Los Angeles Times Calls Killing Babies in Abortion “An Act of Self-Defense”

An Alaska cartoonist made the argument Monday that, even if unborn babies are valuable human beings, aborting them is an ethical form of “self-defense.”

Published in the Los Angeles Times, Holly Todd’s “op-ed comic” points to maternal mortality rates to make her claim. Through a series of cartoons, she argues that pregnancy is “dangerous” and deadly self-defense is culturally acceptable, therefore abortions must be ok.

“Anti-abortion advocates argue that an embryo should be accorded all the rights of a born human. Even if one accepts this argument, given the deadly risks, does a pregnant person not have a right to self-defense against someone threatening their safety?” Todd asks in a cartoon depiction of a pregnant mother.

“U.S. culture has long accepted self-defense as a valid reason to use deadly force. Fetishized it, even,” she continues in another comic showing people carrying guns.

Her argument seems to make sense initially, but abortion data and a bit of reflection quickly expose its flaws.

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The unborn baby is not trying to kill the mother, nor is it intruding on her body, as is the case in situations involving self defense. The natural habitat for an unborn baby to begin life and develop is in its mother’s womb. And in nearly all abortion cases, the mother made a choice to have sex with the knowledge that the act can lead to the creation of a child’s life, a child for whom she and the father are responsible.

Todd’s claims about the risks of pregnancy and maternal mortality do not support her pro-abortion argument either.

She says pregnancy is “dangerous” and abortions are needed to protect women’s lives, but statistics show nearly all unborn babies are aborted for elective reasons. A 2022 study of state abortion data by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found only 0.2 percent of abortions were done because of risks to the mother’s life or a major bodily function.

What’s more, in the United States, approximately 93 percent of OB-GYNs do not provide abortions, a strong indication that killing unborn babies is not life-saving health care.

Todd’s cartoon series points to maternal mortality rates to make the case for abortion, but this also is problematic.

“The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation, and is the only developed nation in which maternal mortality is rising,” she argues. “This danger will only worsen in a post-Roe vs. Wade America. The maternal mortality rate in states that have banned abortion is up to three times higher than in states that support abortion access.”

She specifically notes that for Black Americans, the maternal mortality rate is nearly three times that of white Americans. Interestingly, however, abortion activists like Todd never seem to link the facts that Black Americans have the highest maternal mortality rate and the highest abortion rate of any racial group in the U.S.

Legalizing abortion does not reduce maternal mortality; some studies suggest the opposite. And the current data about maternal mortality in the U.S. indicates nothing about abortion bans because it comes from the years when Roe forced every state to legalize abortion on demand up to viability. Under Roe, American abortion laws were among the most extreme in the world and its maternal mortality rates rose.

Meanwhile, in countries, such as Ireland and Malta, where unborn babies were or continue to be protected from abortion, maternal mortality rates are among the lowest in the world.

Last year, Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, a senior research associate at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame and a board-certified OB-GYN, told a U.S. House committee that legalized abortion does not help reduce maternal mortality. On the contrary, countries with pro-life laws have some of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, she said.

“… until recently in countries where abortion was criminalized and prohibited, I’m thinking particularly of Chile, Ireland and, I think, Cyprus had the lowest rates of maternal mortality in the world. For several years consecutively, Ireland had zero maternal mortality at a time when abortion was completely illegal,” Wubbenhorst said at the time.

The truth is that legalizing abortion does not protect lives, it destroys them. There have not been any reports of pregnant mothers dying because of pro-life laws in the year since the overturning of Roe. But there have been many reports about pro-life laws saving lives. In Texas alone, a new study by Johns Hopkins found that nearly 10,000 more babies were born after its heartbeat law went into effect in 2021. In the past year since the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, researchers believe tens of thousands more babies also have been saved.

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