ABORTION BASICS

Episode 1: History: What Do Past Policies Say?

• Various voices in ancient cultures recognize the injustice of killing human beings before and after birth. (Hippocrates, St. Barnabas, Josephus)

• Both British Parliament and the American government initially made abortion at any stage a crime.

• Vladimir Lenin legalized abortion in Russia on November 20th, 1920.

• The pro-abortion mentality (i.e. the rejection of medical ethics principles such as “do no harm”) led to other atrocious human rights violations in the name of eugenics and medical experimentation, particularly in Nazi Germany.

• After WWII, doctors from 27 countries across the world reaffirmed their commitment to do no harm in the spirit of the Hippocratic oath.

• By the end of the 1950s, statutes in all but four states and DC prohibited abortion, however and whenever performed, unless done to save or preserve the life of the mother.

•  January 22, 1973: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton establish constitutional right to abortion throughout all 9 months of pregnancy for virtually any reason.

•  Doe defined “health” of the mother to include all factors, whether emotional, economic, psychological, familial, or physical.

• June 24, 2022: US Supreme Court hands down Dobbs v. Jackson decision that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. The authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

Episode 2: Biology: What Is Life in the Womb?

• A single ovum cell, the product of a male sperm and a female egg, marks the beginning of a new life and the genetic future that life will experience.

• By the sixth day, the rapidly developing embryo is ready to attach itself to the mother’s womb.

• After 2 weeks, the embryo’s cells are organizing according to type and purpose, and the beginnings of a head and brain are established.

• By the 35th day, the foundations for the spinal cord and nervous system are in place and the heart begins to beat.

• At 2 months, the offshoots of legs and arms are visible, and the mouth, ears, and nose begin to appear.

• Dr. Jerome Lejeune provided objective evidence in the 1990s that the full, distinct, unique, and unrepeatable human genetic code is present in the human embryo from the moment of sperm-egg fusion.

Denise’s Story

• Denise had an abortion at age 16.

• Denise’s experience was wrought with physical complications and emotional suffering. She wants people to know the truth about what abortion is and what it’s doing to women.

Episode 3: Biology: What is abortion?

• Dr. Kathy Altman is a board-certified OB/GYN with almost 33 years of experience and having completed over 500 abortions.

• A second trimester surgical abortion, called a dilation and evacuation (D&E), is performed between 14 and 22 weeks of pregnancy.

• Dilation: the cervix is dilated with laminaria or something similar.

• Evacuation: the woman lies on a table with her legs in stirrups and is given anesthesia. The abortionist uses a speculum to open the vagina, then an instrument to stabilize the cervix, and then places a cannula attached to suction tubing inside the uterus. The abortionist suctions out the amniotic The baby is pulled apart and removed by pieces using a sopher clamp. The head is crushed and removed. The placenta is also removed.

• Once all the parts have been accounted for, the bleeding has been controlled, and all instruments have been removed from the woman’s body, the abortion is considered complete.

• Possible complications for the woman include uterine or cervical perforation or laceration, damage to bowel, bladder, or other maternal organs, infection, hemorrhage, and death.

• Future pregnancies are also at an increased risk for loss or premature delivery due to abortion-related physical trauma and injury to the cervix.

• Terms such as “zygote,” “embryo,” or “fetus” are simply terms that refer to age, like “infant,” “toddler,” and “adult,” and do nothing to diminish the humanity of the unborn child.

Chemical Abortion

• The abortion pill, also called RU46, uses chemicals to end the life of a pre-born child.

• The abortion pill is a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol.

• Mifepristone binds to receptors meant for progesterone and blocks nutrients and other things essential for the baby’s development, leading to the death of the baby.

• Misoprostol induces contractions to expel the baby and other pregnancy-related tissues.

• Abortion facilities promote the abortion pill as a painless process: a statement that is unsupportable and indefensible.

Testimonial: What Does Experience Say?

• For Saundra, an abortion created anger issues, especially towards men because “it was an easy out for them” while she had to experience and deal with the repercussions.

• Jennifer became depressed, anorexic, and wanted to destroy herself.

• The HUSH women discuss the freedom in bringing their trauma and guilt to light through sharing their stories and the hope in moving forward.

Communication: How Can We Speak the Truth with Compassion?

• Michael Sorensen defines validation as “showing interest in and affirming the worth of another person’s thoughts, comments, and emotions.”

• Validation helps to avoid or quickly resolve arguments, as well as build trust.

• Validating responses (e.g. “oh, that would drive me crazy”) recognize how the person is feeling and says, “You’re not crazy for feeling that way.”

• Invalidating responses, even well-meaning ones (e.g. “it could be worse.”), shoot down the person’s emotions.

• Validation requires empathy.

• Reflective listening is repeating back in your own words what the other person has said to you, which can come across as mechanical or inauthentic.

• You can still validate even if you disagree.

• Richard Carlson: “Being listened to and heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. And those who learn to listen are the most loved and respected.”

When They Say, You Say

• Olivia Gans Turner defines communication as working with someone else, each respecting the other.

• To communicate effectively, “I have to care more about their understanding or perspective than I do about my own facts and figures.”

• Words only account for 10% of the message you get across; eye contact and a smile help you connect quickly and more directly. 60% of the message is what it looks like.

• Word exchanges – [choice] vs. [decision, options to consider], [fetus] vs. [unborn baby, preborn baby, baby in the womb], [it] vs. [he or she], [women] vs. [mothers], [doctor/physician] vs. [abortionists], [clinics/hospitals] vs. [abortion facilities]

• Abortion is always a deliberate act that kills an unborn child.  It is always killing unborn children.

• Avoid the word “murder” in describing abortion since “murder” is a legal term with legal connotations.

• Be gentle and considerate, because you may very well be talking to a woman who’s had an abortion and is in need of healing, in need of an opportunity to know peace and forgiveness that is available when she finds the appropriate counselor or pastoral care.

• The words we use matter.

Images

Mother & Baby https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/black-mother-taking-car-her-child_33412218.htm#page=2&query=mother%20and%20baby%20kissing&position=38&from_view=search&track=ais"

Olivia Gans Turner

Olivia Gans Turner is the host of When They Say, You Say, a five -episode presentation for Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).  She is also the director of American Victims of Abortion (AVA).  AVA is an outreach project of the National Right to Life Committee.

Having suffered through her own acute emotional reaction to her own abortion as an unwed college student, she helped to organize one of the nation’s first peer-to-peer post-abortion support groups.  Mrs. Turner has spoken widely on post-abortion syndrome and other abortion-related issues in both America and Europe.

She has appeared frequently on nationally syndicated programs such as Nightline, Good Morning America, C-SPAN, CNN and NPR.