In running for president, John Kerry stressed he was not pro-abortion, but pro-choice. Of course, saying that you favor “a woman’s right to choose” is an old ploy of the abortion-rights movement. Back before Roe v. Wade, Bernard Nathanson helped to coin high-minded-sounding slogans such as “Women must have control over their own bodies” and “Freedom of choice–a basic American right.”
Nathanson, a medical doctor, was co-founder and first president of NARAL, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. Knowing the American people didn’t support their radical agenda, Nathanson and NARAL resorted to the big lie–actually, several.
“We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one,” Nathanson told WorldNetDaily several years ago. “We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was one million.”
NARAL also lied about the number of women killed, saying 10,000 per year were dying from dangerous, “back alley” abortions. The true figure, while tragic, was no more than 250 deaths annually.
Later, after the Supreme Court struck down state abortion restrictions in 1973, NARAL renamed itself the National Abortion Rights Action League and became one of the nation’s fiercest advocates of legal abortion. Nathanson eventually repented from his pro-abortion past, but the organization’s propaganda continued.
NARAL tweaked its moniker again, becoming the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Who could be against “reproductive rights,” after all? (NARAL never did explain how abortion–the deliberate killing of human life in the womb–qualifies as “reproduction.”)
Millions of abortions later, NARAL changed its name yet again, to NARAL Pro-Choice America. Gone is any mention of the word “abortion,” supplanted by patriotic, feel-good language about “choice.”
What kind of choice is today’s NARAL defending? Last Thursday, the organization’s Washington state affiliate held a fundraiser called “Screw Abstinence.” Apparently, as many pro-lifers have long suspected, it is choice without responsibility or consequences, a choice that will not even allow others to promote alternative views.
“Tired of Bush & Co. spending your tax dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage initiatives that promote dangerous misinformation?” NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s website asked. “Let them know you keep it real when it comes to your sexual health and decision making.”
“Screwing abstinence” has led to 45 million abortions; widespread infections of genital herpes, genital warts, chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea; and more than 500,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS. Medical authorities such as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WebMD agree that the only sure way to avoid such tragedies is to abstain from sex or to practice faithful monogamy.
And as the House of Representatives just approved a $10.8 million increase for abstinence education, the evidence continues to roll in. A study reexamining data from the Adolescent Health Survey found virginity pledges helpful in deterring sexual activity.
“Abstinence education is common sense,” said Kristi Hayes of the Abstinence Clearinghouse. “Kids want relationships and security. They want meaning and purpose in their lives. Abstinence education teaches kids how they can have a healthy, happy future. That’s why it works.”
By all means, NARAL, let’s keep sex “real.”
