Patricia Launneborg’s book Abortion: a Positive Decision is a difficult book for a pro-lifer to read. As the title indicates, it presents abortion in the most positive light possible, sugarcoating the decision and praising women who have abortions. One especially eye-opening quote comes from a clinic worker who says (emphasis mine):
In Spain every single abortion is done under local [anesthesia]. It’s walk in, walk out. They come in at 4 clock, by 5 o’clock they have had the operation, the consultation, and are back home. And I was so impressed by it. I said, it’s not possible! I wouldn’t mind having 3 or 4 abortions like that rather than go to the dentist once every 5 years. They’ve mastered the technique, improved it, no fuss.” (page 86)
To many pro-lifers, this quote is shocking. This clinic worker, who sees the torn apart bodies of aborted babies daily, actually says that enduring multiple abortions is better than a trip to the dentist. Not only does her viewpoint show a complete disregard for the baby, but it does not respect the reality that many women face.
Groups like Silent No More have compiled the testimonies of many, many women who were devastated by their abortions. Support groups and healing retreats for post-abortion women take place all over the country. Thousands of women attend these events or are members of post-abortion advocacy groups. Obviously, to many women, abortion is not easier than going to the dentist.
In the beginning of the book, the pro-abortion author of Abortion: A Positive Decision concedes:
No matter that legal abortion is as safe a procedure as having your tonsils out or a penicillin injection or wisdom tooth extracted. It is far more than a safe medical procedure because of the complicated decision-making that is involved, and the fact that it has to do with sex and life and death. (pages 3-4)
Of course, Launneborg’s claim that abortion is extremely safe can be refuted, but for now I will focus on her second statement. Abortion, she says, has to do with “life and death.”
I can’t help but wonder. Whose life? Whose death? Obviously, the woman does not die in the abortion (in most cases). So it must be the fetus, the baby, who dies. How can Launneborg acknowledge that someone dies in every abortion and still call it a “positive decision”? She is not the only pro-choice author or activist who has stated that abortion is killing. There are 41 quotes on my website where pro-choice activists admit this.
Both Launnborg and the unnamed clinic worker have hardened their hearts toward the aborted babies to the point where they have a complete lack of respect for human life. The good news is that most people have not closed off their emotions when it comes to abortion. Many thousands of men and women come to pro-life sites every day and learn the truth about abortion, what it does to women and their unborn babies. Many will be horrified by the clinic worker’s words.
Source: Patricia Launneborg, Abortion: a Positive Decision (New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1992)
