and children with real pregnancy support. In 2018, a formerly prolife state representative announced his views had changed, claiming prolife people aren’t doing enough to care for women. What’s the first piece of legislation he sponsored based on these new views? You guessed it, an attack on prolife pregnancy centers.
The message from abortion supporters seems to be this: “You don’t help babies after they are born, and when you do, those efforts must be shut down.”
Really, what they mean to do is to define abortion as the only “caring” option. The slightest disagreement seems to be absolutely unconscionable to them.
Prolife pregnancy help efforts may only earn hatred and scorn from popular media figures and elected officials, but we won’t give up because helping children before and after they are born—and the child’s parents—is the right thing to do.
The next time you hear someone say prolife people don’t care about babies after they are born, ask that person if they’d like to donate to your local pregnancy help center.
Myth Series:
#10: Late-term abortions are only for health problems
#9: Abortion is a small part of Planned Parenthood’s services
#8: Women pregnant through rape all have abortions
#7: Most women support abortion
#6: Late-term abortions are rare