- One of the toughest battlesfor people against abortion
is addressing assertions around the issue
that make taking a life more acceptable.
Like for instance, that alife doesn't really begin
till a baby's outside the womb.
- This idea that before the baby's born
and nothing's really happening,it's basically a nothing,
and then all of a sudden,poof at birth we have a baby.
- [Paul] In her book, "TheChoice" Danielle D'Souza Gill
takes on what she callsmyths, accepted as fact.
She points to the actual fact,
there's much more thannothing the first few weeks,
writing, in the first trimester alone,
the baby's toes,fingernails, bendable elbows,
nose, head, hormones,and heartbeat develop.
There's a myth womenaren't wounded by abortion.
Michelle Shelfer takes that onin her book "Prepare a Room".
- [Michelle] The blowto a woman's identity
that occurs with abortion
can be likened to a racehorse that loses a leg,
an athlete who suffers a disabling injury,
or an artist who goes blind.
Except that we did it to ourselves.
- [Paul] Brandi Swindell openeda pro-life pregnancy center
next to a Planned Parenthood clinic.
- All the studies show,
and all the stories showfrom heartfelt women
that they have been deeplywounded by abortion violence.
Abortion as a violentact on a woman's body
and of course we know
it takes the life of that innocent child.
- We suffer not onlythe loss of our child,
but the loss of ourselves as mothers.
- [Paul] Some prochoice typesof assert fathers to be,
and really all men,
should be taken out ofthe equation altogether.
- They want to make it really just
between the woman and the abortionist.
- [Paul] Author Steve Karlenof "40 Days for Life" says no.
- Every child that I've ever met
has both a mother and a father
and half of the victims ofabortion in terms of the babies
are male babies and so
I think it's disingenuousfor those in the culture
that try to claim that thisis a women's issue only.
- [Paul] Shelfer argues against the myth
a man isn't wounded by abortion.
- He suffers a blow to his identity
as a protector, as a father,
those instinctive and bredin the bone identity issues
are really assaulted when he steps back
and allows his little one to be harmed.
- [Paul] 69% of men want abortion legal
and 43% call themselves pro choice.
But Gill says there's another side.
- There are many other men who,
you know, find it very heartbreaking.
And I think for them,
it often ends up being kind of like PTSD
where they live with thatfor the rest of their lives
knowing that they couldn'tdo anything to stop
the death of the child.
- [Paul] Gill writes aboutone of those named Carl.
Even though he ended uppaying for the abortion,
it had a traumatic effect on him.
I didn't know how I was going to survive.
I wasn't going to jump off a bridge,
but I probably would havedrunk myself to death.
I've thought about what happened every day
for the last 32 years.
Shelfer in her book,
puts Jim telling ofnumerous nightmares he's had
about an abandoned woman and her daughter
years after his girlfriend's abortion,
writing, I wake up fromthis recurring dream
with feelings of shame and guilt.
Sometimes I see the littlegirl from a distance
and long to hold her, but Iknow that is not possible.
She is hauntingly beautiful.
Another myth is the unborn may be human,
but they aren't persons with the rights
all people naturally have.
- And this goes down toreally their very existence
and their very ability to live or die.
- [Paul] In her book she writes.
- [Danielle] This is thejustification the Nazis used,
claiming that Jews arehumans but not persons.
This the justification used for slavery,
claiming that blacks arehumans, but not persons.
- These authors all agree,
if and when the false hoodsand myths are ripped away,
society must then copewith the devastating truth
that abortion takes the lifeof a person, just as real,
as you are, or I am.
Paul Strand, CBN News, Washington.
