An Albuquerque, New Mexico billboard sponsored by a pro-abortion organization compares pro-life laws as similar to rape.
The billboard reads: “Rape is about power and control. So are abortion bans. Keep abortion safe and legal,” it states.
This accusation is outrageous and the attempted analogy is atrocious. Pro-life people have no desire to control anyone.
Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, a retired associate professor of philosophy at Providence University College in Manitoba, said the claim is based on a “faulty analogy” about power. He writes:
Whereas rape involves power and control over women (and some men), bans on abortion are significantly NOT like rape. Unlike rape, bans on abortion are about stopping the exercise of power and control that harms other human beings (children). So bans on abortion are more like BANS ON RAPE which stop the exercise of power and control that harms other human beings (mostly women).
Thus, the argument fails to justify the conclusion. It commits the fallacy of faulty analogy.
Abortion violates the most basic human right, the right to life. Abortion cannot be defended. Abortion is ugly, it is violent.
The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist turned pro-life activist, described a D&E abortion:
The D&E is performed by breaking the bag of water with a pointed instrument thrust through the partly dilated cervix, then inserting grasping and tearing instruments into the womb. The fetus is then quartered, the torso isolated and disemboweled. The head is crushed and extracted in pieces. The placenta is located and scraped off the wall of the womb. This completes the procedure save for the abortionist reassembling all the removed parts on a side table adjoining operating table.
Dr. Anthony Levatino, who himself performed over 1,200 abortions details what happens during an abortion in which suction is used:
“The baby has a heartbeat, fingers, toes, arms, and legs, but it’s bones are still weak and fragile. The suction is then turned on, with a force ten to twenty times more powerful than your household vacuum cleaner. The baby is rapidly ton apart by the suction, and squeezed through this tubing down into the suction machine, followed by the placenta. The abortionist uses a curette to scrape the lining of the uterus. A curette is basically a long-handled, curved blade. Once the uterus is empty, the speculum is removed and the abortion is complete.”
Rather than admit or talk about the brutality of abortion, its defenders would rather make false accusations using faulty analogies.
