Clarke D. Forsythe

About the author: Clarke D. Forsythe is the attorney and president of Americans United for Life in Chicago.

Most Americans regard legal abortion as an evil that is "necessary" to prevent dangerous back-alley abortions that kill or injure women. This belief is based solely on myth. In reality, back-alley abortions were never common, nor are legal abortions entirely safe. The assertion that abortion is a "necessary evil" is a means by which the pro-choice movement soothes society's moral qualms about a procedure that is clearly wrong.

Twenty-six years after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, the public debate on abortion seems to have reached a stalemate. The issue continues to be debated in Congress and state legislatures across the country, but, year to year, there seems to be...