Quotes about abortion
page 3

Maddox photo
Alan Keyes photo
Stephen Harper photo

“They were in favour of gay rights officially, officially for abortion on demand… This explains one of the reasons why the Reform party has become such a power.”

Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada

1990s, Speech to the Council for National Policy (1997)

Konrad Heiden photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Nick Cave photo
Rush Limbaugh photo

“What do we have to do to make the women realize we don't hate 'em? Change our attitude on abortion? Where does this stuff stop?”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

My Response to Senator Graham's Rationale for Supporting Amnesty
The Rush Limbaugh Show
2013-06-18
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/06/18/my_response_to_senator_graham_s_rationale_for_supporting_amnesty

Alan Keyes photo
Helen Reddy photo
Rush Limbaugh photo

“The feminazis gathered in Washington on Sunday, about a half-million of them, it says here, and it was the first big pro-abortion rally in 12 years.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

2004: Limbaugh Referred To Abortion-Rights Activists As "Feminazis." On the April 26, 2004, broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh said of a rally in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2004 "Feminazi": The History Of Limbaugh's Trademark Slur Against Women https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2012/03/12/feminazi-the-history-of-limbaughs-trademark-slu/186336

Georg Brandes photo
Harry Browne photo

“Given the results of the government's War on Poverty and the War on Drugs, we can assume that a War on Abortion will lead within five years to men having abortions.”

Harry Browne (1933–2006) American politician and writer

" The Libertarian stand on abortion http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/Abortion.htm.
2000s

Ernst Bloch photo
Michael J. Sandel photo
Moby photo

“For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you're an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion.Then you go to an anti-immigration website chat room and ask, "What's all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?"”

Moby (1965) Activist, American musician, DJ and photographer

Quoted in "Punk the prez? Moby's anti-Bush tricks" by George Rush and Joanna Rush Molloy, New York Daily News (9 February 2004); for Moby's comment on this news item, see "today's daily news", journal entry (8 February 2004) at moby.com http://www.moby.com/journal/2004-02-09/todays_daily_news.html

Roger Ebert photo
Jacob M. Appel photo

“Much as we do not permit convicted pedophiles to teach kindergarten or convicted hijackers to board airplanes, common sense dictates that individuals who have been imprisoned for plotting violence against abortion clinics should never again be permitted anywhere near such facilities.”

Jacob M. Appel (1973) American author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social critic

"The Case for an Anti-Abortion Violence Registry," http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/the-case-for-an-anti-abor_b_222559.html The Huffington Post (2009-06-29)

Gwendolyn Brooks photo
Christopher Titus photo
Mary Eberstadt photo

“The sheer decibel level of unreason surrounding the issue of abortion in academic writing about animal rights tells us something interesting. It suggests that, contrary to what the utilitarians and feminists working this terrain wish, the dots between sympathy for animals and sympathy for unborn humans are in fact quite easy to connect—so easy, you might say, that a child could do it. … Since ethical vegetarianism as a practice appears commonly rooted in an a priori aversion to violence against living creatures, so does it often appear to begin in the young. … A sudden insight, igniting empathy on a scale that did not exist before and perhaps even a life-transforming realization—this reaction should indeed be thought through with care. It is not only the most commonly cited feature of the decision to become a vegetarian. It is also the most commonly cited denominator of what brings people to their convictions about the desperate need to protect unborn, innocent human life. … Despite those who act and write in their name, actual vegetarians and vegans are far more likely to be motivated by positive feelings for animals than by negative feelings for human beings. As a matter of theory, the line connecting the dots between “we should respect animal life” and “we should respect human life” is far straighter than the line connecting vegetarianism to antilife feminism or antihumanist utilitarianism.”

Mary Eberstadt American writer

"Pro-Animal, Pro-Life" https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/06/pro-animal-pro-life, in First Things (June 2009).

Ann Coulter photo
Gerald Ford photo
Jon Kyl photo

“You don't have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.”

Jon Kyl (1942) junior U.S. Senator from Arizona

Senate floor, 2011-04-08.
Jon Kyl Tweets Not Intended to Be Factual Statements
Colbert Nation
2011-04-15
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/381484/april-12-2011/jon-kyl-tweets-not-intended-to-be-factual-statements
2011-04-15.
According to Planned Parenthood, abortion makes up 3% of their health services http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/planned-parenthood-glance-5552.htm.

