4 Myths About Abortion That Need To Be Debunked In The Wake Of Roe V Wade Being Overturned

Abortion is already a sensitive topic, and after yesterday's ruling, it has only spiraled into one of the most contentious subjects in the country. Justice Samuel Alito led the charge to overturn the landmark decision, citing that Roe v. Wade wasn't constitutional, and that it never should have been passed in the first place. Now it's up to the states to decide their own abortion laws.

There are protests and riots erupting all across the country as people react violently to the SCOTUS news. Meanwhile, there is a lot of information being passed around on the internet regarding abortion that simply isn't true. Everywhere you turn there is propaganda and emotional manipulation designed to scare women into thinking that their rights are being taken away from them.

Myth #1: Abortion Is Medically Necessary

You've surely heard the line that abortion is necessary for women as it's medically necessary in many cases. This simply isn't true. Abortion is the intentional ending of a human being in the womb, and that's never medically necessary. What people will try to make you believe is that a woman needs an abortion when her life is in danger, but that would never warrant the killing of her baby. In some cases, the doctor may have to deliver the baby early or remove the baby from the mother's body, but that's certainly not the equivalent to the doctor ripping the baby apart limb from limb and crushing his/her skull, which is what takes place in a surgical abortion.

Dr. Kendray Kolb is a neonatologist who made a video for Live Action, a non-profit dedicated to ending the injustice of abortion, explaining that abortion is never medically necessary.

"If a women’s life is imminently in danger, a preterm delivery is a much safer option," Dr. Kolb said. "An emergency C-section can be completed in less than an hour, while an abortion after 24 weeks, when the most common life-threatening complications occur, takes 2-3 days to complete due to the necessary dilation process, in essence delaying treatment and significantly increasing the risk of death and serious disability to the mother."

"In addition to early delivery as a means of protecting the mother, there are also times when it may be necessary to give a pregnant mother medical treatments which may tragically result in the loss of the baby," she continued. "It is important to understand that these treatments are NOT abortions."

She cited the example of a pregnant woman with cancer choosing to undergo chemotherapy, a treatment that could cause a miscarriage. However, this is "very different than abortion, as the purpose of the chemotherapy is not to kill the child."

A woman never needs to opt in for the killing of her child, regardless of what society tells you about abortion.

Myth #2: Women Will Be Denied Healthcare and Life-Saving Procedures

There's a rumor going around that women won't have access to treatments for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages if abortion is outlawed in their state. This is also untrue. These kinds of treatments and procedures are not abortions, and they were made available to women long before Roe v. Wade was passed, just like they'll still be available to women long after it's overturned.

"Some will also confuse the necessary treatment for an ectopic pregnancy with an abortion," Dr. Kolb explained in her video. "An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the preborn child implants in the mother’s fallopian tubes or somewhere outside of the uterus. When a preborn child implants outside the uterus, it is a hostile environment for the baby in which it cannot survive."

"Sadly, removing the baby from the fallopian tube or abdominal cavity is necessary, as an ectopic pregnancy will inevitably end in a miscarriage and may threaten the mother’s life. These situations are devastating, however, they are not considered abortions," she concluded.

These procedures will certainly be administered to women who need them. Anyone who tries to say otherwise is only trying to scare women into holding onto abortion for fear that women will suffer, but it's just not true. For example, the Texas heartbeat bill explicitly states treatments for things like miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies as completely separate from abortion.

Myth #3: Abortion Is a Fundamental Right

There are a lot of women holding up signs that claim their fundamental rights are being stolen from them as Roe v. Wade is overturned, but this is a myth. Women were never granted the right to abortion in the Constitution, which is precisely why Roe v. Wade was overturned—the justices in favor of overturning this decision recognized that the Constitution never explicitly granted women the right to abortion, so you're not losing any rights. Besides, there is no such thing as having the right to end the life of a child, no matter how small that child is or where he or she is located.

Myth #4: Most Abortions Are for Rape or Incest

According to the Guttmacher Institute (which is a left-leaning organization for what it's worth), less than 1% of abortions are for cases of rape or incest. The rest of abortions are elective, meaning that women consented to the sex that resulted in their pregnancy. This is extremely important to know, as it completely shatters many people's arguments in favor of abortion.

They try to insist that abortion is necessary because it mostly helps women who have been raped, but the vast majority of abortions are performed for women who simply get one electively. Women still try to use the case of rape as a way to defend abortion, which leaves many anti-abortion people asking the crucial question: if you use cases of rape as the leading defender for abortion, are you willing to make abortion available only to women who have been raped? Their answer is almost always no, which means it's useless to even refer to rape as a reason we need to make abortion widely available.

Closing Thoughts

It's easy to get sucked into the mainstream conversation about abortion that makes women believe that it's empowering to have the "right" to end the life of your own child. But the truth is, abortion is never necessary and it's never safe. It always results in the ending of an innocent child's life.