Roe v. Wade: Is it Time for it to Go?
By Josh Brahm, Director of Education and Public Relations,
Georgia Right to Life
A lot has changed since 1973. “The Brady Bunch” was still airing new episodes on TV, and teens were buzzing about the amazing new video game, “Pong.” It’s obvious that a lot of things have changed in the last 33 years, yet groups like Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women are tenaciously trying to cling on to the 1973
Supreme Court decisions that legalized abortion through all nine months, for any reason.
Is it time for these decisions, Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, to go?
The Public is Ready for an Overturn of the Roe/Doe Decisions
Public opinion polls show that the majority of Americans are pro-life. A poll by
Princeton Research Associates, and part of a two-year study showed that 51 percent of those surveyed believe that “abortion should only be allowed in cases of rape, incest, if the life of the woman is endangered, or not at all.” 1
These people would probably be interested to know that according to Planned Parenthood, only one percent of women having abortions became pregnant due to rape, and less than 0.5 percent became pregnant due to incest.
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Emergency abortions to save a woman’s life are also extremely rare.
According to the same study, only four percent of women having abortions reported their health as being the primary reason to abort.
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Teens are proving to be the most pro-life generation yet. A recent national poll from
Hamilton College finds that high school seniors say that abortion is morally wrong and that they support legislative proposals that would limit abortions and help women find alternatives. The poll also found that 72 percent of females in the class of 2006 would not consider an abortion if they became pregnant.
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When Does Life Begin?
In 1973, seven out of nine Supreme Court justices decided that they could not determine when life begins. This played a crucial role in the Roe v. Wade decision. However, there has been an explosion of technology and knowledge in the medical community in the last
33 years, and this question has been definitely answered. Life begins at the moment of fertilization. This isn’t really a debate anymore, and it’s published in the medical textbooks as fact. 4D ultrasounds are an amazing window to the womb, and the more

images we see of developing pre-born babies doing things like playing with their toes, getting the hiccups, even crying, the harder it gets for abortionists to call this living baby a mere “blob of tissue” or “disease.”
Physical and Emotional Damages of Abortion
We can see after 33 years how much women are being hurt by abortion, both physically and emotionally. Study after study shows that after an abortion, a woman has an elevated risk of breast cancer;
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cervical, ovarian, and liver cancer;
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uterine perforations;
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cervical lacerations;
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complications of labor;
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ectopic pregnancy;
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Pelvic Inflammatory
Disease;
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and approximately 10 percent of women undergoing elective abortion will suffer immediate complications, of which approximately one-fifth are considered life threatening.
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Sadly, the emotional damage is usually worse than the physical damage. It has been said,
“It is easy to scrape a baby out of the womb but not so easy to scrape the aborted baby out of the mind.” In a study of post-abortion patients only eight weeks after their abortion, researchers found that 44 percent complained of nervous disorders, 36 percent had experienced sleep disturbances, 31 percent had regrets about their decision, and 11 percent had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.
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Approximately 60 percent of women who experience post-abortion syndrome report suicidal ideation, with 28 percent actually attempting suicide, of which half attempted suicide two or more times.
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"Women who report negative after-effects from abortion know exactly what their problem is," observed psychologist Wanda Franz, Ph.D., in a
March 1989 congressional hearing on the impact of abortion. "They report horrible nightmares of children calling them from trash cans, of body parts, and blood," Franz told the congressional panel.
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“Roe” and “Doe” Are Now Pro-Life!
Even the women originally involved in the two 1973 Supreme Court decisions are trying to overturn those laws. Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade, and Sandra Cano from Georgia, the “Doe” of Doe v. Bolton are actively pursuing the end of Roe and Doe.
They both testify that they were used as pawns in a much bigger game by lawyers that manipulated them because of their situations and even lied about their cases to pass the abortion laws.
What If?
So what would happen if Roe v. Wade was overturned? Pro-abortion and feminist groups are screaming that abortion rights will end at that point. Unfortunately, that’s simply not true, and anyone with an elementary understanding of government process knows that’s not the way it works. The decision would go back to the state legislators. It is much easier to hold state legislators more accountable to their citizens than Congress. If pro-lifers across the country kept their legislators accountable, then ultimately the power has been given back to the people of this country to protect life. What’s wrong with that? That’s the way our country is supposed to be.

