This is the continuation to http://www.progressiveu.org/052011-my-conversation-abortionno-org Well well well... I just checked my email and wow, they DID reply. In fact, they even signed their response. "They" are in fact "he", and "he" is not just some random person who looks through the survey responses and harrasses people who think abortion is okay. He is, in fact, the Director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. In other words, the guy who runs this whole thing. Interesting that he even bothered to send me an email in the first place. Anyway, this is his reply to my response: "Your argument isn’t with us regarding survival rates, it is with the government agency quoted by the NYT. Again and again you dispute the findings of peer-reviewed clinical studies published in the periodic literature of medicine. Please visit www.abortionbreastcancer.com and www.afterabortion.org and you will see studies and meta-analyses which refute your contentions. As for the issue of the personhood of the fetus, humanity is an indisputable attribute of embryonic and fetal life. It is recognized in teaching texts used in textbooks in medical schools everywhere. But personhood is a political status which society can grant or withhold arbitrarily. This denial of rights of personhood has victimized African Americans, Native Americans, European Jews, etc., etc. You are objectively when you say the studies on which we rely are incorrect without any evidence to support those claims. We have never said women don’t die from illegal abortions but we do say that the abortion industry has admitted to greatly exaggerating the numbers (i.e. Bernard Nathanson, “Aborting America”)." Notice how he basically ignored half the stuff I said? Sigh... This is what I responded with: "How is my argument not with you? You are the one claiming incorrect things, such as that viability generally begins at 21 weeks. Regarding the supposed link between breast cancer and abortion - abortionbreastcancer.com admits that the main reason for this "link" is because a completed pregnancy adds protection (as I said in the previous email). The page http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_canc2.htm explains why many of the studies that find a link between breast cancer and abortion are flawed (primarly because they are case-control studies, not cohort studies). The National Breast Cancer Coalition, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Insitute, and the World Health Organization, among many other prominent health organizations, all say there is no link between breast cancer and abortion. I did not explain precisely why each of your "facts" is incorrect because you did not ask me to. You simply sent me a demanding one liner telling me to state one fact. I stated several. Since you asked, though: The claim that abortion causes uterine damage is incorrect. Your source for that claim is from 1989 - almost 20 years ago. Abortion methods have changed significantly since then, and many are no longer performed surgically, thus there is no risk to the uterine wall at all. All your sources claiming that abortion causes future problems with pregnancy are over 20 years old - abortion methods have changed. Also, you're basing that claim off only three articles - do you even know the size of the studies? What type of studies they were? How accurate they were? Allow me to repeat: "According to the World Health Organization, botched abortions account for 13% of pregnancy-related deaths worldwide (65,000 girls and women per year). In Latin America, the percentage jumps to 21%. In Mexico, it's 31%. In Egypt, abortion-related problems are responsible for about one-fifth of all obstetric and gynecologic admissions. In some countries, women suffering from complications from botched abortions make up two thirds of patients in maternity wards." These numbers are NOT from "the abortion industry." Are you or are you not claiming that when abortion is illegal, more women DON'T die from it, and it's NOT an extremely dangerous procedure? You also claim that outlawing abortion would dramatically decrease its frequency. As I said in the previous email, this is completely untrue, and I explained why. If you are interested I can also provide you with studies that back this up. Also, you didn't reply to this bit: "Do you usually reply to survey comments? I was not expecting a response, let alone one in such a demanding tone." Although I certainly don't mind explaining my views further to you and explaining why I disagree so strongly with yours, I am a bit concerned about this apparent practice of responding to survey comments. If a woman responds to the survey and admits she's had an abortion and doesn't regret it, do you then email her and call her a murderer, or something of the like?" What're you guys thinking of this little debate, so far? :) If you like it so far, please give it a high rating! :)