“If it isn’t a baby, then you aren’t pregnant, so what are you aborting?” (Anonymous)
“The state has an interest in protecting the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons. The lives of disabled and elderly must be no less valuable than the lives of young and healthy…The difficulty in defining terminal illness and the risk that a dying patient’s request for assistance in ending his or her life might not be truly voluntary justifies the prohibitions on assisted suicide we uphold here.” (Chief Justice William Rehnquist)
“The old law permitted abortion to save one life when two would otherwise die. The new law permits abortion to take one life when two would otherwise live.” (Dr. Herbert Ratner)
“When we elect our lawmakers in America, we influence the moral character of this nation for better or for worse. When our laws permit violence against little babies, incidents like the Columbine High School shootings are the logical outcome.” (Fr. Frank Pavone)
“In this context the temptation grows to have recourse to euthanasia, that is, to take control of death and bring it before its time, ‘gently’ ending one’s own life or the life of others. In reality, what might seem logical and humane, when looked at more closely is seen to be senseless and inhumane. Here we are faced with one of the more alarming symptoms of the ‘culture of death.’” (Pope John Paul II)
“No matter how it is worded or performed, abortion hurts women. This won’t stop until women stand up in unison and say, ‘This is unacceptable. We deserve better.’ Lack of emotional and financial resources are the real undue burden — and abortion will never lift that.” (Serrin Foster, President, Feminists for Life of America)
“It bears repeating that for every 1,000 black babies born, 477 are murdered in their mother’s womb. That’s a 32% kill rate. Lynching has nothing on Planned Parenthood.” (Kathy Barnette)
“I know this issue is very controversial. But unless and until it can be proven that an unborn child is not a human being, can we justify assuming without proof that it isn’t? No one has yet offered such proof; indeed, all the evidence is to the contrary. We should rise above bitterness and reproach, and if Americans could come together in a spirit of understanding and helping, then we could find positive solutions to the tragedy of abortion.” (Ronald Reagan)
“Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the ideal of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until death. The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not put forth under socially impeccable auspices.” (Editorial “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society” California Medicine , September 1970)
“No argument for abortion survives scientific, philosophical, or theological scrutiny.” (Michael J. Knowles)
“Any woman who has felt a baby stir inside her [and] any man who has seen the tiny heart pulsing on an ultrasound screen, knows that abortion is about ending a life.” (Karen Kissane)
“For abortion opponents believe that a class of persons are being killed by such methods as dismemberment, suffocation, and burning, and thus are more than perplexed to be told that they don’t have to participate in the killings if they don’t want to. Saying ‘If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one.’ to those opposed to abortion is similar to telling abolitionists not to own slaves if they don’t like slavery.” (Francis J. Beckwith)
“We think abortion is a bad thing.” (Kate Michelman, Executive Director of NARAL, in a 1993 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. By the way, Michelman complained she was misquoted, until she was reminded that the interview had been taped.)
“Despite frequently mocking anti-abortion activists as anti-science know-nothings, abortion rights absolutists are the ones who play fast and loose with the facts of abortion.” (Kirsten Powers)
“Abortion is the only surgery for which the surgeon is not obligated to inform the patient of the possible risks of the procedure, or even the exact nature of the procedure. Indeed, abortion providers are the only medical personnel who have a ‘constitutional right’ to withhold information, even when directly questioned by the patient.” (David Reardon)
“More than four thousand innocent lives are taken each day in this land of the free and home of the brave, whose lady holds high the torch of welcome to human life.” (Fr. John Powell)
“How much a society values its children can be measured by how well their children are treated.” (The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect)
“I am here to urge you: Do not, in the name of progress for disabled people, certify or justify the destructive harvesting of human embryos for stem cell research, a practice both immoral and unnecessary. While disabled people are interested in cures, as well as better tools for living, greater inclusion in society and other possibilities which will improve our quality of life, we are not so desperate for cures that moral considerations disappear.” (Mary Jane Owens, Executive Director, National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities)
“The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right — it is the very opposite. It is a deep wound in society.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
“The solution [to a crisis pregnancy] is not to kill the innocent baby but to deal with the mother’s values and her attitudes toward life.” (Jesse Jackson, 1977 March for Life, Washington, DC)
“Rather than dull our consciences to the unmitigated violence of abortion, the passage of time has only enabled us to see and, frankly, better understand the innate cruelty of abortion and its horrific legacy – victims — while making us more determined than ever to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable.” (Congressman Chris Smith)
“So what will it be: Wanted fetuses are charming, complex, REM-dreaming little beings whose profile on the sonogram looks just like Daddy, but unwanted ones are mere “uterine material”? How can we charge that it is vile and repulsive for pro-lifers to brandish vile and repulsive images if the images are real? To insist that the truth is in poor taste is the very height of hypocrisy. Besides, if these images are often the facts of the matter, and if we then claim that it is offensive for pro-choice women to be confronted by them, then we are making the judgment that women are too inherently weak to face a truth about which they have to make a grave decision. This view of women is unworthy of feminism. Free women must be strong women, too; and strong women, presumably, do not seek to cloak their most important decisions in euphemism.” (Pro-choice feminist Naomi Wolfe)
