Many Christians find themselves in a quandary with their morality when they are confronted with the concept of “back alley abortions.” This phrase has been used as the descriptor of how women would obtain an abortion prior to Roe v. Wade. It paints the picture of women walking into a seedy, dirty room wherein they would seek out an abortion with unsafe methods because their situation was so desperate.
Some Christians will often say that even though they don’t support abortion, they believe it should be legal so women, who will have an abortion anyway, don’t die from illegal ones. However, what appears to be compassionate isn’t very loving at all and there are many mistruths guiding this argument. Let’s look at a couple of these issues.
Myth: Women are going to have abortions anyway so let’s at least make it safe for them.
It’s interesting to note that abortion is the only situation this type of argument is used for. For instance, let’s use the same type of argument for rape and see how it sounds. Even though it’s illegal, rape is going to happen anyway so we should at least provide a safe room for it to happen in.
Or what about for child abuse or domestic violence? Even though it’s illegal, child abuse or domestic violence will happen anyway so we should provide a safe place for this to happen.
This sounds ridiculous. How can it be safe if it still hurts another human being? Abortion is still unsafe whether it’s legal or not. A child will die every time and the mother is often wounded emotionally and sometimes physically. Women are not empowered by abortion.
Myth: Thousands of women died from illegal back alley abortions prior to Roe v. Wade, so we need to keep abortion legal so they won’t die.
This was actually a lie and grossly misrepresented. This statistical number of 5,000-10,000 women dying each year from back alley abortions came from Dr. Bernard Nathanson who was a leading abortionist at the time. He admitted that this number was made up but was being used to move forward their agenda of legal abortion.
In an article entitled The Big Lie: Thousand of Illegal Abortion Deaths, they said, “According to the United States Bureau of Vital Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control, the last time 1,000 women died of illegal abortions in the United States was in the year before penicillin became widely available to the public in 1942. In the ten years preceding Roe v. Wade, deaths ranged from 90 to 150 per year.” You can read the entire article HERE.
The Real Back Alley Abortions
In reality “back alley abortions” are happening more today than ever before, and this was true even when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. The real “back alley abortions” are the medical abortions. Medical abortions are generally done within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and are done using a combination of drugs. Girls, in many states without parental permission and without even having an ultrasound to verify how far along they are, can get abortions pills sent to them through the mail. They just communicate through a website, answer a few questions, and the abortion pills will be sent directly to them – all without physically seeing a doctor.
Can you imagine a young girl, taking abortions drugs without being under the care of a physician, receiving no medical examination or ultrasound, having an abortion all by herself? She doesn’t know how much bleeding is too much, whether she has an infection or other physical complications. She is left alone to abort her child on her own. Since her parents may be unaware, they may not even know she needs help.
How is this caring for women?
True care and love for women is helping them with their unplanned pregnancy – to journey through this part of their life with them – to help resource them – to bring them hope and help. God is the author of life and each human being has intrinsic value and purpose. Christian compassion is not to legalize abortion but to help these mamas in practical ways.
