Copyright 1996 David C. Reardon. Excerpted with permission for from Making Abortion Rare, published by Acorn Books, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791-7348 for internet posting exclusively at www.afterabortion.org. All Rights Reserved.

The following is an example of how a candidate for public office can address the abortion issue from a pro-woman/pro-life perspective in a way which provides "sound bites" for the press which are difficult to distort.

Abortion is a divisive issue. But certainly we can all agree to this: no woman should feel forced to undergo an unwanted abortion. Women should be protected from coercion by husbands, boyfriends, parents, or abortion counselors. And every woman who wants to keep her child should have access to the public and private agencies offering her and her child care and compassion. This is pro-life. This is pro-woman. This is pro-choice. And that is the type of candidacy that I am offering you. 

My opponent opposes legislation which would protect women from being lied to by greedy abortion clinics. I believe that if a woman is going to have an abortion, she deserves to know the risks! 

My opponent opposes legislation which would hold abortion providers financially liable for the physical and psychological aftereffects of abortion. I believe that if abortionists are going to do abortions, they had better be able to guarantee that they are doing safe abortions, or they had better be willing to pay for the consequences of dangerous abortions. 

I am pro-life; I am also pro-woman. I am seeking to protect women from being coerced into unwanted and dangerous abortions. I want to guarantee the rights of women to know all the risks about abortion and about realistic alternatives - including thousands of volunteer resources which are available to help a women give birth to an unplanned child, and care for that child long after it has been born. 

My opponent says he is pro-choice, but he refuses to do anything to protect the 55 percent of abortion patients who say they are being pressured into UNWANTED abortions. He says he is pro-choice, but he refuses to guarantee a woman's right to know about the risks of abortion; her right to know about the biology of her unborn child. He says he is pro-woman, but he has abandoned women to the unscrupulous exploitation of fast-buck abortion clinics. 

I am both pro-woman and pro-life. I want to protect both the unborn child and the child's mother. The courts have given women a right to seek a safe abortion. So if a woman does have an abortion, I will do all I can to regulate clinics to ensure that it is absolutely the safest abortion possible, that she has a guaranteed right to receive compensation for any physical or psychological complications which occur, and that she is fully informed of every risk and alternative. 
 
 

A SAMPLE OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Media: What is your position on abortion? 

Candidate: I believe we absolutely must protect women from dangerous and unwanted abortions which are injuring hundreds of thousands of women every year. 

We don't hear about it in the press, but our country is faced with a terrible plague of unwanted abortions -- cases where mothers would rather carry their pregnancies to term but instead submit to unwanted abortions to satisfy the demands of others. 

I oppose allowing abortion to be used as an escape route for unloving and irresponsible boyfriends. I oppose allowing parents to force a daughter into an unwanted abortion without regard for her own desires to keep her child. I oppose making women suffer the pain and aftereffects of abortion alone just so others won't be inconvenienced. 

A study of over 250 women who claim that they have suffered from post-abortion trauma found that nearly 60% of these women felt forced to submit to an abortion because of pressure from other people. Eighty-three percent say they would have kept their babies if they had received support to do so from their boyfriends, families, or other important people in their lives.⁽¹⁾

Is it "pro-choice" to allow women to be forced into unwanted abortions? No. That's abandonment. That's abandonment of women in need to the manipulation and greed of our unregulated abortion industry. 

Media: Would you support legislation which would limit a woman's right to have an abortion? 

Candidate: I support regulations which would protect women from being pressured into unwanted abortions. I support laws which would make abortion clinics accountable for failing to protect women from being coerced into unwanted abortions. If abortion is to be a decision made between a woman and her doctor, then we should hold the doctor responsible for ensuring that the mother's desire to have an abortion is truly her own, and not a decision being forced on her by her husband, boyfriend, or her parents. 

If my opponent is truly "pro-choice," and not pro-abortion, I am sure he will work with me in seeking legislation to protect these women from unwanted abortions. 

Media: Aren't your proposals actually intended to make it more difficult for women to get abortions? 

Candidate: Not at all. My proposals would simply codify the high professional standards which the Supreme Court itself has already described in Roe and the other abortion cases. It is the obligation of the physician to ensure that a woman's choice to abort is fully free and fully informed of risks and alternatives. Abortion providers have legal responsibilities to their patients and these responsibilities must be met to safeguard the rights of women. 
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To read the rest of this chapter, order Making Abortion Rare, today.
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[Web Master's Note: The material in this section has been updated and expanded in Reversing the Gender Gap: Touch the Hearts, Earn the Trust, and Win the Votes of 30 Million Post-Abortive Women, a guide for pro-life politicians. You can download a free copy of Reversing the Gender Gap at www.afterabortion.info/news/gap.htm.]

Notes

1. Reardon, Aborted Women, 11-13. 

Copyright 1996 David C. Reardon. Excerpted with permission for from Making Abortion Rare: A Healing Strategy for a Divided Nation, published by Acorn Books, PO Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791-7348 for internet posting exclusively at www.afterabortion.org. All Rights Reserved.