I've often said the British press is far more honest and open about abortion than the American press. Here's another example. A reader wrote this question to doctors at The Times Online, May 2:

I had an abortion recently, and though my boyfriend and I agreed it was the right thing to do, I feel guilty and I've gone off sex. Will these feelings pass?

An excerpt from the response, which is worth reading in its entirety:

Lack of interest in sex after an abortion is so common that it can almost be said to be expected. Before long your libido is likely to have returned, but both you and your partner have to bear in mind that even now having an abortion is a huge event in anyone's life. It is possible, but by no means inevitable, that the changes this will have wrought in the way you feel about a future together may have irretrievably undermined your relationship. If this happens, neither of you should assume blame or feel guilty....

Years of experience with patients have reinforced the teaching I received in my early medical life that even the most ardent affair may not survive an abortion, although both partners often remain good friends. Frequently, there has been too much emotion around, even if there have been no spoken recriminations. The shadow of the decision to have the termination, and any doubts one or other may have had about this deep down in their psyche, means that sooner or later they will be tempted to start again with, as if it were, a clean slate.

[Photo courtesy of Phoenix5.org]

I had not researched the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male that has been all over the news lately thanks to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright often invokes Tuskegee to substantiate his crazy claim that the US government created HIV/AIDS to wipe out blacks.

As if Wright really cares since he promotes abortion, which actually is wiping out US African-Americans. Thanks to abortion, blacks have lost their #1 minority status in the US to Hispanics.

But I digress.

On May 2, National Review Online editor Jonah Goldberg wrote an eye-opening column everyone should read. Here are excerpts...

... The infamous Tuskegee experiment is the Medusa's head of black left-wing paranoia. Whenever someone laments the fact that anywhere from 10% to 33% of African-Americans believe the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks, someone will say, "That's not so crazy when you consider what happened at Tuskegee."

But it is crazy. And it's dishonest.

Wright says the U.S. government "purposely infected African-American men with syphilis." This is a lie, and no knowledgeable historian says otherwise. And yet, this untruth pops up routinely....

So what did happen? In 1932, public health researchers set out to study syphilis, particularly among African-Americans, who had higher infection rates than whites. They recruited 399 black men who already had syphilis. The doctors infected no one. In fact, the patients were selected in the first place because they were tertiary-stage syphilitics who were no longer contagious.

The researchers studied the progress of the disease, without treating it, for 40 years.

Prior to the availability of penicillin in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers couldn't have treated the men even if they wanted to. Even after standardized penicillin treatments were available, it wasn't clear that the patients could have been helped. Some of the doctors believed that treating the decades-long infections would kill the men.

Among scholars who've studied Tuskegee, there's a lot of debate about how much -- if any -- racism was involved in the experiment. But no one disputes that Tuskegee had nothing whatsoever to do with genocide or even a desire to spread the disease among the black population.

What was bad about the Tuskegee experiment was a callous disregard for the humanity and integrity of the patients. They were told they were getting "treatments" when they were merely being studied. They were lied to, treated as objects rather than citizens. This is even more offensive today, now that we have modern legal and ethical rules about informed consent -- rules that did not exist when the study was launched. But it was still wrong.

But the idea that the Tuskegee experiment somehow validates the deranged, paranoid view that the U.S. government created AIDS to murder African-Americans -- in one of the most hideously painful, drawn-out and expensive manners imaginable -- is a riot of ridiculousness and a maelstrom of mendacity. And yet, I've lost count of how many times I've heard guilt-ridden white liberals say exactly that. "Considering what we did at Tuskegee," they opine, "who can blame them for being distrustful of government?"

Well, as a conservative, I have no problem with distrusting government, nor can I fault the descendants of slaves or the victims of Jim Crow for distrusting government more than most.

But why blacks remain the most reliable voters for the party of ever-expanding government power is something of a mystery. Indeed, it's worth noting that the Tuskegee study, launched under the New Deal, was symptomatic of arrogant liberal government. The study "emerged out of a liberal progressive public health movement concerned about the health and well-being of the African-American population," writes University of Chicago professor Richard Schweder. He adds: "The study was done with the full knowledge, endorsement and participation of African-American medical professionals, hospitals and research institutes."

Liberals like to invoke Tuskegee as if it's solely an indictment of what other people did, proof that we need more progressive government. But Tuskegee was in fact the poisoned fruit of progressive government....

Wikipedia agrees with the basic facts of Goldberg's column.

[Photo credits: Brown.edu, BlackPast.org, minority-health.pitt.edu]

I know how these things work. Planned Parenthood et al have obviously hired an expensive and influential public relations firm to pitch 2 story lines to MSM, with great success I might add:

Abstinence education is responsible for every STD, case of HIV/AIDs, and unwanted pregnancy in the world.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, aborting women will be shackled.

On the latter point, a May 2 New York Times editorial killed 2 birds with 1 stone cold lying editorial. It began by advancing evidentially challenged, faceless innuendo...

A lot of elected officials say they want to see Roe v. Wade repealed, clearing the way for abortion to be made illegal. But few of them go the extra step and say what they would like to see done to women who have abortions.

Foul. Name names, NYT. I'll make it easy. Name even 1 pro-life elected official who has maintained ambiguity on that point. Rather, to a person they say they do not want aborting mothers prosecuted.

