Stanek weekend question I: Is the Gosnell story a game changer?
The story is horrific, the most stark evidence of abortion’s outcome.
Pro-lifers know Kermit Gosnell was not an outlier. He may not have been typical, but there are and have been plenty of abortionist hacks, quacks, and pervs since abortion was made “safe and legal” in 1973.
But due to pro-abortion bias in the media and politics, and the abortion industry’s big PR budget, we had trouble reaching through to the public.
So now there has been a breakthrough. The media is paying attention and in some cases introspective. The public is learning of the horror.
Do you think these revelations will result in a noticable decline in abortion support?
Apr.20, 2013 9:02 am |
Weekend question |
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.
No – not unless we ramp up the connections to individual lives for younger generations in a way that emotionally, unforgettably, impacts them.
I asked a group of typical young adults if they had heard of the Gosnell story. They said no. When they asked what it was about, I told them. They didn’t seem fazed or even moved. In fact, they pretty much tuned out, even when I told them how old the babies were and what happened. The Boston Marathon bombing was more relevant, and caused a lot more conversation because they could picture themselves in the crowd. What they couldn’t picture was themselves in Gosnell’s clinic, or as a young neonate about to get “snipped”.
People learn by stories they can personally empathize with – put themselves into the story. Abortion is too removed/distant. It has no “entertainment” value because most people can’t empathize with a hero or villain. A 2 second attention span is all they have left.
We’re dealing with a culture that’s had it’s imagination destroyed by a media barrage that does all it’s depiction for them. And they are numb – almost socio-pathically so.
For instance, the younger of the two Boston bombers going along with an older brother – he wasn’t, or at least didn’t appear to be, a hardened radicalized Muslim jihadi, but someone easily swayed by an ideologically hell-bent older brother. The fact he didn’t empathize with people of his own age, or even care if his friends were in the crowd, shows the extent of self-focus, and lack of imagination of consequences. I think much of what happened has to do with the absence of fatherhood in our culture, and what this all means for young men who are abandoning it.
We need to articulate clear stories that capture what remains of withered, media saturated imaginations. If we don’t, then the Gosnell event will be cast aside like what happened with Benghazi, and the subtle manipulations will continue to enslave coming generations in despair & shallow entertainment.
We’ll have to wait and see. Brick by brick… This atrocity may have turned some important hearts a bit.
But it is amazing how effectively Obama and Planned Parenthood can counter a reality like Gosnell with something as bogus as Sandra Fluke.
There are many people who will say they are personally against abortion, that is they wouldn’t get one themselves, yet do not want to infringe on the “freedom” of others to do so. There are others of us who believe abortion is murder, period. I can see both groups growing through this, but not enough to prevent most abortions yet. Changes I do see this openning the doors for is more support for outlawing lateterm abortions and demands for compliance with basic health and safety regulations of abortion clinics. And even these would be progress.
Where this will have the most influence is in public opinions on abortion, but public opinion is not enough as long as we have pro-abortion leaders in government and the judicial system.
It absolutely should be a game-changer, but the abortion culture is now so deeply embedded in the American psyche and people’s hearts are blinded by Satan… I’m not certain anything will change. We are literally tied up in the sin of killing our own children, and God will hand us over to that sin with all its consequences because its what we’ve asked for.
Our only hope is prayer that the Holy Spirit will change hearts and minds, and that the mercy of God will be sought by millions of people.
No, it won’t. Thinking people will see the difference between legal abortion and Gosnell.
Merit, I rest my case. “Thinking people will see the difference between legal abortion and Gosnell.”
Thinking people would realize that there is NO difference. Every abortion means a dead baby. Every abortion means killing the child in the womb. The fact that Gosnell’s victims were bigger, could breathe on their own, weighed a few pounds, were crying and moving does not lessen the violence done to those babies who are smaller, can’t breathe on their own yet, can’t cry, or don’t even “look like babies” yet. They are all human children. They are all killed for profit.
What she said /\
Chris,
You absolutely hit the nail on the head. At the center of the abortion controversy is a dulling of our sense of imaginatiion. We used to follow the Space Race , knowing the astronauts like our favorite baseball players, because we all thrilled to the idea of space exploration.
And children could name many dinosaurs, with absolutely no personal experience with them.
In the days of large families, we didn’t have a blind eye for babies. But now, we need 4-D sonograms to slap us in the face. We no longer believe in what we can’t see up close and personal.
We are no longer a society. We’re a social network always at arms’ length from each other. And if it’s not your baby or wife / sister / daughter being butcherd by the Gosnells of the world, what’s it to you?
I think it is not, but for reasons totally different than Chris and Hans. What we all have learned from Gosnell is the beginning of what happens to humans when we act without love, or hope. Gosnell, I fear only heralds a beginning salvo. We all need a profound sense of peace and courage … and mercy.
We do not accept that ALL LIFE (mine too) IS VERY, VERY FRAGILE AND PRECIOUS. [No diamond are we (so very ‘tough’, we can even pretend and swear/blaspheme) and not incorruptible gold.] DEATH VISITS US (not the ‘culture of death’), AND WE ARE SCARED! because we do not know HE WHO IS PEACE and WHO every moment, in every circumstance calls us to LIVE LOVE.