No, correcting Roe v. Wade is not the final answer, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. The ultimate pro-life goal is an amendment to the U.S. Constitution stating that the right to life is a fundamental right at every stage of biological development, including fertilization. Please join Georgia Right to Life as we work to protect life, and to stop the discrimination against those that are smaller and weaker than us – the pre-born.
Sources:
1: Susan B. Anthony List. http://www.sbalist.org/index.cfm/section/whatsnew/page/pollsJan2005.html
2. Alan Guttmacher Institute. Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and
Qualitative Perspectives ; page 4
3. Alan Guttmacher Institute. Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and
Qualitative Perspectives ; page 5
4. Hamilton College National Youth Polls. http://www.hamilton.edu/news/polls/HotButtonFinalReport.pdf
5: H.L. Howe, et al., "Early Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk Among Women Under Age
40," International Journal of Epidemiology 18(2):300-304 (1989); L.I. Remennick,
"Induced Abortion as A Cancer Risk Factor: A Review of Epidemiological Evidence,"
Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, (1990); M.C. Pike, "Oral Contraceptive
Use and Early Abortion as Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Young Women," British
Journal of Cancer 43:72 (1981).
6: M-G, Le, et al., "Oral Contraceptive Use and Breast or Cervical Cancer: Preliminary
Results of a French Case- Control Study, Hormones and Sexual Factors in Human Cancer
Etiology, ed. JP Wolff, et al., Excerpta Medica: New York (1984) pp.139-147; F.
Parazzini, et al., "Reproductive Factors and the Risk of Invasive and Intraepithelial
Cervical Neoplasia," British Journal of Cancer, 59:805-809 (1989); H.L. Stewart, et al.,
"Epidemiology of Cancers of the Uterine Cervix and Corpus, Breast and Ovary in Israel and New York City," Journal of the National Cancer Institute 37(1):1-96; I. Fujimoto, et al., "Epidemiologic Study of Carcinoma in Situ of the Cervix," Journal of Reproductive
Medicine 30(7):535 (July 1985); N. Weiss, "Events of Reproductive Life and the
Incidence of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer," Am. J. of Epidemiology, 117(2):128-139
(1983); V. Beral, et al., "Does Pregnancy Protect Against Ovarian Cancer," The Lancet,
May 20, 1978, pp. 1083-1087; C. LaVecchia, et al., "Reproductive Factors and the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Women," International Journal of Cancer, 52:351, 1992.

7: S. Kaali, et al., "The Frequency and Management of Uterine Perforations During First-
Trimester Abortions," Am. J. Obstetrics and Gynecology 161:406-408, August 1989; M.
White, "A Case-Control Study of Uterine Perforations documented at Laparoscopy," Am.
J. Obstetrics and Gynecology 129:623 (1977).
8: K. Schulz, et al., "Measures to Prevent Cervical Injuries During Suction Curettage
Abortion," The Lancet, May 28, 1983, pp 1182-1184; W. Cates, "The Risks Associated with Teenage Abortion," New England Journal of Medicine, 309(11):612-624; R.
Castadot, "Pregnancy Termination: Techniques, Risks, and Complications and Their
Management," Fertility and Sterility, 45(1):5-16 (1986).
9: Zhou, Weijin, et. al., "Induced Abortion and Subsequent Pregnancy Duration,"
Obstetrics & Gynecology 94(6):948-953 (Dec. 1999).
10: Daling,et.al., "Ectopic Pregnancy in Relation to Previous Induced Abortion", JAMA,
253(7):1005-1008 (Feb. 15, 1985); Levin, et.al., "Ectopic Pregnancy and Prior Induced
Abortion", American Journal of Public Health (1982), vol.72,p253; C.S. Chung, "Induced
Abortion and Ectopic Pregnancy in Subsequent Pregnancies," American Journal of
Epidemiology 115(6):879-887 (1982)
11: T. Radberg, et al., "Chlamydia Trachomatis in Relation to Infections Following First
Trimester Abortions," Acta Obstricia Gynoecological (Supp. 93), 54:478 (1980); L.
Westergaard, "Significance of Cervical Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in Post-abortal
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease," Obstetrics and Gynecology, 60(3):322-325, (1982); M.
Chacko, et al., "Chlamydia Trachomatosis Infection in Sexually Active Adolescents:
Prevalence and Risk Factors," Pediatrics, 73(6), (1984); M. Barbacci, et al., "Post-
Abortal Endometritis and Isolation of Chlamydia Trachomatis," Obstetrics and
Gynecology 68(5):668-690, (1986); S. Duthrie, et al., "Morbidity After Termination of
Pregnancy in First-Trimester," Genitourinary Medicine 63(3):182-187, (1987).
12: Frank, et.al., "Induced Abortion Operations and Their Early Sequelae", Journal of the
Royal College of General Practitioners (April 1985),35(73):175-180; Grimes and Cates,
"Abortion: Methods and Complications", Human Reproduction, 2nd ed., 796-813; M.A.
Freedman, "Comparison of complication rates in first trimester abortions performed by physician assistants and physicians," Am. J. Public Health, 76(5):550- 554 (1986).
13: Ashton,"They Psychosocial Outcome of Induced Abortion", British Journal of
Ob&Gyn., 87:1115-1122, (1980).
14: Reardon,"Criteria for the Identification of High Risk Abortion Patients: Analysis of
An In-Depth Survey of 100 Aborted Women", Presented at the 1987 Paper Session of the
Association for Interdisciplinary Research, Denver.
15: Wanda Franz, Ph.D., testimony, U.S. Congress, House, Human Resources and
Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the Committee on Government
Operations, Hearing on Medical and Psychological Impact of Abortion , 101st Congress,
1st Session, March 16, 1989 (Hereafter referred to as Hearing on the Impact of Abortion ,

1989). See also Vincent Rue, Ph.D., testimony, U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on the
Judiciary, Constitutional Amendments Relating to Abortion , R.J. Res. 18, S.J. Res. 19 and
S.J. Res. 110, 97th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 1, pp. 3329-378; David C. Reardon,
Aborted Women, Silent No More (Chicago: Loyola University Press and Westchester, IL:
Crossway Books, 1987); Anne Speckhard, Ph.D., The Psycho-Social Stress Following
Abortion (Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward, 1987); and David Mall and Walter F.
Watts, M.D., eds., Psychological Aspects of Abortion (Frederick, MD: University
Publications of America, 1979).