Consider these points.

1. Right to choose what? While our society favors one's having the right to choose to marry, it does not favor the right to choose to abuse the one you marry. Whether you should favor a "right to choose" depends on what you're choosing.

2. What does one choose to destroy in an abortion? Just read the text "Abortion Practice" by Dr. Warren Hern. He describes how to tear the arms and legs off of the fetus. In regard to even the earliest abortions, listen to these medical and legal sources:

The widely used medical textbook The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th Edition, Moore, Persaud, Saunders, 1998, states at page 2 that "The intricate processes by which a baby develops from a single cell are miraculous .... This cell [the zygote] results from the union of an oocyte [egg] and sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being ...." At page 18 this theme is repeated: "Human development begins at fertilization [emphasis in original] ...."

Judge Michael J. Noonan ruled as follows in a New Jersey case based on a man's efforts to save his unborn child from being aborted: "…based upon the undisputed medical testimony by arguably the foremost authority in genetics in the world, I found that human life begins as conception; and that Roe vs. Wade permits a legal execution of that human being." (MUNICIPAL COURT OF NEW JERSEY, LAW DIVISION - MORRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL ACTION DOCKET NO. C1771, ET SEQ. STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. ALEXANDER LOCE, et als. DEFENDANTS APRIL 29, 1991 HONORABLE MICHAEL J. NOONAN)

Furthermore, even if one is not sure when human life begins, how can you destroy what might be human? If you are hunting and don't know whether what is moving behind the bush is a bear or a man, can you shoot?

3. How far into pregnancy does the "right to choose" extend? Here is the answer, straight from the text of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court abortion decision:

"(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician. Pp. 163, 164.

(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. Pp. 163, 164.

(c) For the stage subsequent to viability the State, in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life, may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. Pp. 163-164; 164-165." (410 U.S. 113, 114)

According to the pro-choice Alan Guttmacher Institute web site, close to 14,000 legal abortions a year are at 21 weeks of pregnancy or more. Martin Haskell's medical paper on partial-birth abortion talks about the procedure sometimes being done at "32 weeks or more."

4. What does an exception for "health" mean? Anything. Here are the words of the Doe vs. Bolton decision (companion of Roe vs. Wade) of the Supreme Court:

"Whether, in the words of the Georgia statute, "an abortion is necessary" is a professional judgment that the Georgia physician will be called upon to make routinely. We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health. This allows the attending physician the room he needs to make his best medical judgment." [410 U.S. 179, 192]

5. How often do abortions happen in America? The pro-choice Alan Guttmacher Institute web site says, "In 1996, 1.37 million abortions took place, down from an estimated 1.61 million in 1990. From 1973 through 1996, more than 34 million legal abortions occurred." This means there are almost 4000 abortions a day, one every 23 seconds. No crime or disease takes that many lives. More die by abortion in a year than the total of US casualties by all the wars we have ever fought combined. More die by abortion in 5 days than have been executed by capital punishment in 400 years.

6. Why do abortions occur in America? The pro-choice Alan Guttmacher Institute web site says, "On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner." These don't sound like medical reasons.

7. How does abortion affect the health of women? Pro-choice researchers writing in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry have acknowledged that some women experience post-abortion syndrome (PAS). The research team, led by Dr. Brenda Major, diagnosed PAS with a frequency that would translate into 560,000 cases. And according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society (APS) held this June in Miami Beach, Florida, women who undergo abortions are at greater risk for mental health problems in subsequent years. See more research at www.afterabortion.org.

8. Are sea turtles more valuable than babies? We read in Florida law, "No person may take, possess, disturb, mutilate, destroy, cause to be destroyed, sell, offer for sale, transfer, molest, or harass any marine turtle nest or eggs at any time." (370.12) If we don't have the right to choose to smash the egg of a sea turtle, why should we have the right to choose to smash a baby?

9. What is our message? To be pro-life is to be pro-woman. We offer help to those who feel they have no choice (1-800-848-LOVE), healing to those who have had abortions (1-800-5-WE-CARE), and education for all to be involved in the pro-life effort (www.priestsforlife.org). We don't say, "Love the baby and forget the mother." Rather, we say, "Why can't we love them both?"

10. A message from the former Jane Roe of Roe vs. Wade: "Some candidates in our upcoming election say that they support Roe vs. Wade. Take it from me: they don't know what's good for women or for America. They talk about a "woman's right to choose." What an insult! Women don't get abortions because of freedom of choice. They get them because they feel they have no choice -- and it's usually the man who is making sure they have no choice! Abortion is not good for America, and Roe should be overturned. I am proud to be Roe no more!"

--Norma McCorvey, Dallas TX, October 24, 2000