Jivin J’s Life Links 11-29-10
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- More than 2,000 people took part in a ceremony to “send off the souls” of more than 2,000 aborted children found in a Buddhist temple in Thailand:The ceremony started at 7am when Phrakhru Wijit Sorakhun, the abbot of Wat Phai Ngern Chotanaram, performed religious rites in the main chapel of the temple.
A prayer was given and alms were offered to 100 monks and novices to make merit for the souls of the unborn babies.
The names of the 2,002 unborn babies written on pieces of paper were put in a coffin, which was carried around the crematorium 3 times.
Participants placed dokmai chan, or sandalwood flowers, at the crematorium site and poured ceremonial water as an act of offering merit to the unborn babies. Similar merit-making rituals will also be organized in the next 7 days, 50 days and 100 days.
- Frances Kissling, former president of Catholics for a Free Choice, (pictured left) discusses the Open Hearts abortion conference and her thoughts on it:
Surely something subtle changed for each of us. Perhaps, as Peter Singer, another of the organizers, had hoped, it was one on those moments when those on different sides of the issue learned that not everyone who disagrees with them is either “stupid or evil.” Or simply that we are all human and things are complicated.
Amanda Marcotte (pictured left) disagrees because she believes pro-lifers are all liars who are really just anti-woman and anti-sex:
Part of the problem is that it’s impossible to have a dialogue with someone who refuses to speak honestly about their positions. As long as anti-choicers continue promoting the fraudulent idea that they’re in this for “life”, when they are clearly in it to oppose sexual liberation and women’s rights, there cannot be any dialogue. Talking to liars isn’t a dialogue.
Back to Kissling, who thinks the pro-choice movement should embrace the seriousness of abortion:
Not even the reproductive justice movement, the newest and best of abortion rights frames, adequately addresses the fact that abortion is a serious decision precisely because it involves how we, as humans, will foster respect for life, even if ending it is justified and not the same as taking the life of a person. Can we acknowledge that abortion is not just a medical procedure like having one’s tonsils out but entails many losses, including the inability to bring life one has created to fruition?
Is it possible that such acknowledgments might result not in greater restriction of abortion, but in a public that trusts us, and trusts women, even more?
- Another gem from Amanda Marcotte:Never mind that pretty much every pro-choicer is quite aware what a fetus is, thank you very much. And never mind that most abortions happens well before the period where a fetus looks like much at all, since it’s tiny and doesn’t resemble a person.
Here’s what the unborn child looks like at 8 weeks of pregnancy (6 weeks after conception) (the stage when most U.S. abortions are performed at or after).
Don’t you just love it when someone claims to be an expert about something and then proves they have no clue what they’re talking about in the next sentence?
- The Globe and Mail has published a piece by a woman going by the name L. Allen who says she has forgiven herself for her abortions:
For 10 years I had tried to forget it happened. I had buried it all deep down – the guilt, the memories, everything – and convinced myself that the abortions didn’t affect me. It wasn’t until I came across Ms. Lamott’s story and reflected on my own that I realized I’d been clinging to a whole pile of unresolved guilt for my decisions.
Perhaps it is the upcoming birth of my child that has propelled me into confronting my past. What better time to purge the wounds that have festered so long within? Silent, unspoken pain that begged to be noticed and dealt with, but which I chose to ignore.
- In the Kansas City Star, one parent writes about answering her child’s question about abortion:Recently, my parenting skills were tested with the question, “What is an abortion?” This question was difficult enough to answer, but the follow-up question of “why” was nearly impossible.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Wow, one woman quotes Peter Singer another calls us all liars. I am very encouraged by this, in a weird way.
Amanda wrote:
Never mind that pretty much every pro-choicer is quite aware what a fetus is, thank you very much. And never mind that most abortions happens well before the period where a fetus looks like much at all, since it’s tiny and doesn’t resemble a person.
So, Does this mean Amanda thinks it would be ok to kill other people who don’t resemble a person, such as a burn victim or someone with a disfiguring disease? I saw a great news story not long ago about a man with a disfigured face. His community helped raise money for him to get treatment to look more normal. See Amanda? That’s what human beings do. Humans don’t have to look cute or pretty. As grandma used to say, “Handsome is as handsome does.” And if Amanda and her friends don’t know that a developing human, often referred to as a fetus, is a person, then they DON’T know what a fetus is. Thank you very much.
In the Globe and Mail piece, the word “adoption” is not mentioned. I wonder why? Once again, it’s all about ME.
Amanda Marcotte demonstrates a unique hatred of a specific group of people, namely, anyone who isn’t Amanda Marcotte.
Phillymiss, they do in the comments mention adoption and the pro-aborts jump all over it and shriek how having a baby is like ‘having a major illness”. REALLY? I worked full-time while pregnant. Its not an illness. Some view women who can’t get pregnant as being “ill”. Whats it going to be? Can’t have it both ways.
Its just utter selfishness. The part that chilled me was that this woman saw her 3 month old baby on ultrasound and still didn’t care. Perhaps her first abortion had already hardened her heart? Sad.
Francis Kissling said: Can we acknowledge that abortion is not just a medical procedure like having one’s tonsils out but entails many losses, including the inability to bring life one has created to fruition?
Francis – you make it sound as though abortion is a passive behavior – like a miscarriage. That’s completely untrue – it’s a medical procedure (an initiated behavior) which destroys the flesh and blood of the “life one has created”.
If you’re going to attempt to be reasonable – you should start with being rational, otherwise your statements are – unbelievable.
Its just utter selfishness. The part that chilled me was that this woman saw her 3 month old baby on ultrasound and still didn’t care. Perhaps her first abortion had already hardened her heart? Sad.
Sydney, except for the first three months, when I was in the bathroom every minute, it seems, I didn’t feel ill during my pregnancy, either. I also worked full-time up until about 8-1/2 months.
There is a great deal of selfishness involved in this issue, and no one wants to admit it. Abortions because of rape, incest, or fetal deformity are rare. People get upset when I say this, but the rationale for many abortions boils down to six words: I don’t want to be bothered.
Some women might abort in selfishness others are terrified and believe the lies that are pedaled that it’s just a bunch of cells, a piece of tissue. It’s not a baby.
Coerced by lies of omission at the abortion clinic that claims to “help” women.
Forced abortions are not rare either. More and more we are reading of women killed because they refuse to abort. And young girls dragged into abortion clinics by their parents.
If a woman were shown the ultrasound, given all of the information about fetal development and completely understood the risks of abortion and STILL went through with it she is just as deceived.
the inability to bring life one has created to fruition?
um, excuse me, but there is no “inability” here. IT’s a deliberate decision on the part of the mother to end another human beings life.
Why can’t proaborts just be honest? Why must they always hide the real truth about abortion in euphemisms and “choice-speak”?
“In hindsight, I think I was angrier with myself for having let it happen again.”
“What would we do with a baby? What about our personal goals, achieving success? Becoming parents at this stage would put a damper on things, he insisted.”
Amazing that they don’t understand the problem is NOT the baby – it’s their contracepting promiscuous sex. No sex until they are married and ready to be parents. No problems. It’s really that simple.
“I was three months along, and the blurry image had already taken on a child-like form. Oversized head, webbed but easily definable hands and feet…”
ok, now I’m just angry. It’s one thing to try to justify your abortion but quite another to completely portray your unborn baby as subhuman and developing like a duck.
On this video you can clearly see that an unborn baby does not have webbed hands and feet:
http://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=61