Science Is On Our Side – The Truth About Abortion
There are many questions about abortion: is a fetus a real baby? Is abortion safe? Does the mother’s life matter more than the child’s? These questions are both scientific and moral questions and therefore must be answered according to both topics. And because we live in a world where science acts as the determiner of truth, in order to reach the majority of people the prop-life argument must have science on its side.
The pro-choice side has long been considered the side of science, but, as technology has evolved, so has the evidence for the pro-life argument. As Jeanne Mancini, the president of March for Life, said: “There had been, a long time ago, this mantra from our friends on the other side of this issue that, while a little one is developing in its mother’s womb, it’s not a baby. It’s really hard to make that argument when you see and hear a heartbeat and watch little hands moving around.” It is no longer reasonable for pro-choice arguments to say that the fetus is not a baby. As any ultrasound will show, that is just plain wrong.
Not only does science make it evident that the fetus is a human being, it also proves that abortion is harmful to the mother. The pro-choice debate claims that they are truly putting women’s rights first and caring about them, but how can that be if they are actually harming her? There is countless evidence that abortion can have lasting damage to the mother, and this is made worse by the fact that abortion clinics do not care enough to provide simple safety measures for their patients. One of the ways that this disturbing truth was revealed was by the attempt to legalize unsupervised medical abortions during COVID.
Pro-choice advocates began to push for the unsupervised use of mifepristone, a medication that cuts off hormonal support and kills the fetus. Mifepristone has a high potential for serious complications, so it has been regulated by the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for the past twenty years. Due to the high risk of complications, the Supreme Court reinstated requirement of supervision by the REMS for abortions which had been removed by a district judge.
Mifepristone and its sister drug, misoprostol (a drug issued 24-28 hours after mifepristone that induces contractions to expel the tissue), are both dangerous to a women’s body. According to Dr. Ingrid Skop, a board member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists who has practiced in San Antonio for over 25 years, both mifepristone and misoprostol “suppress the immune system, increasing the risk of infection. Mifepristone also inhibits contraction of uterine blood vessels, predisposing to hemorrhage. If pregnancy tissue is not completely expelled, surgery is usually required. Even when the pills work as intended, the average woman will experience 9 to 16 days of bleeding, and 8% will bleed for more than a month.” Dr. Skop also gives evidence that biased studies are being taken on poor quality data so that the complication rates of medical abortion will seem low. In The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States, a study published in 2018, the use of medication abortion is not presented as harmful: “Complications after medication abortion, such as hemorrhage, hospitalization, persistent pain, infection, or prolonged heavy bleeding, are rare —occurring in no more than a fraction of a percent of patients.” However, based on Dr. Skop’s statement made in 2021, their evidence is not to be trusted.
Science is on the side of life, and it always has been. Thanks to advances in technology and research this is becoming more evident in our society. Hopefully, our brothers and sisters who support abortion will come to realize this and change their beliefs for the sake of life and human dignity.
Eva Lindsay 2022
Picture: “Ultrasound A 12 weeks 3 days 001” by Amanda’s Adventures is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0