Pro-life blog buzz 3-1-13
by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.
- Live Action comments on the recent Al Jazeera appearance of Lila Rose, who was the sole representative of the pro-life cause on the program. Rose was pitted against several abortion supporters, including Katie Stack (formerly of MTV’s “No Easy Decision”), who is now employed as a clinic escort yet seems to be both struggling with and seeking to justify her past abortion:
- American Life League’s Judie Brown discusses the disregard for human life in the recent case of a pregnant New Jersey woman who ingested cocaine – passing the addiction on to her child – and was not found guilty of child abuse:
… [G]arbage is handled with more respect than human beings. We respect “mother earth.” We recycle to protect the environment and we process wet garbage to create compost that is then used for the farming of fruits and vegetables. But when we deal with inconvenient humans like preborn children, the disabled, or the dying, we disregard all manner of reverence for human life in favor of crass disdain.
- Down on the Pharm memorializes Dr. C. Everett Koop, who passed away this week at the age of 96:
Pro-lifers saw him as a man of conviction, driven by empathy for the sick and suffering.It remains a mystery to most… that a man who opposed homosexual activity would be a staunch advocate for HIV research. Most of the media, when recounting the accomplishments of Dr. Koop, have been remarking on this as though it is somehow contradictory. The rest of us see no contradiction or anomaly. Helping the sick is the natural thing to do, regardless of how they acquired the illness.
- Clinic Quotes posts a quote from Dr. John Fletcher in 1979 on sex-selection abortion – still very much an issue today:
The existence of some trivial reasons should not deter us from the larger goal of protecting the right of women to make such decisions in the first place…. It is inconsistent to support an abortion law that protects the absolute right of women to decide and, at the same time, to block access to information about the fetus because one thinks that an abortion may be foolishly sought on the basis of the information. - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition links to an article by Wesley J. Smith which states that despite its illegality, Belgium has been euthanizing disabled children for quite some time – and is now looking to make the killing legal. Eugenics is alive and well.
- The Leading Edge reports that during a membership drive week at Sydney University in Australia, LifeChoice Sydney’s booth was defaced with crude messaging (see right) which implied that free speech is only allowed if it doesn’t offend anyone else.
- Fletcher Armstrong says the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform will be bringing graphic abortion images to Nashville today for the start of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week. Gaylord Opryland Hotel Resort & Convention Center, the host of the convention, is now part of Marriott International, which has acknowledged in writing that they contribute to Planned Parenthood and will continue to do so.
- Bound4Life has an excellent analysis of Planned Parenthood’s claim that they deserve $542M/year because they are comprehensive health care providers. The fact is that every service PP offers is offered by other providers… except for abortion.
- Culture Campaign points to the case of parents bringing suit against the school their transgendered child, Coy, attends. The school refused to allow Coy to use the girls’ restroom, instead offering a neutral restroom in the faculty area, but the parents were not pleased. In two different news accounts of this case, it appears that the child’s mother is quite vocal, while the father remains more passive:
Mar.01, 2013 3:30 pm |
Blogs |
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.
A jury might have been reluctant to convict a cocaine-using pregnant woman of child abuse because doing so might influence another pregnant woman using cocaine to abort.
Passing WHAT drug addiction to her child? She tested positive for cocaine – that does NOT indicate an addiction – for mother OR child. Besides, you don’t need to pass on the actual drug to your offspring to pass the addiction gene. I figured you’d know this, Jill.
The court agreed, stating: “On its own, the one entry [a medical notation of a positive drug test] does not tell us whether the mother is an addict or used an illegal substance on a single occasion. The notation does not reveal the severity or extent of the mother’s substance abuse or, most important in light of the statute, the degree of future harm posed to the child. In other words, a [positive drug test], without more, does not establish proof of imminent danger or substantial risk of harm.”
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/law-and-order/federal-and-international/40196-unanimous-new-jersey-supreme-court-decision-affirms-that-drug-war-propaganda-and-junk-science-provides-no-basis-for-child-neglect-and-abuse-finding-against-pregnant-women.html
Rachel, then how come every OB/GYN i have ever seen told me not to drink, smoke, or do drugs while I was pregnant? Just a measure of austerity for mom?
What does common sense tell you about a mom who does drugs when she’s expecting? That she’s misunderstood? If my best friend who was pregnant came over for tea and told me she was doing cocaine, what would be my first concern?
Maybe, just MAYBE it would be for the unborn child who has no power whatsoever and needs an advocate outside of the womb who KNOWS that cocaine crosses the placenta and can advocate accordingly.
File this under “Let’s give it drugs. It’s not like it’s a REAL person”, which is next to the file, “The ultrasound will only CONFUSE the mother.”
It all comes down to what women want to do.
Quote by abortion advocate Katie Stack.
In TN a woman was convicted of child abuse for ingesting cocaine during her pregnancy. She also lost rights to her child who like the child in the story was born addicted.
yay for Tennessee! I wouldn’t live anywhere else!
If a woman chose to use cocaine while she knew she was pregnant, it is very unlikely to be a single, first use.
Prosecute these women and others will abort so babies won’t be born with drugs in their systems.
Don’t encourage abortion!
Hi Denise Noe,
You make a great point. Abortion will only be encouraged.
