What Has Roe Done for Us? Project
On January 22, 1973, 7 men on the U.S. Supreme Court struck down more than 30 state bans on abortion, and legalized abortion in all 9 months of pregnancy, for whatever reason, across the United States. Regardless of whether you know their names, these historic decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, have affected your life. Abortion advocates argue that legal abortion is necessary for women’s liberation, but what has Roe really done for us?
Consider just the impact that abortion has on a woman’s health:
- Suicide rates among aborting women are 6 times higher compared to those who give birth and 2 times higher compared to those have a miscarriage.[i]
- Abortion increases the risk of placenta previa in later pregnancies by 30%. (Placenta Previa can lead to life-threatening hemorrhages before and after birth.)[ii]
- Abortion increases the risk for breast cancer. (At least 53 out of 68 worldwide studies demonstrate this fact. One of the most prominent of these was conducted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, which found that the risk of breast cancer was 50% higher among those who had an abortion.)[iii]
- Increased risk for pre-term delivery in future pregnancies. (Pre-term delivery significantly increases the risk of infant death and disabilities such as cerebral palsy.)[iv]
In reality, it is the abortion industry that benefits most from Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. For example, Planned Parenthood, America’s Abortion Goliath, committed almost 334,000[v] abortions in 2011, their largest total ever. From those abortions, they made an estimated $151 million dollars, almost half of their health services revenue. And Planned Parenthood has mandated that each of its affiliates are required to commit abortions and meet abortion quotas.[vi] For more on how Planned Parenthood profits off of you, go to www.plannedparenthoodproject.com. Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton have left more than 40 years of devastation in their wake. Legalizing abortion did not help women. The pro-abortion scare tactics that thousands of women will die when abortion is made illegal are false. The majority of pre-Roe abortions were not committed in back-alleys and the abortion industry has admitted that it made up the myth that tens of thousands of women died every year from illegal abortion. When abortion is illegal again, there will not be an epidemic of women dying from abortion.
There is nothing safe about legal abortion. Abortion will always be dangerous for women and bad for their health. Roe has done nothing to change that. Legal abortion has not made abortion clean or safe. Abortionists like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen are butchering women in dirty facilities. They are the norm for the abortion industry, not the exceptions. Legal abortion enables men to cover up abuse of women and coerce them into having abortions. We need to be offering real support and options for women experiencing crisis pregnancies. Ask yourself these questions:
- Did Roe make abortion safe?
- Who are today’s abortionists?
- Did Roe help these women?
- Does abortion exploit women?
The “What Has Roe Done For Us?” project exposes the lies of the abortion industry that legal abortion is not just safe, but good for women. In the Spring of 2014, we will be visiting more than 25 college campuses across the country showing what Roe has done for us.
Watch testimonies from the tour
If you would like the “What Has Roe Done For Us?” project to visit your school, contact SFLA to get on the waiting list for the next tour. Connect with us on Twitter to learn more about Roe v. Wade and where the project is using #whathasRoedone. You can also follow us at @students4lifeHQ. You can download the flyers and social media graphics for use at any time at your school. To request the post cards, send your name, school and mailing address to email@example.com.
Informational postcard to be handed out on campus: