Dear Learned Colleague,

When a woman dies from complications of a botched abortion, it is a tragedy.  But the global abortion lobby insists that the only good alternative to an "unsafe" abortion is a "safe" abortion.  Abortion is never safe for the unborn child, and even legal abortions hurt women.  International agreements urge governments to provide women with alternatives to abortion.

This month's Definitions examines how the discourse at the UN has shifted from warning against the harms of "unsafe" abortion toward promoting "safe abortion to the full extent of the law," led by the World Health Organization and its shifting definition of "safety."

Sincerely,

Rebecca Oas, Ph.D.
Managing Editor

The often-repeated adage that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” popularized by U.S. President Bill Clinton, generally captures how the term “safe abortion” was once understood. Abortion is not a good thing. It should be avoided as much as possible. Since the Clinton era, though, abortion advocates have distanced themselves from the phrase, arguing that the word “rare” imparts stigma. Instead, they have increasingly worked to frame abortion as a good thing, and used the word “safe” as part of the push to establish abortion as an international right. Read More >>>