No, Abortion is NOT Healthcare - Here's Why
VFL commentator Holly Anne explains why abortion is NOT healthcare…
One of the most frequent claims we, as pro-lifers hear, is that abortion is healthcare.
In order to understand the reasoning behind this, and therefore be equipped to tackle this argument, we need to first understand what healthcare is.
Healthcare is defined by Oxford Languages as “the organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community”. So under this simplified definition, abortion could to some extent be considered healthcare, if one disregards the result of the procedure and the humanity of the baby.
However, when one realises that an unborn baby is a human being, and that abortion terminates the life of that human being, one understands that abortion is certainly not healthcare.
This is further confirmed when we look at a more in-depth explanation of the purpose of healthcare from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement: “the fundamental purpose of health care is to enhance quality of life by enhancing health. Commercial businesses focus on creating financial profit to support their valuation and remain viable. Health care must focus on creating social profit to fulfill its promise to society”.
And so, as we look at this definition, we understand that the intrinsic purpose of healthcare is to sustain and enhance life.
Abortion is the intentional destruction of life, and so this cannot be considered healthcare as it goes against the foundational creed of enhancing and sustaining life.
Therefore, when reminded of the claim that abortion is healthcare, one can simply ask what the purpose of healthcare is, and then outline the reality of abortion.
So, what is abortion? Abortion is a medical procedure that, either through abortion pills or through an abortive surgery, ends the life of an unborn baby.
Therefore, abortion at a fundamental level directly contradicts the definition of healthcare.
And this is even without going into reasons such as the humanity of the baby, the inhumane reality of the abortive procedure, or the long-lasting and highly detrimental mental and emotional affect upon the mother.
In an excerpt from the ancient Hippocratic Oath, doctors swore the following to “keep [patients] from harm and injustice”.
One sees that a doctor’s (or other healthcare practitioner's) duty is not only to provide treatment, but also in so doing to protect their patient from medical harm or injustice.
This is why early doctors pledged to not practice or suggest abortion or euthanasia, as it was a violation of this duty to pursue justice and protect from harm:
“I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman and abortive remedy.”
Even in a more modern definition, the sanctity of life is recognised, and whilst abortion is not specifically mentioned, the duty to do the utmost to save life and protect from harm is clear:
“Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.”
This definition is interesting in that, whilst it doesn’t specifically go against abortion (or euthanasia for that matter) it does prioritise the sanctity of life and demands that all life be treated without a frivolous attitude.
Therefore, even though this modern definition technically allows for abortion, it cannot support the commonplace availability or cruelty of abortion.
Abortion is a medical procedure that, regardless of the motivations, causes deadly harm to the unborn baby and traumatising mental harm to the mother (at the least).
And so one sees that abortion just cannot be termed healthcare as the fundamental duty of healthcare practitioners is “to do no harm, and to keep from harm” [paraphrased].
The abortion procedures, both Chemical abortion (the pill) and Surgical Abortion are direct violations of the Hippocratic Oath.
It is not 'healthcare' to dismember a living baby or cause intentional, cruel, and deadly harm to an unborn child.
These Surgical Abortion procedures happen when the child is still alive and completely capable of feeling pain.
This cannot be healthcare.
Some people claim that Chemical Abortion is a more humane version of abortion; one that could fall under the terminology of healthcare. After all, it’s not an invasive procedure, the woman can take the pill at home, and the unborn baby doesn’t suffer...or so they say.
But the reality is that the abortion pill is just as inhumane as the surgical procedure; it just isn’t as blatent.
According to Live Action, “The Abortion pill regimen kills the preborn child by inhibiting the crucial hormone, progesterone, thus essentially starving the child to death.”
In addition to the cruelty exacted upon the unborn child, for the women “there have been thousands of cases of adverse effects reported from taking abortion pills, as well as numerous deaths.”
This is not healthcare.
This is a violent and inhumane violation of the sacred duty of the medical profession, and thus cannot be classified as a crucial aspect of a woman’s fundamental right to healthcare.
And so, when people tell you that abortion is healthcare, remember that: 1) healthcare is designed to sustain, enhance, and protect life; 2) doctors have the duty to ‘do no harm and to protect from harm’; 3) abortion intentionally causes deadly and irreparable harm to the unborn; 4) abortion causes mental and emotional harm to the mother; 5) abortion procedures are inhumane and violently cruel to unborn children and their mothers; 6) in light of all this, abortion is not, and cannot be, healthcare.
As we have seen, all language has connotations and a seemingly simply choice of words can convey two very different perspectives on abortion.
This is why we are pursuing the truth about abortion, and trying to share that with others.
Calling abortion healthcare may seem logical at first glance, but the fact is that it purely serves as a euphemism and a coverup for the disturbing reality that abortion kills, and kills in a cruelly inhumane way.
We need to continue to get these facts about abortion out to the public, so that the euphemisms can be replaced with the bare reality.
We need to remove the linguistic coverups and show people the truth.
And the more we give people the truth and equip them with the facts they need to fight the pro-abortion narrative, the more people’s minds will be changed and lives will be saved.
Watch this video to see an animated depiction of an abortion procedure:
