Pro-life news brief 2-13-13
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- USA Today picked up the story of Jennifer Morbelli’s post-abortion death.
- The Stir’s Adriana Velez is the first pro-choicer that I’ve seen attempt to comment on Morbelli’s death (quite a difference from Savita Halappanavar). A search at the RH Reality Check web site for Morbelli returns 0 results.Velez thinks one must be “a heartless ideologue” to protest the clinic whose practices led to Morbelli’s death. One wonders if she felt the same way regarding the protests after Halappanavar’s death.
- Michael New describes the implications of the fact that “the best predictor of someone’s attitude toward abortion is his or her opinion on the morality of premarital sex.”
- In India, a man was sentenced to 7 years in prison after raping his cousin and coercing her to have an abortion:
Gupta assured the girl that he would marry her and developed physical relations with her on the false promise of marriage, the police said. It said that consequently, the girl became pregnant and the accused took her to a hospital, where against her wishes she was made to undergo abortion on the pretext that it was done to save her life.
- A Michigan woman (who was previously told she could not conceive) gave birth to a 10-pound baby on the day she learned she was pregnant [daughter Kimberly Kay pictured left with her father, Mike]:
Last week, Linda Ackley went to the doctor because she had some bloating in her abdomen.
Believing she might have a hernia, the doctor sent her to an Allegiance Health facility for a computerized tomography or CT scan.
The scan revealed she was pregnant.
She would deliver in three to four weeks, medical professionals at first told the Ackleys. After a second ultrasound, however, the couple learned Linda Ackley had carried the baby a full term, 40 or more weeks.
[Photo by AP/The Jackson Citizen Patriot, via The Times Herald]

I always said the Savita story was blown way out of proportion. Irish law allowed abortion to save the pregnant woman’s life. If doctors made an error in judgement, that was just a mistake, not the result of Ireland’s anti-abortion laws.
The USA Today article states “the fetus had severe brain abnormalities.” Albeit a vague description, this is the first article I have read stating what was wrong with the baby. Has anyone else confirmed this?
Also, I have met many born babies older than this murdered “fetus.”
The “severe brain abnormality” applies to a previous aborted baby, not the baby of Jennifer Morbelli.
In the Ireland / Savita story, the family has never agreed to reveal a full set of information to accurately judge what was going on clincally as well as policy-wise; it is possible an amateur abortive attempt may have kicked off the entire episode, etc.
Eventually, the public will wonder what birth defect might have led to the “need” to abort a baby that obviously would have either died a natural death or have been delivered thru induction or delivery soon enough.
It is possible, but extremely unlikely, that this bnaby had some acutely terminal, and painful, condition that would justify the equivalent of putting a medically ill adult to death out of mercy a short span of time before natural demise.
A 33-week-old human, not yet born, should have the same rights and clinical consideration as a human who has already left the womb.
All of our human rights struggles are about fighting the various cultural efforts to define some class of humans as less-then-human, or otherwise not deserving of basic human rights- leadingly, the right to life.
Regarding Jennifer’s choice to abort, the Velez article states: Even if you don’t understand it, you need to respect it.
Don’t tell me what I have to respect, Velez. People get my respect when they earn it.
+1 to Praxedes.
We are not required to respect anyone’s bad choices, legal or illegal.
We may never know what sort of discernment Jennifer’s family went through…. but the end was tragic, and unnecessary, and we can be sure that many people regret that they urged Jennifer to go to Carhart.
I don’t even blame Adriana Velez — She thinks that women would be safer if more hospitals and doctors did late-term abortions. There’s a reason why they don’t: This sort of procedure is not necessary, it is not safe, and it is not ethical. There’s no point in her blaming pro-lifers for trying to make this evident to the public.
Savita’s husband publicized the circumstances of her death. Jill Stanek disclosed Jennifer’s identity against the wishes of her family. Not the same.
Jennifer’s family put an obituary together that tells of her death. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is usually a reason someone dies at age 29.
Get a grip on reality, CS.
CS can’t justify or defend the horrors of Jennifer’s late term abortion so she is feigning outrage at Jill blogging the story. Trying to deflect and obsfuticate. We are all on to you, CS :).
And before you pretend to care about Jennifer and her family, save yourself the trouble. Or, if you do indeed care so much, post a pic of a big fat donation you made in her name. Waiting….
I noticed that Jennifer will have a funeral Mass. I hope she received the sacraments before she died, so she may rest in the peace of God’s mercy.
It seems to me that abortion supporters who have nothing to say about a woman’s untimely death or injury from abortion are the “heartless ideologues”. Is it too much to ask to show some sympathy or sorrow for someone’s loss? They talk about the “war on women”, yet they throw some poor woman under the bus when she gets hurt or dies. Must it legalized abortion without criticism at any price?
Praxedes says:
February 13, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Jennifer’s family put an obituary together that tells of her death. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is usually a reason someone dies at age 29.
(Denise) Just like in the old, illegal days, the reason a woman dies is not stated explicitly when she dies in an abortion.
Praxedes, that isn’t how it happened. Read Jill’s post about the sleuthing she and the protesters did so they could spread this woman’s name, picture, and medical info around.
I cannot believe these stories of women who had no idea they were pregnant, like the one above. It’s simply ridiculous. There are so many physical changes in the mom’s body, and so many out-of-the-ordinary sensations when the baby starts moving and kicking, and the round, firm belly is just not something that happens otherwise. I just don’t buy it. There’s no way any rational, intelligent woman could NOT know that she’s pregnant, especially full-term.
“There’s no way any rational, intelligent woman could NOT know that she’s pregnant, especially full-term.”
From what I have read there’s usually some mental health issues going on. Disassociation is a common one. I don’t think it has much to do with intelligence, dumb people know they are pregnant all the time.