Pro-life news brief 1-15-14
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- Slate’s William Saletan refutes the mindset of pro-choice people who think pro-lifers are misogynists who don’t really care about abortion:
The assertion that pro-lifers don’t really care about abortion — that what really motivates them is misogyny, controlling other people’s bodies, and forcing anyone who has sex to have a baby — is morally comforting to a lot of pro-choice people. It reassures us that we’re on side of compassion, justice, and progress, and that there’s no reason to feel ambivalent about this issue. We have nothing to heed or learn from our enemies. Our only challenge is to defeat them.
This is one of those echo-chamber beliefs that won’t survive a reality test.
- Julia Herrington writes about how she changed her mind on abortion and the framework of the abortion debate:
But with an awareness of the framework we’re dealing with, we have the opportunity to start a new dialogue. Actually, I think it is incumbent upon us to change the conversation, addressing the topic from new and varied points of view. The conversation need not be first and foremost political. And the friction enshrouding abortion needs to be diminished. This requires that we really examine the nuts and bolts of the issue, turn it on its head and find new angles as entry points for discussion.
- At the Boston Herald, radio host Margery Eagan (pictured left) shares her discomfort with how abortions are mostly performed at abortion clinics:
Abortion clinics should be closed and women seeking them should be able to get them where they get the rest of their medical care: their physician’s office. Outpatient clinics that also treat asthma, diabetes, broken bones or aching backs. Secure clinics within big hospitals.
Do you think Mass. General, Brigham and Women’s, Beth Israel — or their influential patients and patrons — would put up with screaming protesters outside their front doors? No, they wouldn’t. Not for one minute.
So why then are women, in 2014, still being farmed off like pariahs?
Because hospitals don’t want the hassle of abortion. Most doctors don’t, either. Insurance companies don’t want to pay more than they’re already paying.
And pro-choice women let everybody get away with this disgrace.
Ladies, we are fighting the wrong fight, accepting crumbs from the table, and being played for fools. When will we wake up?
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.
Because hospitals don’t want the hassle of abortion.
Killing babies and harming women can be such a hassle.
But wait!! Why is something so liberating such a hassle??
Hospitals for the most part don’t want them because many, many doctors and nurses don’t want anything to do with them. Plus, it risks exposing the reality of abortion to people working there who have no vested interest in keeping silent on the horror of seeing it done or witnessing the aftermath. The potentiality for exposure is greater. It’s easier to hide the truth in a stand-alone facility with a cabal of ideologically dependable co- workers around you.
When will we wake up?
We’ve been trying to get you to wake up for years!
I was involved in 40 Days for Life outside of a hospital. It was what SO MANY of the staff that were prolife wanted. They THANKED us for being out there and spreading the word and standing against the abortions that happened there.
And the hospital did stop doing them. PRAISE GOD!!
But the 3rd largest PP in the nation swooped in to pick up the slack.
Margery Eagan is close to figuring out that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry does not care about women.
Very close.
That William Saletan is like the skinniest kid at fat camp.
I’ve been saying that for years – for many reasons… and taking crap for it from many pro choicers, so its funny to see this.
Hospitals already perform abortions – all the time – every day – in hospitals all over the country - after diagnosis of fetal anomalies or maternal health complications.
What they don’t offer as a service is completely elective abortions, aka abortions because “oops I got preggers!” This is the Planned Parenthood clientele, and thats how they make their money. Those are the abortions that get pro lifers angry and riled up, and pro choicers chanting for their easy access, and that fight keeps the pockets of Planned Parenthood brass stuffed quite nicely.
Speaking as someone who is personally opposed to abortion but believes it should not be illegal, I would be THRILLED if Planned Parenthood shut down, or at least stuck with what they clearly want to focus on: politics and money. If elective abortions took place only in hospitals, women would not be able to pretend or convince themselves it was no big deal, just a little outpatient appointment, without ever seeing a real MD. If elective abortions only took place in hospitals, Kermit Gosnell would never have happened, and neither would the bombings that led to the death of 2 employees at PP in my home state of Mass. Elective abortions SHOULD be expensive, they SHOULD feel like a big deal, they SHOULD NOT feel super convenient.
I know her point was not one that rings true to pro lifers, but all the same, I think ending outpatient abortion clinics and clinics involved in politics would actually…. *DRUMROLL* reduce elective abortions AND reduce the risk of patient morbidity/mortality, all without making anything illegal.
It’s no surprise that a person who believes in killing would also believe in enslaving the medical professionals to do her killing for her.
Allowing abortions in hospitals is good for demoralizing the staff. If a hospital is hiring killer staff, then the overall quality of care will necessarily be affected.
The mixing of killing and healing creates a tension inside the workplace which affects relationships and trust among the staff, and with the patients.
Amanda,
Why are you opposed to making abortion illegal?
What does it mean to be “personally” opposed to abortion?
We are not trying to REDUCE the number of killings of innocent human beings before they are born.
Illegal and unthinkable.
PS Gosnell did happen. Tiller did happen. Pendergraft happens. Carhart happens. Boyd happens. Hodari happens.
The butchers will butcher for profit whether in the most state of the art hospital or the shoddiest of mills.
I always look in their eyes. Always.
