70 Abortion Quotes from Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Activists (2022)

The political issue of abortion has divided the world for many decades. The abortion quotes below will inform you of the thoughts and opinions behind the views of each side.

What is your opinion on abortion?

One side, those who are pro-life, believe that abortion should be illegal, and often believe that it should be a criminal offense.

The other side, those who are pro-choice, believe that legal abortion is a right and women should be able to choose which decision is right for them.

No matter what side you are on, the below quotes will shed some light on the mindset of each side.

Below are thought-provoking abortion quotes from prominent figures on both sides that are bound to start a conversation.

We also have a collection of comforting quotes about miscarriage for those who have been through it. Don’t forget to also read those.

Abortion quotes from pro-life activists

1. “I believe that life is valuable, even when it is unwanted, even when it is physically imperfect. I believe our society has a responsibility to defend the vulnerable and the weak. And I believe our nation should set a goal that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.” – George W. Bush

2. “Pro-life includes improving life after birth.” – Mike Huckabee

3. “Life is a civil right. Abortion is a civil wrong.”― Alveda C. King

4. “We are here simply to decide whether Congress should take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund the destruction of human embryos for research.” – Mike Pence

5. “I’m a pro-life candidate because I believe that science is proving us right every day.” – Carly Fiorina

6. “We are not at the same place we were in 1973. This country today is drifting, moving steadily towards the pro-life position because the data is with us.” – Randall Terry

7. “I’m proud of the fact that the Republican Party is the pro-life party on the issue of life.” – Marco Rubio

8. “As you know, it’s so important that we always embrace the sanctity of life. One way to do that is to vote pro-life in every election.” – Alveda King

9. “If we are going to change this country’s laws, we need to have pro-life members of both parties.” – Dan Lipinski

10. “Let me be clear: since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.” – Karen Handel

11. “I’m pro-life. I believe in life at conception.” – Darryl Glenn

12. “The Republicans have long had a platform of being pro-life. And I’m someone that believes life begins at conception and should be protected.” – Cathy McMorris Rodgers

13. “If you’re a person of faith that is conservative, that’s pro-life, as I am, that believes strongly in traditional family values, as I do… then how we talk about them matters.” – Kevin Cramer

14. “The notion that those of us that are pro-life because we love children – is that so terrible? Really? Is that so terrible?” – Ken Cuccinelli

15. “I’ve noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.” – Ronald Reagan (see more Ronald Reagan quotes)

16. “I do not believe in abortion at will. I do not believe that if a woman just wants to have an abortion she should. I do believe if you have an abortion you are committing murder.” – Nancy Reagan

17. “Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.” – Potter Stewart

18. “Yet, this can never really be true that an abortion is a right. Our rights come from God and amongst them is the inherent right to life — not the right to destroy it.” – Sam Brownback

19. “Stopping abortion is the most important human rights cause on earth.” – Chris Smith

Abortion quotes from pro-choice activists

20. “I am pro-life, but because life is complicated, that choice is between a woman and her idea of a higher power.” – Meghan McCain

21. “We’re always going to argue about abortion. It’s a hard choice and it’s controversial, and that’s why I’m pro-choice because I want people to make their own choices.” – Hillary Clinton

22. “On behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America – and our one million member activists – I am honored to be here to talk to you about what’s at stake for women in 2012. I am proud to say that the Democratic Party believes that women have the right to choose a safe, legal abortion with dignity and privacy.” – Nancy Keenan

23. “As a member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus and a strong defender of a woman’s right to choose, my bottom line here is this: women have a constitutional right to access abortion.” – Seth Moulton

24. “We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children.” – Joycelyn Elders

25. “If we lived in a culture that valued women’s autonomy and in which men and women practiced cooperative birth control, the abortion issue would be moot.” – Christiane Northrup

26. “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwanted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision to bear or beget a child.” – William Brennan

27. “I have met thousands and thousands of pro-choice men and women. I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is not being pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is trusting the individual to make the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard.” – Hillary Clinton

28. “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. Abortion is profamily, prolife, moral, and good. For many millions of women, abortion has meant getting on with their lives and continuing to meet their responsibilities to themselves, their families, and society.” – Patricia W. Lenneborg

Abortion quotes about women’s rights

29. “No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.” – Margaret Sanger

30. “The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

31. “Gender equality’s more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” – Kofi Annan (see more quotes by Kofi Annan)

32. “Achieving gender equality requires the engagement of women and men, girls and boys. It is everyone’s responsibility.” – Ban Ki-Moon

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of engagement quotes about the power of commitment and love.

