Abortion organizations and many in the media recently recognized and even celebrated “International Safe Abortion Day.” But, in doing so, they overlooked the pro-life position: There’s no such thing as a safe abortion.
On September 28, abortion groups and media outlets took to social media to remember “International Safe Abortion Day,” from abortion giant Planned Parenthood to Rewire News Group. Together, they demanded “safe” abortions worldwide. Abortion, many of them claimed, was not only a women’s right but also a human right.
“Access to safe abortion care is grounded in human rights principles,” the Center for Reproductive Rights tweeted. “Countries around the world are responsible for ensuring accessible and quality abortion services for ALL.”
The International Planned Parenthood Federation took the opportunity to share a “reminder that access to legal & safe abortion is a fundamental human right” while the World Health Organization typed, “Access to safe #abortion protects the health and promotes the human rights of women and girls.”
Rewire News Group wrote, “Amid a historic fight for reproductive freedoms and rights, we commemorate #InternationalSafeAbortionDay” while the Thomson Reuters Foundation News asked, “Did you know 45% of all abortions globally are unsafe due to a lack of access?”
AJ+, which is run by Al Jazeera, reported that “Thousands of people protested across Latin American cities to demand safe and legal abortion on #InternationalSafeAbortionDay” before adding that “Abortion is fully allowed in only a handful of countries.”
But abortion is never safe because it always ends at least one life, the pro-life movement stresses. Five years ago, obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Anthony Levatino partnered with pro-life group Live Action to detail abortion procedures. Even his description of abortion by pill made clear: abortion is not safe for the unborn baby.
Dr. Levatino, who once performed more than 1,200 abortions, said that this kind of abortion is administered up to 10 weeks in pregnancy and consists of “two steps.”
First, “the woman takes pills which contain mifepristone,” or RU-486, he began. This blocks the hormone progesterone and causes the “lining of the mother’s uterus” to break down, “cutting off blood and nourishment to the baby.” A day or two later, the woman takes misoprostol. Together, he continued, these pills “cause severe cramping, contractions, and often heavy bleeding to force the dead baby out of the woman’s uterus.”
“The process can be very intense and painful,” he warned, “and the bleeding and contractions can last for a few hours to several days.” Most often, he said, the woman will “sit on a toilet as she prepares to expel the child which she will then flush.”
Other types of abortion, Dr. Levatino said, include a first trimester suction D&C (dilation and curettage) or aspiration abortion that is performed with a suction catheter that pulls out the unborn baby. Next, he continued, the second trimester D&E (dilation and excavation) abortion is performed by using instruments to tear apart an unborn baby’s limbs and crush his or her skull.
During a third trimester induction abortion, which is “performed 25 weeks to term,” the unborn baby is “almost fully developed and viable” or “could survive outside the womb,” he said.
An abortionist “uses a large needle to inject a drug called digoxin” that will “cause fatal cardiac arrest,” Dr. Levatino said. The needle travels “through the woman’s abdomen or through her vagina and into the baby, targeting either the head, torso, or heart.”
Next, the abortionist “inserts multiple sticks of seaweed called laminaria” which will “slowly open up the cervix for delivery of a stillborn baby.” A couple days later, the abortionist “replaces the laminaria and may perform a second ultrasound to ensure the baby is dead.”
The mother “may be advised to deliver her baby into a bathroom toilet,” he said. But “if she can make it to the clinic, she will do so during her severest contractions.” He concluded that “if the baby does not come out whole,” then the abortionist “uses clamps and forceps to dismember the baby piece by piece.”
The unborn, in other words, aren’t just blobs or clumps of cells. They’re human beings, with human parts. And abortions – even so-called “safe” ones – end their lives.