Pro-life news brief 4-3-13
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- At National Review, Michael J. New gives his take on why the pro-life movement will continue to struggle against abortion in a sex-saturated culture, and how he believes abortion and same-sex marriage are related.
- Alabama legislators have passed new abortion clinic regulations:
The [Women's Health and Safety Act] requires abortion clinics to use doctors who have approval to admit patients to hospitals in the same city. Some clinics now use doctors from other cities that don’t have local hospital privileges. A similar law in Mississippi is threatening to close that state’s only abortion clinic, which is challenging the law in court.The bill also sets stricter building requirements, including wider halls and doors and better fire suppression systems. The state Department of Public Health, which regulates Alabama’s five abortion clinics, reports that most will not meet the stricter standards.
- Yesterday at the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, Dr. Karen Feisullin (pictured left) testified regarding Gosnell’s abortion practice, noting that his ultrasound machine was ancient:
Feisullin… [testified] that: There was no medical reason for Gosnell’s practice of cutting and storing the feet from aborted fetuses.Late-term abortions – those close to the 24-week gestational age after which abortion is illegal in Pennsylvania – are rare in her experience and, in those cases, the fetus is injected with potassium chloride to stop the heart before the procedure begins.
Babies are almost never born alive in late-term abortions and, when they are, they are provided “comfort care” until they die. Feisullin said she never heard of any other physician snipping with scissors the spinal cords of babies born alive and viable….
The defense lawyer then walked back to the table and his client, but not before Feisullin asked: “Are we going to talk about how they’re all over 24 weeks?” McMahon told her she was not allowed to ask questions.
A little background on Karen Feisullin – she’s an OB/GYN in the greater Philadelphia area who does two to four second trimester abortions per week and has written a couple of book chapters on contraception with Carolyn Westhoff, a well-known abortionist who was the recipient of an award given out by Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Westhoff is also the senior medical adviser for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
- Operation Rescue has many more details from the Gosnell trial, where crime scene investigator John Taggart (pictured right) also spoke:
Taggart testified that last Friday he returned to the clinic and retrieved one final item which was also in court.It was a large garbage disposal that was under the sink in the wash room that was between the O’Keefe and Monet abortion rooms where jars containing the severed feet sat on a shelf….
- In the New York Post, Michael Benjamin (a former legislator who was pro-choice) demolishes Governor Andrew Cuomo’s claim that the Reproductive Health Act would only codify Roe v. Wade by simply explaining what the bill would do:
For starters, it would ban the prosecution of criminals who cause the death of an almost-born child. This has absolutely nothing to do with Roe or protecting women; so its inclusion is especially odd — if not wrong….Second, the bill removes age restrictions on abortion — removing parents’ ability to decide whether their children under the age of 16 has access to contraceptives and morning-after abortion pills….
Third, the bill would let non-doctors perform abortions and make medical judgments about when a mother’s life might be in danger….
Fourth, the bill removes accountability for doctors who perform an illegal procedure that leads to the death of a woman.
[Taggart photo via philly.com; Feisullin photo via vitals.com]
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.