33. “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.” – B.R. Ambedkar

34. “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” – Susan B. Anthony

35. “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

36. “Women are leaders everywhere you look—from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.” – Nancy Pelosi
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of Nancy Pelosi quotes from America’s most powerful woman.

37. “Women must learn to play the game as men do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

38. “No woman should be told she can’t make decisions about her own body. When women’s rights are under attack, we fight back.” – Kamala Harris

39. “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” – Hillary Clinton

Abortion quotes about conservative values

40. “Conservatism has always been about reforming government and solving problems.” – Marco Rubio

41. “Our shared conservative values, our belief in the individual is the great hope of our nation.” – Rick Perry

42. “Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”― Dwight D. Eisenhower

43. “There is nothing wrong with describing Conservatism as protecting the Constitution, protecting all things that limit government. Government is the enemy of liberty. Government should be very restrained.” – Ron Paul

44. “Conservatism has had from its inception vigorously positive, intellectually rigorous agenda and thinking. That agenda should have in my three pillars: strengthen the economy, strengthen our security, and strengthen our families.” – Mitt Romney

45. “What I have been talking about for many years is opportunity conservatism, that every policy should focus like a laser on easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder.” – Ted Cruz

46. “The future of Conservatism lies in our beliefs and values, not by throwing them away. We need to shed associations that bind us to past failures, but hold faith with those things that make us Conservatives.” – Ian Duncan Smith

47. “Conservatism is a hard choice for a society that has become accustomed to big government and big entitlements promoted by liberals.” – Jesse Helms

48. “Conservatism cherishes tradition; innovation fetishizes novelty. They tug in different directions, the one toward the past, the other toward the future.” – Jill Lepore

49. “Now make no mistake, I think we need a strong dose of fiscal conservatism in Washington, D.C.” – Kristi Noem

50. “I want the American people to understand that conservatism is an ideology of protecting the people and the people’s rights.” – Jonathan Krohn

More abortion quotes and sayings

51. “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” – Mother Theresa

52. “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.” – Margaret Sanger

53. “I certainly supported a woman’s right to choose, but to my mind the time to choose was before, not after the fact.” – Ann B. Ross

54. “When we consider that women are treated as property it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

55. “One of our most serious challenges is that we mature sexually way before we do mentally. And what’s worse is that mental maturity is not even guaranteed.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

56. “I think abortion is something you’re supposed to do before you get pregnant.” – Dmitry Dyatlov

57. “To be unwanted is not to be unworthy, is not to be worthless. Because unwanted, the unborn child does not deserve death.” – Paul Marx

58. “If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is necessary. However, if the unborn is a human person, no justification for abortion is adequate.” – Greg Kouki

59. “Anyone who celebrates or endorses abortion but then pretends to recoil at any other form of murder is lying.” – Matt Walsh

60. “If a womb had a window, the world would sit up and take notice.” – ALLENE VANOIRSCHOT

Eye-opening abortion quotes to ruminate on

61. “It’s the mark of a backward society – or a society moving backward – when decisions are made for women by men.” ― Melinda Gates

62. “Some people have made some mistakes … and some mistakes have made some people.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

63. “The abortion debate is more about power and control than the fate of a zygote.” ― Thor Benson

64. “Anti-abortion activists often make exceptions for rape and incest, which suggests that it is her desire for sex for which a woman must pay with her pain.” ― Naomi Klein

65. “There’s no way to win. You’re a monster if you get an abortion, a slut if you had sex, a moron if you decide to keep the baby.” ― Sharon Biggs Waller

66. “Governments who manipulate population growth have two choices: making maternity pleasant, or making it inescapable.” ― Kate Millett

67. “Killing somebody who has no voice because it disrupts your plan of comfort is inhumane. Either you’re born as a pro-life or you’re not, it’s not something you choose.” ― Sarvesh Jain

68. “Just as the unwanted pregnancy, there are unwanted people in your life you should strive to abort, and such abortion is not sin, nor harm, but the eradication of a destructive fetus.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

69. “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.” ― Mother Teresa

70. “Abortion is an atrocity. Those who practice or praise it are either damn idiots, misguided fools, or treacherous devils.” ― Christopher Titus

What is your view on women’s rights?

In the discussion surrounding abortion, finding a “right” answer can be next to impossible. It completely depends on what you believe is right. No matter how abortion rights progress in the future, the discourse surrounding the topic will remain conflicting.

It is important to continue discussing the issue of abortion rights, and women’s rights in general. Remain open to hearing out each viewpoint and do your best to refrain from judgment.

How do you feel about abortion rights? Is there an abortion quote or saying listed above that was thought-provoking for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.