In a short 27 days, Missourians will head to the polls for the midterm elections. On the ballot will be Amendment 3 to make abortion more in line with the values of Missouri citizens.
In this column, I am going to refute an argument Democrats constantly use to promote abortion.
Abortion as healthcare
This argument goes back farther than you may think. According to the Planned Parenthood website, it dates back to a 1955 conference on the issue of abortion. To quote Planned Parenthood, “The doctors who attended the national conference on abortion made the bold move to publicly call for abortion law reform. Conference attendees said that laws should be rewritten to allow doctors greater latitude to provide abortion services, which would improve public health and access to reproductive health care for people of different economic circumstances.”
In a news release from Stop The Ban Missouri, retired chief justice Judge Mike Wolff says Amendment 3 will “keep doctors from providing basic essential medically necessary healthcare.”
Many Americans now believe that abortion care is health care.
To believe this fallacy, you have to hold the premise that pregnancy is an illness and abortion is the cure. I am the father of three children. Each one of those pregnancies was a blessing, not an illness that my wife had to endure.
The only instance where an abortion could be viewed as healthcare is when the life of the mother is at stake. But that is a gray area.
Advancements in medicine have made that choice obsolete. Everett Koop, M.D., former U.S. Surgeon General, said in 2012, “Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years in 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, he will take the child by inducing labor or performing a cesarean section. His intention is still to save the life of both the mother and the baby.”
In any case, Amendment 3 allows for an abortion to save the life of the mother. So, Stop the Ban supporters are using lies to scare voters.
On the other hand, there are many negative health effects from having an abortion. According to the Elliot Institute, “approximately 10 percent of women undergoing induced abortion suffer from immediate complications, of which one-fifth (two percent) were considered major.”
Interestingly, a 1997 government-funded study in Finland found that “women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year than women who carry their pregnancies to term.” The researchers also found that women who had an abortion were seven times more likely to die of suicide when compared to women who carried to term.
Two studies published in 2012 on Danish women found similar results.
Post-abort women also have an increased risk of cervical, ovarian and rectal cancer. Although it is rare, an abortion can cause uterine perforation.
Abortions include a risk of cervical damage, which is greater for teenagers and with second-trimester abortions.
Studies also indicate that abortions are associated with a higher likelihood of developing placenta previa in later pregnancies. This is a life-threatening condition for both the mother and the child in her womb. Chances for this increase with each abortion.
Increased chances of negative health do not stop there. There can also be emotional and mental effects from an abortion.
A website page, dated Dec. 2025 by the National Right to Life, says, “The International Journal of Women’s Health Care published a study by Paul Sullins of the Ruth Institute and the Catholic University of America. It provides strong statistical evidence that many women who obtain abortions experience emotional distress — even many years after the abortion took place.”
Links to the above websites can be found on our website.
Remember, abortion is not healthcare; in fact, abortion, many times, can jeopardize a woman’s life and health.
Vote yes on Amendment 3 to protect the life of Missouri’s children and the health of the mother.