Look in Margery’s eyes.
A four-week old fetus either is a human being or not.
If it is not, then what is so undesirable and tragic about abortion?
I had a wart medically removed one day. There was no gnashing of teeth or protesters.
Exactly TheLastDemocrat!!
If it is not a human being…….than what the world is it???
Is she alive?
Is she human?
Then she must be a human life!! DUN DUN DUN DUN!!
Saletan quotes this comment: “Conservatives] don’t actually care about all the abortions, or they would support the policies we know lower the abortion rate. ”
This is going to be the ol’ rhetoric about more se x ed and more birth control leading to fewer unplanned pregnancies and fewer abortions.
I came across a study from Finland, where they have everyone’s healthcare use in one national data set. They were looking at “reproductive health” in teens.
“Trends in teenage termination of pregnancy and its risk factors: a population-based study in Finland, 1987–2009.” Leppalahti et al 2012. “Human Reproduction” v 27, n 9.
This study shows the trend for women ages 18-19 for “TOC” termination of pregnancy, and for births. For both, there is a downward trend from 1987 to 1995, then an upward trend from 1995 to 2005, then a downward trend from 2005 to 2009.
In other words, both the portion of births to women ages 18-19 and abortions in women ages 18-19 move together, not opposite.
Seeing this, I wondered about the ol’ tired claim that more birth control leads to fewer abortions, and fewer births.
Well, this SAME group published those data in 2006. -Obviously, the data cannot go through 2009 if the study was published in 2006. But it can show whether abortions go down when the birth control prescription rate goes up, and whether births to women ages 18-19 go down when their use of birth control goes up.
Here is what that study says:
“The Use of Oral Contraceptives Among Finnish Teenagers from 1981 to 2003.” Hassani et al. 2006. “Journal of Adolescent Health” v. 39.
There is again a downward trend from 1987 to 1995: a smaller portion of women 18-19 using birth control. Then, the same trend back up – 1995 to 2003 – the final year of data in that study.
So, birth control use does not move OPPOSITE of births, but the SAME. Abortion does not move OPPOSITE of teen births, but the SAME. Abortion does not move OPPOSITE of birth control use, but the SAME.
So, at least with good data from a country where all data are under one roof, and you can make these comparisons, it is clear that uptake of birth control use does not reduce these teen pregnancies.
There IS a hypothesis that explains these patterns: overall involvement in inter course. As this age group has a greater portion engaging in inter course, there is more birth control use as well as more pregnancies. With more pregnancies, there are more abortions and more deliveries.
To be in the real world, the only conclusion is that, at least in Finland, the same ol’ tired mantra of more birth control is not the solution to abortion nor is it the solution to teen pregnancies.
The only reasonable solution to reduce abortions or births in this group would be to encourage these teens to enjoy their time with their boyfriends in other ways than the one way that leads to pregnancy.
I think ending outpatient abortion clinics and clinics involved in politics would actually…. *DRUMROLL* reduce elective abortions AND reduce the risk of patient morbidity/mortality
We’ve heard this song and dance before. . .
Amanda: Abortion is the murder of an innocent child. The institution of abortion is a dangerous oppression of women. Ending abortion is a human rights issue, akin to ending slavery. Anything that reduces abortion is good toward our goal of abolishing abortion.
Truth is, making abortion illegal is only a step toward ending abortion. We need to make a culture of life, in which murdering a child for any reason is as unthinkable as sexual abuse of a child.
Carla: That thing about the eyes — so revealing, and so scary. I did not realize how much I avoid looking into the eyes of pro-aborts, even in photographs.
Del,
Oh yeah. I make it point to always look into their eyes in photos.
Chilling really.
Forget the eyes. I think she needs a nose job :)
It’s no surprise that a person who believes in killing would also believe in enslaving the medical professionals to do her killing for her.
Talking about enslaving — I read that in Sweden it is illegal for a doctor to refuse to perform an abortion!
I want to comment on Julia Herrington’s article: Go and read it!
Here is a feminist who has grasped the pro-life understanding of reality — especially in terms of how thoroughly the institution of abortion is an abuse of women. And she has translated these truths into language that feminists can relate to.
Her argument is centered on the woman. She has a vague notion of Christ and gives a nod of acknowledgement to the child…. but this is the mindset of most feminists, and we must meet them where they are. Those of us who engage the culture in conversation: We must go there, too.
Please spend the time to understand her article.
Margery Eagan has been a left wing lunatic for a long time….
Margery Eagan believes, like so many pro-aborts do, that the presence of pro-life prayer warriors and sidewalk counsellors creates the stigma against abortion. If we would just go away, then public support for abortion will be 100%, and no woman would ever have to be ashamed or feel regret, ever again.
But shame and pain are the reality of abortion, and we are the only ones who love women enough to try and prevent it.
No one (not even feminists!) believe that legalizing prostitution would remove the shame and stigma from a woman’s choosing to abuse her body and dignity so. Why do they believe abortion is so different?
It’s always our fault Del.
Always.
Amanda, abortion wounds. It kills. A doctor performing abortion is in violation of the Hippocratic Oath and everything doctors stand for and do.
I do not want the doctor who delivers my baby to have just come from murdering another child. That is positively horrifying.