In the last couple days, Virginia Del. Bob Marshall has come under fire for specific assertions, as reported by the News-Leader in print and audio, that women who had abortions were punished by God with subsequent children who were disabled.  Marshall stated, “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

This is not the first time that Marshall has suggested that women who have abortions will face complications in later pregnancies.  In his 1991 book “Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood,” Marshall suggested that, despite studies indicating otherwise, when a woman has an abortion it increases the likelihood that subsequent pregnancies will result in complications.  Marshall sets up a straw man using a American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) white paper on the safety of legal abortions that details a 1989 study conducted by Planned Parenthood that found, “there was no loss of fertility” in the women who received the 170,000 abortions they examined in the study.  Marshall disagreed, stating, “This is an interesting assertion,” since the study failed to follow up with all 170,000 women initially examined.  Marshall further claims that:

Planned Parenthood’s follow-up procedures are limited to immediate or short-term postabortion [sic] complications, and they do not include verifying postabortion childbearing capabilities,  Moreover, a majority of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clients accept contraception that is offered as part of the abortion service.  How was their return to fertility verified?

…Did the “no loss of fertility” simply mean the return of menstruation or did it mean successful childbirth?  [Blessed are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood, Robert G. Marshall, p. 199-200, 1991]

For Marshall now to claim that he was taken out of context appears disingenuous at best given the fact that while he hadn’t spelled it out before, Marshall has for years suggested that abortions lead to future pregnancy complications.

There’s a petition urging Marshall to resign which you can sign here.

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