Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Naral

The words on the sign rushed into view as Washington's subway riders pulled into the Farragut North metro station last week: "Women Who Choose Abortion Suffer More and Deadlier Breast Cancer." Abortion advocates denounced the ads as a lie. But the abortion lobby's own tactics prove that it's the radical feminists who are lying—to the point of endangering women's lives. Washington's Metro transit system has posted more than 1,100 of the breast cancer ads on buses and in subway stations. The ads were sponsored by Christ's Bride Ministries of McLean, Virginia. Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation, called the ads "irresponsibly erroneous." But research suggests that it's the abortion lobby that's being irresponsible. A 1994 study published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute indicates that women who abort after age 30 increase their breast cancer risk by 110 percent, and women under age 18 increase their risk by an astonishing 150 percent. More than 20 other studies also found a definite abortion/breast-cancer link. Given these sobering statistics, one can only conclude that while abortion rights leaders may be in favor of "choice," they're vociferously opposed to giving women an informed one. Abortion lobby hype became even more hypocritical during recent testimony about partial-birth abortion, where prochoice leaders came under fire from top anesthesiologists. Why? Because they were lying to women about how anesthesia affects fetuses. Proabortion witnesses repeatedly told lawmakers that anesthesia administered to the mother kills the fetus before the partial-birth abortion procedure begins. It was a desperate attempt to deny the horrific pain the fetus suffers when this procedure is carried out. Prochoice commentators quickly spread the lie. Columnist Ellen Goodman declared, "You wouldn't even know that anesthesia ends the life of . . . a fetus before it comes down the birth canal." We don't know it, Ms. Goodman, because it isn't true. After this lie was publicized, Dr. Norig Ellison, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "I am deeply concerned . . . that . . . pregnant women [may] delay . . . life-saving medical procedures due to misinformation regarding the effect of anesthetics on the fetus." National Right to Life's Doug Johnson asks a good question regarding the false claims disseminated by proabortion groups, particularly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL): "Will the watchdogs of the media now allow [the abortion lobby] to walk away from their fabrication?" As Goodman's column proves, they're not only allowing this lie to stand, they're helping spread it themselves. It proves once and for all that the abortion lobby cares more about promoting an extremist feminist agenda—and making profits—than protecting women. Hypocrisy, thy name is NARAL. So when you hear feminists chanting about protecting women's lives through so-called "safe, legal abortion," use it as an opportunity to tell your neighbors how dangerous and gruesome abortion really is for both mothers and babies. And help them understand what the abortion lobby is really all about. That they're willing to spread any lie to keep abortion legal—even if it means sacrificing the lives of women on the altar of choice.

01/31/96