8 Common Misconceptions About Abortions

There are many myths about abortion and propaganda spread around by people who are uneducated on the topic. There has been a lot of attention in the media about abortion due to President Trump. The recent women’s march following his inauguration brought great attention to the controversial topic of abortion. Many signs at the march were so empowering and important to this. I have heard many arguments to the signs and the March itself, they argued these eight myths of abortions, and I am going to prove them all wrong, with factual evidence that you can choose to accept or not. Although this is a list of only eight myths, do not be fooled; there are many more myths floating around, however, these are the most common.

NAF, the national abortion federation, was created in 1977. They have a site that lists the true facts about abortions, the first item on that list is that abortions cause breast cancer.

1. Abortions cause breast cancer

“The topic of abortion and breast cancer highlights many of the most challenging aspects of studies of people and how those studies do or do not translate into public health guidelines. The issue of abortion generates passionate viewpoints in many people. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women aside from skin cancer and breast cancer is the second leading cancer killer in women. Still, the public is not well-served by false alarms. At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer or any other type of cancer.”

This quote is taken from American Cancer Society’s website. They held many experiments to see if there was a relation between breast cancer and abortions and their findings prove that there is no evidence that proves abortions cause any type of cancer.

2. Abortions hurt the fetus

The next on the misconception list is that abortions hurt the fetus when, in reality, they don’t. Fetuses cannot feel any type of pain due to the fact that the neurological nerves required to feel pain do not develop until the 24th week of pregnancy, after which many states prohibit abortions from being performed. If you do not take my word for it, click here to see that fetuses can't possibly feel pain if they have not developed the mental capacity to do so.

3. Abortions can cause issues of conceiving again

In relation to the next myth on the list, abortions can cause issues of conceiving again, this is the case for very few women. There has not been extensive research that could I find. However, what I did find was that it is very uncommon for a woman to experience an issue conceiving after getting a healthy, safe abortion. If abortions become illegal woman might have to regress or depend on unsafe, risky abortions which could then cause an issue in getting pregnant again.

4. Abortion is dangerous

To reiterate, abortions that are performed today are very safe and are done for the wellness of the woman experiencing it. If abortions are made illegal then they have the potential of being unsafe and harmful to the women receiving them. There is a lot of propaganda on the internet about abortions and how unsafe they are, which is true only in certain cases. When women don’t have the means to have an abortion and they take the matter into their own hands without medical help then it becomes unsafe. Do not be fooled by those against what is right for you.

5. Women have mental health issues afterward

Another myth spread by those against abortion is that women have mental health issues after getting an abortion or that they regret it. When in reality more than 95% of women do not regret having an abortion. Abortions also have no correlation with mental health, this is proven by the American Psychological Association. The American Psychological Association (APA) says that some women experience depression, but this is entangled with the possibility of prior drug/alcohol abuse, emotional and or physical abuse. So, to conclude, there is not enough incriminating evidence to say that abortions for a fact cause mental health issues.

6. Abortion is used as birth control

More than 54 percent of women who have abortions used contraceptive, meaning a condom or the pill, that is over more than half of women who have an abortion who are being careful with sex but yet something goes wrong with their contraceptive. That doesn’t mean they look at abortion as contraception, it means that abortions are their last result in the case of an unplanned pregnancy.

7. Only selfish women get abortions

The next myth on the list is a very hot topic for those of liberal beliefs and for those of conservative beliefs, is that women who get abortions are selfish. All I can say is if you do not personally know the circumstance of a pregnancy and or abortion please stay out of it. It does not concern you if you are a politician you have NO jurisdiction whatsoever to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. You also cannot judge her because you do not know the situation, so in response to women are selfish if they get an abortion, re-evaluate yourself please and thank you.

8. If abortion becomes illegal that abortions will cease to exist

Finally, if abortions are deemed illegal by President Trump and Congress they will still happen but it will be even more unsafe than those performed under the radar today. They won’t be monitored by medical professionals, they will be dangerous and could end up killing hundreds, thousands, or even millions of women.

To conclude, I hope this article cleared up several misconceptions you have. I put links in the article for the most controversial myths to help prove my point. Please take this information and spread it around like confetti.