Abortion-Rebutted.com

This website exists to combat abortion, specifically “abortion-apathy” and “abortion-pride”: that is, those who don’t think/care about the issue, and those who support it as an intrinsic good.

In order to properly orient ourselves towards combatting these worldviews, it is necessary to identify what we mean when we say “abortion”.

According to Merriam Webster: abortion – noun: the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: such as:

a. spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation; compare miscarriage

b. induced expulsion of a human fetus

These definitions are problematic from our typical “political” perception of abortion. The only definition relevant to the conversation surrounding the legality of abortion is the second option “b”. All other circumstances may be coded medically as abortion, but neither natural miscarriage nor removal of deceased fetal tissue from the womb are objectionable medical practices.

A quick note here: the definition of abortion necessarily assumes death:

“accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus”

This is important because built into the definition of the word abortion is the admittance of the fact that the fetus (baby), even from an embryonic stage, is alive.

When we talk about abortion in the context of being bad, that is why. Abortion is the intentional (“induction” implies extra-natural action) removal of a baby from the womb. In practice, this is done in 3 primary ways:

1. Plan-B or equivalent pill:

If you have never been exposed to anti-abortion literature, you may be surprised to learn that the “morning after” pill is abortifacient. Which mean that it will cause a miscarriage. Typically, it does so in extremely early pregnancy by preventing the implantation of the human embryo (really little baby) in the uterine wall. This will essentially trick the mother’s body into expelling the embryo as though part of a typical menstrual cycle. In these cases, the woman will likely never know whether or not she was pregnant.

2. Chemical abortion in early pregnancy:

This is the most common form of abortion. Rather than preventing implantation, chemical abortifacients used in later stages of development deprive the fetus of resources by blocking progesterone, which is the driving compound of pregnancy development and cause contractions and dilation of the cervix, essentially inducing delivery. The process is typically a regimen of 2 pills, mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol. Mifepristone¹ is given first to cause degradation of the uterine lining and impede the progress of pregnancy by binding with progesterone receptors. Second, misoprostol² is given to dilate the cervix and induce contractions.

The combination is 97% effective before 9 weeks. In cases where chemical abortion fails and the mother decides to continue with the pregnancies, birth defects are more likely.

Recently, these pills have started to be distributed by mail or in common retail chains such as Walgreens and CVS.

3. Surgical Abortion:

This is the abortive procedure that has the most significant presence in the American mind. This is the procedure associated with Planned Parenthood and the one that generates the most substantial resistance. In this case, the mother will visit a clinic and often (in second trimester abortions) be put under anesthetic influence. The fetus in the womb is forcibly removed from the uterus by surgical instruments and suction. Planned Parenthood refers to the tissue removed in this process as “pregnancy tissue” in their “What Happens During an in-clinic Abortion?”³ article. What they ought to say of course is: human fetal tissue but apparently medical terminology is still too grotesque in this case.

Surgical abortion, therefore, is the dismemberment and removal of a thus-far properly developing baby from its mother’s womb.

Abortion: The act of intentionally destroying and expelling a living human embryo or fetus from its mother’s womb through chemical or surgical means in order to end the natural progression of pregnancy.

The above will be our, much more suitable, definition of abortion as we proceed with these Essays. Abortion requires action on the part of the mother or a party acting “in her interest”. It does not happen spontaneously, nor does it occur without deliberation. The result is simple to explain, but impossible to quantify: the human expelled violently from the womb doesn’t get any older. What would have been a longer life, and would, statistically speaking, have been a life or normal duration, is halted in its tracks. Why? There are a multiplicity of (almost always insufficient) reasons offered and each general case, ranging from least to most “severe” will be discussed at length in later Essays.

-M.

1. “Mifepristone.” Wikipedia, August 15, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifepristone.
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2. “Misoprostol.” Wikipedia, July 17, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misoprostol.
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3. Parenthood, Planned. “What Happens during an In-Clinic Abortion?” Planned Parenthood. Accessed August 31, 2024. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/in-clinic-abortion-procedures/what-happens-during-an-in-clinic-abortion.
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