MYTH: Abortion is only legal through the first trimester.
FACT: Due to the radical scope of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy.
FACT: More than 152,000 abortions take place every year in the United States during or after the 13th week of pregnancy.
MYTH: Women obtain abortions only in rare and extreme cases.
FACT: In the U.S. alone, more than 1.2 million abortions were performed in 2008.
FACT: Rape and incest are cited as reasons for only 1 percent of all abortions.
FACT: Three in four women say they had abortions for reasons of inconvenience.
MYTH: No one knows when human life begins.
FACT: “Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception [they defined fertilization and conception to be the same] marks the beginning of the life of a human being – a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific wrtitings.”
MYTH: “Wanted” children will not become abused children. Therefore, abortion will act to reduce child abuse.
FACT: A landmark study shows that 91 percent of battered children were from planned and wanted pregnancies. In fact, statistics show that the overall change since 1976 has been a growth of 331 percent in child abuse cases in the United States.
MYTH: The typical abortive woman is a poor, minority teen.
FACT: Four out of every five abortions are obtained by women 20 years of age and older.
FACT: Statistics show nearly two-thirds of abortions are performed on white women.