Don't believe abortion myths
Letters to the editor conflating miscarriage and abortion are misinformed and insulting. Miscarriage is the accidental or spontaneous ending of a pregnancy. Abortion is a choice.
Despite pervasive myths of abortion regret perpetuated by anti-abortion activists, the overwhelming majority of women who have had abortions do not regret their choice. A large study in 2015 demonstrated that 95 percent of women felt they had made the right decision. Studies also show that women seeking abortions are feel more certain of their choice to have abortions than they do about other medical procedures like knee or gallbladder surgery. Sean Casten was right.
Readers should also know the majority of women seeking abortions are already mothers and on some form of contraception. Contraception sometimes fails.
Anti-abortion letters to the editor and votes to bankrupt Planned Parenthood may serve as a defense against uncomfortable facts or self-reflection, but they do not stop people from having sex. They do not prevent condoms from breaking, or contraception from failing. They do not prevent unplanned pregnancies, make children more affordable, stop domestic abuse, or stop sexual violence.
They do not save babies. They do not save mothers.
"Pro-life" activists' definition of success, which is the total eradication of abortion, requires levels of state violence, incarceration, and maternal death they are wholly unwilling to admit to because they know such levels are both amoral and anti-life.
Anti-abortion activists have lost their moral compass.
Kim Cavill
Palatine