Sigh…I’m sad to say that I don’t think abortion will be illegal in my lifetime. People want their choice and although I am a woman I seem to be outnumbered by my gender who want this barbaric procedure to remain legal. When I do find other women who are in my corner it seems we are reduced to talking about it in hushed whispers in the workplace. It’s just so sad.
“Thinking people would realize that there is NO difference.”
Then why should Gosnell be a game changer? Why the disproportionate amount of attention on him here? Don’t you think it’s pretty stupid to focus all this attention on someone who did nothing to distinguish himself from other abortion providers? How do you go from arguing that this case should be a game changer in one post to arguing that it’s not special or unique in another? I guess the “abortion culture” is just that much more consistent than you are.
No. At best the Gosnell story is an opportunity for pro-lifers, but only pro-lifers can be the game changers. The pro-abortionists in the industry, the media and the government are too good at spinning things, and too many people blindly believe them, for this or any story to be a game changer in itself. Pro-lifers need to make the most of the opportunity to show how Gosnell is not an isolated instance. We need to act with conviction and act with love. If we do that and keep doing that, as more Gosnells and more dead and damaged mothers and children are brought into the public light, then the tide will start to really turn. So it’s up to us.
This will not be a game changer because people’s hearts are too calloused. Men and women’s hearts are as hard as a rock, through the deceitfulness of sin.
It’s an epidemic.
You see Gosnell laughing and joking around the courthouse. He is confident in his strategy. “The babies he killed weren’t alive. They were products of successful abortions. He is a doctor. He should know. Lay people shouldn’t be confused by the way they struggled to breathe, or swim or survive in a toilet, or pull their hand away from the “nurse” who was about to snip their spinal cord. These are merely the involuntary muscle contractions of recently aborted fetuses, not a defenseless baby’s futile struggle for survival.” (right Joan?)
Sadly, Joan is correct. As much as pro lifers might hope that the cold blooded murder of these innocents might prick the conscience of the pro death (choice) mob, the vast majority, with blind eyes and hardened hearts, will shrug their shoulders and move on.
Nothing to see here.
Chris, I will do you one better. For men to stand idly by and watch defenseless babies butchered and do nothing to try and stop the slaughter I believe is sociopathic.
The only viable game changer I believe will be God lifting His Hand of protection from America opening the door to a series of calamities which will hopefully cause men and women’s hearts to break in repentance and turn back to the God who loves them.
Merit says:
April 20, 2013 at 12:53 pm
No, it won’t. Thinking people will see the difference between legal abortion and Gosnell.
Gosnell’s clinc was a legal clinic.
It will be for some. But as you said it exposes the horror of abortion which unfortunately people have been very good at turning a blind eye to. So, I expect it won’t change much but it will shake the conscience of some journalist who will change the way they report on abortion. That’s a big gain but still too small for the incredible deficit created by Roe and the media’s decades of complicity.
Is the Gosnell story a game changer? Norm Bomer didn’t seem to think so in February (see the full article at http://crmag.com/Educationinbabytalk):
Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell is scheduled to go on trial sometime this year, charged with, among other things, murder for butchering born babies – and for the death of a woman client. His wife and several other of his employees have already pleaded guilty in court. It’s a troubling story for two reasons:
First, abject evil is chilling. Cold-blooded murder is an apt title. Second, the arrest of Dr. Gosnell was, on the one hand, gratifying. On the other hand, it was ridiculous. This nation legalizes, condones, and even publicly finances the cold-blooded murder of millions of babies. The public outrage over the alleged Gosnell butchery is a national hypocrisy.
The following quote from a recent essay by a couple of “pro-choice” women illustrates my point. Steph Herold is “a reproductive justice activist.” Susan Yanow claims that same distinction. She is, among other official connections, the founding Executive Director of the Abortion Access Project and serves on the boards of the ACLU of Massachusetts and NARAL ProChoice Massachusetts.
Concerning the age at which a baby may legally be murdered in America, here’s the quote from their essay: “The only obligation women have is to take the time they need to make the decision that is right for them.” So why would an exception be made for Kermit Gosnell’s doing “what’s right” for women? As Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” rightly reminded us, “a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” That “man” is America’s President. That “man” is America.
Only if the movement stops calling for better regulation & rises to the occasion with a strong PR campaign about the God-given, inalienable right to life as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence & the 5th & 14th Amendments to the US Constitution!
Personhood now!!
AbolishHumanAbortion.com
No – I think the public isn’t equating the problem with abortion – the public is equating the problem with a system that preys on women if they don’t have enough money. Seeing far too many opinions in the opinion pages of the newspapers stating as much. Heck, Lila Rose’s view on how the problem is with abortion itself was the OPPOSING view in the USA Today this week.
I think the pro-lifers might have spent too much time making the point that the media doesn’t care about the trial, and not enough time framing a pro-life argument. Item number two I’ve seen pro-lifers focus on is Obama’s lack of attention to it, or trying to tie him to it. That’s an interesting point to look into, but last I checked, Obama isn’t running for election again, and it is more time and focus spent away from where the focus should be spent.
Last point – the bombing in Mass. and the explosion in Texas shifted the media – I’m not sure how long the defense will present in the trial, but there’s a chance that the exposure on the trial is on the downswing. We’ll see.
There’s good insight here on this subject:
http://lti-blog.blogspot.ca/2011/01/message-to-pro-life-advocates-in-light.html