In fact, it is pro-aborts who are angry that when Roe is overturned, aborting mothers will not become fugitives. On that glorious day, pro-aborts have not and will not find one pre-Roe anti-abortion law that criminalizes aborting mothers. The pro-life community always has and always will focus on the perpetrators: the abortionists and accomplices, which will be PP et al.

Here's the 2nd bird the NYT killed with its stone cold lying editorial: implicating John McCain by premiering a commercial made by a NARAL NY subsidiary "to inject this question into the presidential campaign," according to the NYT.

In fact, while McCain has repeatedly stated he supports Roe's repeal, he has expressed concern about that very point. During the 2000 presidential campaign, after reiterating he supported the overturn of Roe, McCain told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "But we all know, and it's obvious, that if we repeal Roe v. Wade tomorrow, thousands of young American women would be performing illegal and dangerous operations."

The NYT apparently has no hands free to do fact-checking while carrying water for pro-aborts.

After a successful court battle, MO pro-lifers unveiled the newest state Choose Life specialty license plate on May 2.

You'd think pro-aborts would learn. They sue, they lose, all the way up to the US Supreme Court .

I spoke with Russ Amerling this morning, who heads the nationwide Choose Life effort, and got more on the status of lawsuits....

The only lawsuit our side ever lost was the 1st, in SC in 2003, and that was eventually overcome.

After SC legislators approved the Choose Life plate, pro-aborts demanded a Choose Choice plate, which they, being conservative, would not approve. (I say go for it. Let's compete.) Pro-aborts sued for viewpoint discrimination and won. But SC changed the rules and made specialty plates an administrative function, not legislative, and Choose Life plates will soon be available on SC roads anyway.

Pro-lifers have since won state and federal lawsuits in CA, FL, LA, OH, TN, and have won hearings with final resolution pending in IL, OK, NJ, and NY.

Actually pro-aborts don't care about the expense of futile lawsuits. Taxpayers fund them.

But how far will pro-aborts go if they can?

South Carolina Citizens for Life spotted a bombshell in Planned Parenthood Health Systems' 2007 annual report: On the last day of the year it purchased a building in Charleston, SC, with plans to "provid[e] a full range of preventative services... later this year. Photos, right, courtesy of PPHS's annual report.

Didn't mention the A-word.

An ob/gyn named Armstead "Bert" Pruitt currently practices in the building.

PP paid $1.25 million for it, according to the Charleston Co. Auditor via SCCL....

Perfect location: Within a 6-mile radius are Charleston School of Law; the co-ed Citadel Military College; Clemson University; College of Charleston; Medical University of SC, which may conveniently provide both patient and moonlighting scum residents/drs; Southern Wesleyan University; and even the Art Institute of Charleston, whose students will now enjoy more art projects to explore.

PPHS brokered a merger with PP of the Blue Ridge last year to now envelop 4 states: VA, WV, NC, and SC, boasting "the only regional Planned Parenthood affiliate of the southern United States," in its report.

Its net assets skyrocketed last year to $6.625 million.

In its May 1 STOPP Report, the American Life League suggested interesting reasons why PP is building mega-mills around the country. Read it below.

Planned Parenthood mega-centers partially explained

by STOPP International

May 1, 2008

As we have been reporting in the Wednesday STOPP Report over the last year, Planned Parenthood has been opening or trying to open large mega-center clinics all across the country. Such mega-centers are open or planned for Aurora, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; Stapleton, Colorado; Houston, Texas; Sarasota, Florida and a number of other places.

STOPP has obtained Planned Parenthood Federation of America documents that may partially explain these new mega-centers.

According to this information, PP is pushing for its affiliates to explore two new "business opportunities" ― that is PP's description. These are laboratory services and clinical research.

PP currently is engaged in some activities, such as providing Pap smears, that require it to send material to local laboratories for analysis. PP could save money if it did this laboratory analysis itself. However, it would obviously need a certain volume of business to make the investment in equipment and personnel worthwhile. We believe that PP is not only going to use its mega-centers to do the lab work for a large number of PP clinics in a region, but will also try to expand the business to offer laboratory services to local physicians and other medical groups.

The second "business opportunity" described by Planned Parenthood is clinical research. This could take many forms, but, given Planned Parenthood's highly concentrated young customer base, it is easy to imagine that this new business could include conducting drug trials on innocent young children. One need only watch a couple of days' worth of television commercials to see the veritable explosion of contraceptive drugs hitting the market. All of these drugs need to be tested on humans and PP seems to be positioning itself to do such clinical research in its mega-centers. Of course, drug testing is only one possibility. It is also possible that PP could do clinical research on new abortion techniques or engage in other ominous ventures.

We at American Life League are working with pro-life groups across the country to develop effective efforts to counter this new push by PP. As methods prove effective, we will bring them to you in the WSR so that you can use them in your communities. As all of this develops, we need your help. We ask every reader of this report to please do the following:

1. Let us know if there is a PP mega-center (a building of more than 20,000 square feet) planned for your area.

2. Use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain floor plans (from your local building or zoning department) of the existing or proposed facility and send a copy to us.

3. If you currently have a presence outside of the PP facilities in your area, keep up the great work and make sure all regularly scheduled (at least monthly) events are listed in the American Life League Map Room (www.all.org/stopp/maps).

4. Begin a presence outside of any PP facility in your area where there is not already a presence. You will find information on how to get started in our Map Room.

5. Pray that God will direct our efforts and thwart Planned Parenthood's efforts to expand its business.