Aron Ra photo
William Lloyd Garrison photo
David Cross photo
Roy Jenkins photo
Thomas Flanagan (political scientist) photo
Ann Coulter photo
Peter Singer photo
Mike Rosen photo
Ann Coulter photo

“Gays have got to be pro-life. As soon as they find the gay gene, guess who the liberal yuppies are going to start aborting.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

Ann Coulter On A List: Dallas: ‘Liberal Yuppies’ Would Abort Gay Babies (December 8th, 2011) http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ann-coulter-on-a-list-dallas-liberal-yuppies-would-abort-gay-babies/.
2011

Rush Limbaugh photo

“I prefer to call the most obnoxious feminists what they really are: feminazis. Tom Hazlett, a good friend who is an esteemed and highly regarded professor of economics at the University of California at Davis, coined the term to describe any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges militant feminism. I often use it to describe women who are obsessed with perpetuating a modern-day holocaust: abortion. There are 1.5 million abortions a year, and some feminists almost seem to celebrate that figure. There are not many of them, but they deserve to be called feminazis.A feminazi is a woman to whom the most important thing in life is seeing to it that as many abortions as possible are performed. Their unspoken reasoning is quite simple. Abortion is the single greatest avenue for militant women to exercise their quest for power and advance their belief that men aren't necessary. They don't need men in order to be happy. They certainly don't want males to be able to exercise any control over them. Abortion is the ultimate symbol of women's emancipation from the power and influence of men. With men being precluded from the ultimate decision-making process regarding the future of life in the womb, they are reduced to their proper, inferior role. Nothing matters but me, says the feminazi. My concerns prevail over all else. The fetus doesn't matter, it's an unviable tissue mass.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

[The Way Things Ought to Be, Pocket Books, October 1992, 193, 978-0671751456, 92028659, 26397008, 1724938M]

Ray Comfort photo
Roger Ebert photo

“I support freedom of choice. My choice is to not support abortion, except in cases of a clear-cut choice between the lives of the mother and child. A child conceived through incest or rape is innocent and deserves the right to be born.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

"How I am a Roman Catholic" http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/how-i-am-a-roman-catholic Roger Ebert's Journal (1 March 2013)

Ellen Willis photo

“The goal of the right is not to stop abortion but to demonize it, punish it and make it as difficult and traumatic as possible. All this it has accomplished fairly well, even without overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Ellen Willis (1941–2006) writer, activist

"Escape from Freedom," Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, Vol 1, No 2 (2006)

Ann Coulter photo

“Like the Democrats, Playboy just wants to liberate women to behave like pigs, have sex without consequences, prance about naked, and abort children.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

2004, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) (2004)

Lewis Black photo
Sarah Silverman photo
Todd Akin photo

“You find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other law-breaking: not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who are not actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things, misuse of anesthetics so that people die or almost die. All of these things are common practice, and all of that information is available for America.”

Todd Akin (1947) American politician

House of Representatives session http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4001030, , quoted in * 2012-10-02
New Todd Akin Videos Reveal His Dystopian Nightmare Vision of America
Amanda
Marcotte
XX Factor
Slate
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/02/todd_akin_videos_cspan_clips_reveal_the_missouri_candiate_s_paranoia_about_abortion_and_stem_cell_research_.html

Samantha Bee photo
Aron Ra photo

“As a moral guide, [the Bible] utterly fails, because much of the original Hebrew scriptures were written by ignorant and bigoted savages who condoned and promoted animal cruelty, incest, slavery, abuse of slaves, spousal abuse, child abuse, child molestation, abortion, pillage, murder, cannibalism, genocide, and prejudice against race, nationality, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

"2nd Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFrkjEgUDZA&list=PL126AFB53A6F002CC&index=2, Youtube (November 24, 2007)
Youtube, Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism

Alan Keyes photo

“How does it secure the blessings of liberty to our posterity, to those generations yet unborn, to kill them, aborting them in the womb?”

Alan Keyes (1950) American politician

Virginia high school appearance, February 28, 2000. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/00_02_28virginia.htm.
2000

Ann Coulter photo

“While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- which one assumes would exclude the forced abortions, imprisonment for homosexuals and forced labor”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI
2005-12-30
Real Clear Politics
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_30_05_AC.html
2005

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Jesse Ventura photo

“The way to stop abortion is to deal, philosophically and spiritually, with the people who get them. And that's not something government can touch.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

I Ain't Got Time To Bleed (1999)
Context: I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again. What criminalization will do is force women into garages and back alleys, and then you're going to have two lives in jeopardy. My mom, who was a nurse, used to talk about the messes that would come in after back-alley abortions went wrong. The way to stop abortion is to deal, philosophically and spiritually, with the people who get them. And that's not something government can touch.

Jesse Ventura photo

“I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

I Ain't Got Time To Bleed (1999)
Context: I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again. What criminalization will do is force women into garages and back alleys, and then you're going to have two lives in jeopardy. My mom, who was a nurse, used to talk about the messes that would come in after back-alley abortions went wrong. The way to stop abortion is to deal, philosophically and spiritually, with the people who get them. And that's not something government can touch.

