Worst myth list ever

Via Jill Stanek’s blog I read a couple of “abortion myth” lists on Ms. Magazine’s blog. My first thought was: Is Carole King (the author) in junior high? Or does she think her readers are in junior high?

These lists are hilarious on so many fronts. First, King never provides evidence that prolifers are creating each and every one of these "myths" or that these are "myths" that anyone believes. A lot of them are half-truths like “Abortions cause pain for the fetus” (some can, some can’t - where's the evidence showing prolifers saying all fetuses can feel pain).

One is an opinion. How can an opinion like “If a woman doesn’t want to have a child, she should use contraception or abstain” be a “myth?”

Some are completely true like “Women have multiple abortions rather than using birth control.” Now if the “myth” was “All women who have multiple abortions aren’t using birth control” then yes that would be untrue but there certainly are women who have multiple abortions who haven’t been using birth control.

Some are things that any thoughtful prolifer would never say like “Making abortion illegal will stop abortion.” Who would think that? Making abortion illegal would certainly reduce abortion and make abortions harder to get but I don’t know anyone who thinks making any activity illegal will completely stop that activity.

Others show how ridiculously ignorant King is. When refuting the myth “Adoption is an alternative to abortion,” King writes, “Furthermore, there are no guarantees that a child will be adopted. In the U.S. alone, there are currently 114,000 children in foster care who are eligible for adoption.” You basically have to know nothing about foster care adoption and the infant adoption and the demand for each to equate the two.