This column is for the Catholic who is supportive of or conflicted about legal abortion. You may be carefully weighing the two sides, especially considering the upcoming Supreme Court decision. I urge you to reconsider the pro-choice argument that states abortion is women’s health care. The facts do not support this. 

 

If abortion were an integral part of women’s reproductive health care, we would expect to find that the procedure is regularly practiced by ob/gyn doctors and in hospitals. It is not. The percentages of abortions offered by ob/gyns and in hospitals is in single digits. 

 

Planned Parenthood’s own former research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, found that 95 percent of abortions are done in outpatient clinics, including “specialized” clinics, like Planned Parenthood, where most women go only for abortions. According to Planned Parenthood’s statistics, 97 percent of their services for pregnant mothers are abortions. 

 

Abortion endangers women’s lives. Women who have abortions have a higher mortality rate than those who have given birth. A post-abortive mother is six times more likely to die by suicide. Abortion often brings on grief and impacts mental health. The Church recognizes this and cares for women and men who are grieving an abortion through its Project Rachel ministry (To get help from Project Rachel, contact us confidentially at 815-387-3379 or projectrachelrockford@gmail.com.). 

 

The abortion lobby advocates to increase “self-managed” abortions, using high-risk drugs that can be prescribed via tele-medicine and mailed to women. Complications from chemical abortion include incomplete abortions, undetected ectopic pregnancy, permanent infertility, and death of the mother. 

 

Access to abortion is not access to essential or even efficacious health care for women. 

 

And what of the preborn child? The American Academy of Pediatrics treats an unborn child as a patient eligible for care. Their 2017 policy statement reads: “Pediatric care may begin periconceptionally [which is both before and immediately after conception] and continues through gestation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and youth adulthood.” 

 

No one can confuse abortion with pediatric care.

 

But what of high-risk pregnancies? If a pre-term baby is of a gestation age of other preemies who have survived, then pre-term delivery, not abortion, is likely the safer, more ethical medical choice for both mother and child. In early pregnancy, tragic cases can be addressed in ethical ways in line with the teachings of the Church. An example of this includes treatment of mothers with ectopic pregnancies. 

 

There is nothing caring about abortion for the mother, the child, or other family members. When the Church stands against abortion, the Church is standing for women, for their physical and mental health, and for babies. Every life is valuable to God—both mother and child. The Church counsels all women to reject abortion and offers, through its extensive social ministries, care, compassion, and resources for pregnant and parenting women in need. Be with us on the right side of this issue. #LoveThemBoth