Pro-life news brief 4-30-13
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- At the Washington Post, Erik Wemple busts NARAL president Ilyse Hogue’s obvious lie that NARAL was “first out of the gate to call attention to [the Gosnell] case”:
Having done precisely 3,454 Nexis and Internet search on the Gosnell case, we missed the part where NARAL had led a charge to highlight the alleged atrocities in West Philadelphia. So we Nexised again, checking on NARAL’s footprint around the time that Gosnell was indicted in January 2011. Not much there. When asked to provide news releases or other evidence of activism around that time, NARAL didn’t provide anything.
- Kirsten Powers has another column devoted to the Gosnell case in which she shares a conversation she had with a woman who went to Gosnell after being referred there by a NAF-affiliated clinic in Maryland and whose child’s foot was one of the feet stored by Gosnell:
When she was 16, [Desiree] Hawkins sought an abortion at a National Abortion Federation-certified abortion clinic, Hagerstown (Md.) Reproductive Health Services. The clinic told her she was 19 weeks pregnant and referred her to Gosnell. When she recently retrieved her file in anticipation of testifying, she was shocked that her sonogram showed she had in fact been at 21 weeks, which meant she would have been 23 weeks pregnant by the time Gosnell performed the abortion.“I was so overwhelmed and hurt,” said Hawkins. “If I had known I was 23 weeks, I would have (chosen) adoption.”
She also would have avoided the trauma visited upon her by Gosnell. Hawkins described the licensed medical professional as laughing at her during the procedure as she cried and begged him to stop because of the pain. “Stop being a baby,” he said.
Video footage of Hawkins via LifeNews below:
“The picture itself is horrible…” Another Story from 3801 Lancaster from 3801Lancaster on Vimeo.
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.
NARAL was indeed the “first out of the gate” — in opposition to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, when it was first proposed in 2000. Go here to see the initial NARAL press release attacking the bill:
http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/Born_Alive_Infants/NARALonlive-born.pdf
Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
federallegislation // at // nrlc, dot, org
(202) 626-8820
After watching the video of Desiree, I feel like she is still in denial and shock about what she did, and what role she played in the death of her child. The issue is not just how Gosnell did it or the fact that he kept her baby’s foot in a jar, but that she paid him to kill that child.
To him, those children were just body parts. To Desiree, her child was disposable… not really a child.
These viewpoints are not so different.
The NARAL President made a real important point – the Gosnell decades long horror spree was due to a problem with enforcement, and not regulation. Those who were in charge of enforcement need to be held accountable as well for the Gosnell murders.
Prayers for Desiree.
I think she needs a copy of surrendering the secret. Pray for her. And her mother as well.
I agree, Kel. She is clearly traumatized by the experience but directs those feelings at the fact that Gosnell did other horrific things, and says that his actions “add to” the trauma of the abortion. Really what they do is uncover the trauma of the abortion. She has a harder time talking about the abortion itself than about receiving the phone call, or seeing the picture of her “specimen.” There’s a reason for that.
I feel so, so sad for her and her mother.
I bawled. I bawled watching that video of Desiree. Bawled because she and her mother still don’t know why they are crying (a member of their family was murdered and is gone from their lives forever!!) Bawled because of the pain and abandonment that baby faced. Bawled because today I stood at the gates of hell and watched girl after girl go in. One girl crying…she didn’t want to go in. Her boyfriend made her. She only spoke Spanish and I didn’t know how to help her. One girl…so young and so pretty…had a heart of stone. THis was her third abortion and her boyfriend thought it was pretty funny.
But at the end of the day we had one save!!!! We got a girl and her boyfriend to leave PP and come to a CPC for a free ultrasound. One of the pro-life ladies bought them lunch while they were waiting for their ultrasound. Do you think PP would do that?
Just so weary of this killing. I love kids. It is just unbearable to think of mothers and fathers killing their own children and not even realizing who they’re throwing away.
Thank you Sydney