“Life is sacred to me on all levels. Abortion does not compute with my philosophy.” (Actress Kate Mulgrew)
“The life of the unborn is of equal value to the life of the mother, and any law that disregards this is unjust and must be opposed.” (Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, physician & bioethicist)
“Abortion interferes with God’s plan — a plan He willed before He created the universe. Abortion is in violation of God-given life.” (Rev. Dr. Richard Halverson)
“All that was necessary to prohibit an abortion [in the Bible] was the command, ‘You shall not murder.’ Every Israelite knew that the preborn child was a child. So do we, if we are honest. We all know a pregnant woman is ‘carrying a child.’” (Randy Alcorn)
“Only half the patients who go into an abortion clinic come out alive.” (Anonymous)
“Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby’s life is never willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger.” (Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop)
“Our Lord healed the sick, raised Lazaurs from the dead, gave back sanity to the deranged, but never did He practice or envisage killing as part of the mercy that held possession of His heart.” (Malcolm Muggeridge)
“I assure you, as often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me.” (Matthew 25:45)
“If a physician presumes to take into consideration in his work whether life has value or not, the consequences are boundless and the physician becomes the most dangerous man in the state.” (Dr. Christoph Hufeland, Germany, 1762-1836)
“No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!” (Pioneer feminist Susan B. Anthony)
“Take My Hand, Not My Life” (Massachusetts Citizens for Life)
“Many feminists insist that abortion is necessary for women to participate freely and equally in society. Anyone who disagrees, they argue, has merely adopted patriarchal standards and accepted women’s ‘place’ in society. Yet this argument demonstrates how deeply the roots of sexism run in our culture. Its premise is a sexist one — that women are inferior to men and that in order to be equal, we have to change our biology to become like men — wombless and unpregnant at will. What other oppressed group in history has had to undergo surgery in order to be equal?” (Marilyn Dickstein Kopp)
“Abortion and racism are evil twins, born of the same lie. Where racism now hides its face in public, abortion is accomplishing the goals of which racism only once dreamed. Together, abortionists are destroying humanity at large and the black community in particular.” (Alveda King)
“There’s a twisted perception that abortion fosters the empowerment of women. And then there’s the barefaced reality that abortion hurts women. The former receives tiresome, exaggerated, and over-covered attention that portrays pro-life men as the culprits. The latter is real-life, heartbreaking, rarely catches the media’s attention, and is opposed largely, by women.” (Chelsen Vicari)
“It is no more reasonable to destroy a child by abortion because it could not live if suddenly delivered than to drown a non-swimmer in a bathtub because he could not live if thrown into the middle of the ocean.” (Dr. Harold O.J. Brown)
“State officials must know that we are serious about stopping abortion, which is a matter of clear principle concerning the babies themselves and concerning a high view of human life.” (Dr. Francis Schaeffer)
“Though woman who choose to abort may be ignoring God’s moral standard in the moment, they rarely escape the lifelong guilt and heartache that results from their tragic choice. They have been designed by God as nurturers (cf. 1 Tim. 2:15; Tit. 2:4); they have God’s law written on their conscience (cf. Rom. 2:14-15); and they have often been manipulated into their decision by others (perhaps a boyfriend or husband). As a result, they are often scared by feelings of regret and shame even if they do not know the Lord (cf. Psalm 32:3-4). (Bill Shannon)
“There is no cause more important for preserving freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.” (Ronald Reagan)
The modern eugenicist’s philosophy “is an ethic that inevitably leads to a totalitarian mentality that seeks to create a utopian Brave New World by controlling who is allowed to be born into the world and how quickly the sick and ‘unfit’ are targeted to leave the world.” (Dr. David Reardon)
“America, your very future as a nation depends on your willingness to protect the Right to Life of the most of the most defenseless in your society.” (Pope John Paul II)
“If we take any living member of the species homo sapiens and put them outside the realm of legal protection, we undercut the case against discrimination for everyone else. The basis for equal treatment under the law is that being a member of the species is sufficient to be a member of the human community, without consideration for race, gender, disability, age, stage of development, state of dependency, place of residence or amount of property ownership. Abortion dynamites the foundation of feminism, and poisons the well against civil rights for African Americans, the elderly, the disabled, and others.” (Feminists for Life)
“The Scriptures tell us that humans are made ‘in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:27). Because we are made in His likeness, we have a tremendous capacity to participate in God’s ongoing work of creation by imagining, inventing, building, farming and a million other creative expressions. Best of all, He invites us to marry and receive the gift of children also formed in God’s image.” (Kurt Bruner)
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7)
“I frankly don’t care if you agree with my stand on abortion. I take that stand because no other stand is consistent with decent principles, and no other standard is consistent with the will of God.” (Alan Keyes)
“In the Bible the word ‘child’ or ‘babe’ is significant. The Greek word used for the pre-born is the same as the born. God does not distinguish the soul of the pre-born from the soul of one who has been born. God sees both as souls (children) who He has created.” (Paul Chappell)
“I cannot even conceive how a mother could think of a baby as an enemy. Whether that baby was a product of rape, or whether that baby was in some way malformed, how that woman could think that child in her was an enemy when she has been given the God-given privilege of protecting that little life with all of its weaknesses. Certainly that’s not natural instinct to a mother. She would have to be sold that by a culture that had become decadent.” (Rev. John MacArthur)