The Deception of Abortion

2007 July-August

Today's youth need to understand that a previous generation was manipulated and duped by dishonest people with an agenda, and even some of the perpetrators of this fraud were led astray by their own ignorance, greed or lack of moral character.

By the time Norma McCorvey was 21 years old, she had already experienced more tragedy than some people know in a lifetime. A ninth-grade dropout who had spent time in reform school, Norma grew up in a household where she was emotionally and physically abused. Raped as a teenager, she married an abusive boyfriend at age 16, and had already given birth to two children when she found herself at the epicenter of a seismic event that would shake the moral foundations of American culture.

Most of us know Norma McCorvey by her pseudonym, Jane Roe, chief plaintiff in the landmark legal case known as Roe v. Wade, which led to the legalization of abortion in the United States, and no doubt sped the acceptance of abortion in other Western nations.

Many today take abortion for granted, assuming that if it is legal, it must be moral and right. After all, very intelligent and honest people have looked into the question of abortion and determined that it is okay, and that no real harm or pain comes either to the mother or to the "tissue" within her—right? Surely Norma McCorvey is a hero who paved the way for millions of young women to lead their lives the way they want—right?

Wrong! Today's youth need to understand that a previous generation was manipulated and duped by dishonest people with an agenda, and even some of the perpetrators of this fraud were led astray by their own ignorance, greed or lack of moral character.

Abortion proponents who fight to preserve the Roe v. Wade decision rarely acknowledge that the Jane Roe of the lawsuit—Norma McCorvey—is today a fierce opponent of abortion, even to the point of filing a class action suit in 2003 to have Roe v. Wade overturned. In this suit, "Among her 5,437 pages of evidence were affidavits from more than 1,000 women who testified that having an abortion had devastating emotional, physical, and psychological effects on them. Today McCorvey is passionately and publicly committed to undoing the damage she did in her earlier years and ending legalized abortion in America" The Marketing of Evil, Kupelian, p. 210).

Also rarely mentioned is the fact that McCorvey did not seek out an abortion at the start of the legal process that led to Roe v. Wade. In the course of arranging an adoption for her unborn child, her attorney put her in touch with two attorneys who wanted to find a "test case" to establish abortion rights. McCorvey was not some young crusader for reproductive rights; she was a frightened young woman who believed what her lawyers told her. Thankfully, because the legal process took so long, the child she was carrying was born—not aborted—and was put up for adoption. But her lawsuit led to the deaths of millions of other children—a fact she now regrets.

And McCorvey is far from the only one with regrets. And regrets are not just found among those who have had abortions—some who have performed abortions have also reconsidered their role. In 1969, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws was founded by physician Bernard Nathanson and abortion advocate Lawrence Lader, with help from noted feminist Betty Friedan. NARAL set out to convince the American public that abortion should be legalized, but how could such an audacious task be accomplished? How did Nathanson and his co-conspirators sell an unsuspecting American public on abortion? Was it with truth? Was it with science? Was it with medical expertise? What about the morality of it? In Nathanson's own words:

"We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one.… We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1 million.

"Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans, convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law" The Marketing of Evil, Kupelian, p. 191).

There were other confessed lies, but you get the point. Nathanson tells us, "At the end of the two years that I was the director, we had done 60,000 abortions. I myself, with my own hands, have done 5,000 abortions. I have supervised another 10,000 that residents have done under my direction. So I have 75,000 abortions in my life. Those are pretty good credentials to speak on the subject of abortion" ibid., p 192).

Today Nathanson is doing everything he can to reverse the horrendous tragedy he helped to start. What changed him? New technologies that revealed the truth about life in the womb: real time ultrasound, electronic fetal heart monitoring, fetoscopy and cordocentesis. These advances in medical science allowed Nathanson to see inside the womb, eyeball the baby, diagnose illnesses and treat its diseases. Suddenly, the fetus was no longer a mass of unviable tissue. It was a baby, and he knew it! Nathanson awoke from his self-induced deception. Eager to share with others what he had come to learn about the developing child in the womb, he produced The Silent Scream, a film that graphically shows what happens to a baby being aborted.

Bernard Nathanson, Norma McCorvey and thousands of others, whether the manipulators or the manipulated, are part of a greater deception. The Bible speaks of a time in which we have all "walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2). Revelation 12:9 tells us that this spirit, this prince of the power of the air, is so powerful that he has deceived the whole world.

Thankfully, not everyone has been deceived about the abortion issue. Several years after the Supreme Court ruling, a 15-year-old rape victim found herself in a situation like Norma McCorvey's. But there was an important difference; the law now gave her the right to abort her child. Yet this brave young person chose to give birth to a baby daughter and turn her over for adoption to a couple who could care for her better than she could. The girl she brought into this world grew up in a loving family, went to university, became a social worker, married and had children. Today, millions of young people know of Pam Stenzel, an inspirational speaker and powerful advocate for abstinence, who teaches young people the price of having sex before marriage. When it comes to her own birth, in Pam's own words, "I did not deserve to die because of the sin of my father."

Every human being has a truly remarkable potential—not only in this life, but beyond human existence. This is another subject about which the "prince of the power of the air" has deceived mankind. Very few people today have been told the truth about life after death. Your incredible potential is far greater and more exciting than you can imagine. To learn more about the very purpose for your existence, write or call for our free booklet, Your Ultimate Destiny.