New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham made the comment that her state is running an “Underground Railroad” to provide women with abortion services. During a speech in Virginia, she stated that 75% of abortions performed in New Mexico are from out-of-state patients – and 71% of those come from Texas where abortion is illegal in most cases. In fact, the state of New Mexico has even put up billboards in Texas for the specific purpose of recruiting more abortion doctors. To justify that, she argued, “If you’re a healthcare practitioner, why would you practice here (in Texas) if you’re sworn to protect the lives of your patients? If you want no interference, come to New Mexico.”
So wait! She’s saying that abortion protects the lives of patients?
That is actually one of the main arguments abortion advocates put forth. They try to make the case that if women are not allowed to get abortions, many are going to die. To support that contention they argue using several points.
One argument they put forth is that if abortions are not legal, women will go to back alleys where some unqualified person will use a coat hanger to perform the act. With that, the likelihood of death will be very high.
I don’t know why we continue to hear this argument. Very few women are so stupid that they would do that – especially since New Mexico (and numerous other states) will welcome them. In fact, some states like California and Oregon will actually use tax-payer money to bring people in from other states where it is illegal. Beyond that, there are numerous private organizations that provide not only transportation, but lodging, cash and food assistance, and even childcare help.
Beyond that, there are scores of companies that will pay for their employees to travel to get an abortion: Amazon.com, Bumble, BuzzFeed, Cigna, Citigroup, CNN, Comcast, Condé Nast, CVS Health, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Estee Lauder, Goldman Sachs Group, Hewlett Packard, Ikea US, JPMorgan Chase, Kroger, New York Times, Lyft, Match Group, MasterCard, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Paramount, Patagonia, Paypal, Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, Starbucks, Target, Tesla, Uber, Vox Media, Walt Disney, Yelp, Yahoo, Zendesk, and Zillow, just to name a few. And as of now, the Pentagon will even pay for service members to travel for abortions. Besides the inconvenience of having to travel, there are virtually no barriers for people to get an abortion who want one. Using fear tactics to beat up on anti-abortion advocates is just dishonest.
Another argument is that many abortions are necessary to protect the health of the mother. Physically this is rarely ever true, so advocates have expanded the meaning of “health of the mother” to include mental health because of the stress of carrying a baby to term. Some have even argued that pregnancy itself is a health hazzard. More dishonesty.
These days one of the things being done to advocate for abortion is to change the language. Instead of using the word abortion, you now hear it being spoken of as “pro-choice,” or “reproductive health.” These are actually completely meaningless terms, but they just sound better than “abortion,” and give the impression that allowing for abortion provides women more freedom or helps their health.
Abortion is not healthcare. Actor and director Antonio Sabato Jr. put it this way: “I mean, if abortion was healthcare, what disease would it treat or cure?” And actor Kevin Sorbo said, “Referring to abortion as ‘healthcare’ is like calling slavery ‘Human Resources.’ It’s dishonest and wrong.”
The negative side of the equation is almost universally ignored. Forget the fact that 100% of all successful abortions result in the death of an innocent preborn human child. Forget the fact that abortion is often used as a means of covering up rape and assault on women. Forget that the vast majority of abortions are done for the sake of convenience as people attempt to avoid responsibility for bad sexual decisions or immoral lifestyles.
These days, the dominant naturalistic worldview environment of American society has led to the devaluing of life itself. With that, people are willing to make any excuse whatsoever to define morality in a way that suits their personal preferences – even to the point asserting that preborn babies are not human beings.
But in spite of all their efforts to make abortion acceptable using creative wordsmithing, they can’t change reality. God exists as He has been revealed in the Bible, and He has shared with us the true nature of human life. Human beings, at every stage of life, are persons created in the image of God and valued by Him. Abortion is not healthcare, it is the taking of innocent human life. It’s murder plain and simple.