text: No.  Abortion cannot be banned.  Prior to Roe vs. Wade, over 800,000 back-alley and self-induced (coat hanger) abortions were performed each year. Abortions always have been and will always be.  Makes me wonder why all the pious men waited until 1973 to jump on the bandwagon and wave their fetus flags.  I was a Catholic-educated teenager prior to Roe vs. Wade and abortion was never discussed in our female religious classes.  We were warned about accidental pregnancies, the resulting marriages,  and that we would despise our husbands after three years.  We were constantly warned about the dangers and sinfulness of sniffing glue, but never abortion.