They say:
"Abortion is the same as murder. A foetus has the same moral rights as a woman. Why? Because, as soon as a foetus is conceived, it is a live human person. Therefore, abortion is the same as murder."

FOETUS: unborn child

A foetus is CONCEIVED at the time a woman becomes pregnant

A closer look:
Of course, as soon as an egg is fertilised, there is life: the foetus can become a person.

But is an embryo or a foetus the same as a person?

Does a foetus have the same rights as a seven-year-old child, for example?

Or does a foetus have the same rights as a seventeen-year-old woman who finds that she is pregnant, but who does not want to be pregnant?

Either you believe that a foetus has the same rights as a person, or you believe that it does not. Scientists cannot agree.

 

An egg is FERTILISED when sperm from a male joins the egg to begin the development of life.

An EMBRYO is the first stage of development of an unborn child.

PREGNANT (adj): If a woman is pregnant a new child is graowing inside her.

They say:
"Think about the foetus".

A closer look:
Anti-abortionists want you to forget about the pregnant woman.

They use modern technology to help them do this. Today we can take photographs of foetuses inside the womb. Anti-abortionists like to use pictures of foetuses that are floating in bright light inside a womb.

There are two reasons for this: These pictures make the foetuses look more like fully grown babies; These pictures take away the role of the mother. The pregnant woman seems to be only a kind of container for carrying the foetus.

Of course, pregnant women are not just containers. So the anti-abortionists attack women who support abortion by saying that they are selfish, unloving and hate babies. They call them murderers.

ANTI-ABORTIONISTS: people who are strongly against abortion.

WOMB: the part of a woman's body where a baby grows before it is born.

They say:
"Countries where abortion is safe and legal will have high abortion rates".

A closer look:
Not necessarily. In the Netherlands, for example, abortions are very safe and very easy to obtain, but the abortion rate in the Netherlands is the lowest in the world. The abortion rate is so low there because many people use reliable contraception.

On the other hand, in countries where there are laws against abortion, women have illegal abortions. In Brazil, for example, 1 out of every 5 deaths of young women is caused by an illegal abortion.

CONTRACEPTION: methods for men and women to have sex without making a baby. A CONTRACEPTIVE is the device that is used for this; for example, a condom.

 

They say:
"Contraceptives make abortion unnecessary".

A closer look:
In some countries, like Russia, the introduction of contraceptives has reduced the number of abortions.Until recently, contraceptives were very hard to get, so abortion was the main means of birth control.

However, no form of contraception is 100% reliable. (Nor are people!) And the most reliable forms of contraception are not always the best for any individual woman's health. Unwanted pregnancies will continue to happen.

In addition, many of the people who campaign against abortion are also against the use of contraceptives - the Catholic church, for example.

To CAMPAIGN is to work together for a political goal.