David Hume photo

“The whole presents nothing but the idea of a blind Nature, impregnated by a great vivifying principle, and pouring forth from her lap, without discernment or parental care, her maimed and abortive children!”

Philo to Cleanthes, Part XI
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)
Context: Look round this universe. What an immense profusion of beings, animated and organised, sensible and active! You admire this prodigious variety and fecundity. But inspect a little more narrowly these living existences, the only beings worth regarding. How hostile and destructive to each other! How insufficient all of them for their own happiness! How contemptible or odious to the spectator! The whole presents nothing but the idea of a blind Nature, impregnated by a great vivifying principle, and pouring forth from her lap, without discernment or parental care, her maimed and abortive children!

Pope John Paul II photo
Charles Stross photo

“We’re up the highway from Colorado Springs. The holy rollers are big in Colorado. Mostly they’re harmless, ’long as you’re not a young woman in search of an abortion.”

Source: The Laundry Files, The Apocalypse Codex (2012), Chapter 10, “Things To Do in Denver When You’re Doomed” (pp. 182-183)

Angela Davis photo

“Birth control - individual choice, safe contraceptive methods, as well as abortions when necessary - is a fundamental prerequisite for the emancipation of women.”

Angela Davis (1944) American political activist, scholar, and author

Source: Women, Race and Class (1983), Chapter 12, "Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights"

Jon Kyl photo

“His remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, a organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions.”

Jon Kyl (1942) junior U.S. Senator from Arizona

Statement from Jon Kyl's office to CNN, regarding his 2011-04-08 statement in the Senate that abortion is "well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does"
Kyl Walks Back Planned Parenthood Claim: It ‘Was Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement’
2011-04-08
ThinkProgress
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/08/kyl-walks-back-claim-about-planned-parenthoo/
2011-04-15

Larry Craig photo
Mike Huckabee photo
Doug Stanhope photo
Samuel Alito photo
Richard Dawkins photo

“Our ethics and our politics assume, largely without question or serious discussion, that the division between human and 'animal' is absolute. 'Pro-life', to take just one example, is a potent political badge, associated with a gamut of ethical issues such as opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
What it really means is pro-human-life. Abortion clinic bombers are not known for their veganism, nor do Roman Catholics show any particular reluctance to have their suffering pets 'put to sleep'. In the minds of many confused people, a single-celled human zygote, which has no nerves and cannot suffer, is infinitely sacred, simply because it is 'human.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

No other cells enjoy this exalted status.
But such 'essentialism' is deeply un-evolutionary. If there were a heaven in which all the animals who ever lived could frolic, we would find an interbreeding continuum between every species and every other. For example I could interbreed with a female who could interbreed with a male who could ... fill in a few gaps, probably not very many in this case ... who could interbreed with a chimpanzee.
We could construct longer, but still unbroken chains of interbreeding individuals to connect a human with a warthog, a kangaroo, a catfish. This is not a matter of speculative conjecture; it necessarily follows from the fact of evolution.
A successful hybridisation between a human and a chimpanzee. Even if the hybrid were infertile like a mule, the shock waves that would be sent through society would be salutary. This is why a distinguished biologist described this possibility as the most immoral scientific experiment he could imagine: it would change everything! It cannot be ruled out as impossible, but it would be surprising.
Richard Dawkins Chimpanzee Hybrid? The Guardian, Jan 2009 https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/jan/02/richard-dawkins-chimpanzee-hybrid?commentpage=2

Gough Whitlam photo

“Let me make quite clear that I am for abortion and, in your case sir, we should make it retrospective.”

Gough Whitlam (1916–2014) Australian politician, 21st Prime Minister of Australia

After being heckled by a voter during a campaign trail.
Source: [Gough Whitlam dead: His memorable quotes, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019, https://www.smh.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-dead-his-memorable-quotes-20141021-1193jd.html, Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au, Murphy, D]
Source: [Gough Whitlam remembered for his quick wit, Mills, D; Rajca, J, news.com.au, News Corp Australia Network, https://www.news.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-remembered-for-his-quick-wit-and-that-tv-ad-for-leggos-pasta-sauce/news-story/007e66ff548bffb6b48cea049c16ff85, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019]

Dennis Prager photo

“I'm pro-choice, but I believe that most abortions are immoral. I take the nuanced middle ground.”

Dennis Prager (1948) American writer, speaker, radio and TV commentator, theologian

1990s

Tony Abbott photo

“I guess in the end I'm a bit like Bill Clinton on this matter, who said that he thought [abortion] should be safe, legal and rare. And I underline 'rare'.”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

Stated in interview: "The Contender". 60 Minutes. ninemsn.com.au. 5 March 2010 http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1020354.
Leader of the Opposition (2009-2015)

“Brands have to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to diversity…Don’t hire a black woman or a trans woman or a disabled woman and then get cross if they have opinions about their colour or their gender or their disability. The danger is if you’re hired just to be pretty but then you start having opinions about abortion, then you’re gonna get dropped. And of course you should be able to do both.”

