By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper

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WESTON | In a private session with priests and deacons, former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino cited some myths about abortion, and corresponding ways to rebut them.

• It’s not a baby, just a blob of cells: That argument doesn’t get used much anymore, primarily because “there was a time when we were all balls of cells,” Levatino said. Also, “women don’t even know they’re pregnant at that stage.” The baby’s heart starts beating 28 days after conception, which takes place around two weeks before the first missed period.

• Abortion is safer than childbirth: Any abortion after 16 to 18 weeks of pregnancy is more dangerous than childbirth, he said, using as proof the language in the consent form patients must sign at a New Mexico clinic that performs second trimester and late-term abortions.

• Abortion is cheap: He used to charge $800 for a second-trimester abortion. He cited material from Live Action, an undercover pro-life group, where a woman is told that a late-term abortion will take about a week and cost, at minimum, $10,000. “For $10,000 cash, she gets to labor alone in a hotel room and drop her dead son or daughter into a toilet,” Levatino said.

• Late-term abortions are necessary to save women’s lives: “Sometimes pregnancy will kill you. It is true,” he said. But “late-term abortion is worthless to save women’s lives. It’s dangerous. It takes days to prepare. If she’s really, truly sick, you don’t have the time.” The way to save the woman’s life in those situations is by delivering the baby through a C-section.

One sure way to prevent abortions, Levatino added, are ultrasounds.

“Ultrasound is the single most powerful tool any pro-life person can use. If a woman sees her baby on a television screen, there’s an 80 to 85 percent chance she will not abort.”

He also said that even women who insist they want an abortion, and go through with it, “are very conflicted” about it. “You’re not going to save them all,” he told the priests and deacons. But even if the women go through with the abortion, “offer them counseling afterward.”