Juno Dawson (1981) British youth fiction author

On hiring and diversity in “Juno Dawson on the darker side of fashion in Meat Market and why 'people have a snippy vibe about Young Adult fiction'” https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/juno-dawson-meat-market-interview-new-book-release-635361 in i Newsletter (2019 Aug 3)

Maxine Waters photo

“I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”

Maxine Waters (1938) U.S. Representative from California

mentioned 3 May 2004 by Tucker Carlson on CNN crossfire http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/03/cf.00.html
2000s

“Abortion is never the answer.”

Obianuju Ekeocha (1979) Nigerian biomedical scientist
Jimmy Wales photo

“Should there be competing articles, so that you would have the Catholic article on abortion, the evangelical Christian version, and the Planned Parenthood version.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

Source: Reminiscing in Jimmy Wales: “Wikipedia is from a different era” https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2021/01/jimmy-wales-wikipedia-different-era" (January 14, 2021)

Phill Kline photo

“Catholic doctrine strongly opposes abortion since man was made by God in His image, and blessed him above all other creature. Human life is the Father's most precious gift, valued and full of dignity.”

Michael Michai Kitbunchu (1929) Catholic cardinal

Source: Catholics and Buddhists together against the legalisation of abortion https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Catholics-and-Buddhists-together-against-the-legalisation-of-abortion-7620.html (30 October 2006)

Laurence Tribe photo

“Forgiveness of the sin of abortion does not mean the Church condones abortion, neither does it minimise its grave effects.”

Smaragde Mbonyintege (1947) Rwandan Catholic bishop (born 1947)

Source: Catholic Church maintains its stand on abortion, says Bishop Mbonyintege https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/192233 (5 September 2015)

Eminem photo
Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo

“[L]egal challenges to undue restrictions on abortion procedures do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather, they center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Dissenting, Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007). As quoted in: Louise Melling (Deputy Legal Director and Director of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty, ACLU) (September 23, 2020): For Justice Ginsburg, Abortion Was About Equality. In: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20220527144342/https://www.aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/for-justice-ginsburg-abortion-was-about-equality from the original https://www.aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/for-justice-ginsburg-abortion-was-about-equality on May 27, 2022.
2000s

Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo

“Abortion prohibition by the State, however, controls women and denies them full autonomy and full equality with men. That was the idea I tried to express in the lecture to which you referred.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

When Sen. Hank Brown (R-CO) asked about her remarks during her 1993 Senate confirmation hearing about the above quoted lecture, Ginsburg clarified her stance with the quoted sentences. As quoted in: Olivia Waxman (August 2, 2018): Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wishes This Case Had Legalized Abortion Instead of Roe v. Wade. In: Time Magazine. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20220527151841/https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/ from the original https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/ on May 27, 2022.
1990s

Cecile Richards photo

“Support for abortion rights and legal abortion has actually increased over the years. And women have continued to access abortion services at pretty much the same rate.”

Cecile Richards (1958) American feminist and abortion rights activist

Cecile Richards on Roe v. Wade Overturn: "This Is About Maintaining Political Power" https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a39916765/cecile-richards-on-roe-v-wade-overturn-supreme-court/ (PUBLISHED: MAY 5, 2022)

Joe Biden photo

“The idea that we're going to make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child, based on a decision by the Supreme Court, I think goes way overboard”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Biden reacts to leaked draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-reacts-leaked-draft-supreme-court-opinion-abortion/story?id=84467397
2022, May 2022

“One of the things that we need to take from this moment is that this isn’t just about abortion and it’s not going to end with abortion. But if we are going to register any kind of objections, we need a functioning, healthy democracy. And that’s the first thing that they have disrupted.”

Melissa Murray (1975) American professor of law

"Why Roe Was Never Enough—and What Comes Next" https://msmagazine.com/2022/05/03/roe-v-wade-abortion-democracy-voting-rights-history/, Ms. magazine (May 3, 2022)

Michael Francis Burbidge photo

“The stance against abortion is the pre-eminent priority. How could it not be? We have to get it right from the beginning. Our stance on life, that is our pre-eminent priority. We have to fight against this evil.”

Michael Francis Burbidge (1957) American Catholic bishop

The Walk Humbly Podcast - Episode 39: Protecting children online, priority of abortion, homelessness pilot project, and more! https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/bishop/walk-humbly-podcast/the-walk-humbly-podcast---episode-39/ (18 November 2019)