Yes it is tragic about the drug addicted pregnant woman, but for centuries pregnant women drank alcohol because water may have not been so readily available or been dangerous to drink if it was. Jesus’ mother Mary may well have during her pregnancy. Were these women guilty of inflicting alcohol abuse on their children? Is a woman convicted now if her child is born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? How about women who smoked during pregnancy and still do with children in the house? My mother would tell me how women of her generation never concerned themselves with what they ate or drank during pregnancy, and didn’t worry about taking aspirin or prescription drugs and didn’t even concern themselves with x-ray exposure. My former co worker of the same generation always said she was thankful she didn’t know all the “dangers” during her 10 pregnancies, which all resulted in perfectly normal children. Throughout the history of the human race pregnant women ingested all kinds of things that would make us cringe….and produced perfectly normal children.
If we start convicting women for what they do during pregnancy, a lot of women will wind up in prison. I would think the drug addicted woman and her child(ren) desperately needs help…or a tubal ligation if she flat out does not want help to end her addiction.
Drug-addicted women need help during pregnancy, not prosecution. I agree that the threat of prosecution will only encourage them to seek abortion.
One of my children went through methadone withdrawal after birth. It was really, really hard on all involved. His birthmother is still wracked with guilt over the fact that she needed methadone treatment during pregnancy, but to stop the drugs cold turkey could have caused miscarriage.
Methadone, which causes more severe withdrawal than cocaine because it is an opiate, leaves the baby’s system after three months. My son had some PT to catch up on his gross motor skills, but is now four years old and shows no problems or delays whatsoever. Once drugs are gone, they’re gone. They don’t continue to cause problems. All those articles about “crack babies” and now “opiate babies” are very sensational, and rarely follow the children past their withdrawal stage. Kids who are in stable homes–either with adoptive families or recovering users who have good support–have every chance to thrive.
In reality, alcohol is far worse prenatally. Alcohol can cause brain damage, and that’s not going to correct itself with three months of withdrawal and some PT. However, that’s also not some sort of dire inevitability…I am parenting two kids who had mild-to-moderate Fetal Alcohol Exposure, and they are both thriving as well.
The kids who do best in both scenarios are those with stable families who are trained to identify problems early and get help. I don’t think prosecution is the answer.
For the record: I am not condoning drug use, especially while pregnant.
According to the link I posted above, this baby was born healthy. Did you consider that maybe she didn’t have the prenatal care that you were lucky enough to have Courtnay? This is a woman that obviously chose to have her baby and not abort. (doesn’t that deserve a ‘yay!’?) Is charging her with neglect and abuse going to help her situation? Would you report your friend to the authorities? Or would you seek to find help for her? Would you not make sure she’s getting proper prenatal care?
There is no such thing as being born cocaine-addicted. That’s a myth. (are you picturing a baby popping out tapping her nose, licking her gums and screaming – MORE! I need MORE! Puh-lease.) Even cocaine withdrawal is difficult to identify. And if your concern is for babies born with addictions, you better be studying your family tree for patterns of alcohol addiction because use during pregnancy is not the deciding factor (any Irish Catholics in the house??). It would seem that tobacco use during pregnancy is more dangerous and yet many of us were born to mothers that smoked during their pregnancies before this was known. Withdrawal from alcohol addiction is the most dangerous of all of them – maybe bartenders should ask for pregnancy test results first before any women are served a drink?
If it’s your desire to police women’s wombs while they’re pregnant, is that really going to help your cause to eliminate abortion? Don’t we want healthy moms AND healthy babies? Do you think a pregnant mother with an addiction will seek proper medical care if she fears prosecution? Never mind that charging her with neglect/abuse may land this child and any other children in the system where G-d knows what kind of life they’ll have.
This is worth reading: http://www.lorennwalker.com/articles/drug_baby_article.html
From Guttmacher: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/03/6/gr030603.html
Your goal should be to help women help babies.
Oh Rachel. I am a recovering addict and I am a mother. I hail from many generations of proud drinking Irish Catholics. I’m a former user AND a former slut. I have also worked in drug rehab, so I SORT of know what I’m talking about.
If giving a baby alcohol or drugs AFTER they’re born is a crime, why would it not be a crime BEFORE they’re born?
And you never answered my question: why was I discouraged by my doctor to drink and drug during my pregnancies? Oh, and PS: I was not “lucky” enough to have prenatal care; I was RESPONSIBLE enough.
Hi Courtnay,
Excellent point about being RESPONSIBLE enough to get prenatal care and thank you so much for stressing it. How often I have seen women who have no trouble finding the local drug dealer, liquor store, McDonald’s drive-thru, or cigarette retailer, none of whom I’m sure give credit, but can’t make the effort to get prenatal care, even when its offered free of charge or on a sliding scale basis. Of course, its everyone’s fault but theirs. The gov’t should have a program to lead them by the hand. So help me, I’ve heard it suggested.
How’s that ivory tower, Mary.
Courtnay, So you would report your friend to authorities? As a recovering addict, you agree with the ‘system’ forcing drug abstinence through jail time versus offering mental health and substance abuse help? Oh yeah, you guys are all about ‘I regret my choices so you shouldn’t be given any’.
To answer your question: because the least amount of stress and ill-effects you can put on your pregnancy, then the better your outcome. We wish everyone a perfect pregnancy just as we wish everyone a cancer-free life. Are we all perfect? It sounds like you’ve made some regrettable choices in your life – don’t you own up to them? Or do you think others deserve to be judged and punished because society let you run amock? Isn’t everybody’s situation unique? Identify, don’t compare, right?
I feel it is not a crime before birth because of intent (and lack of personhood, as well as some biology, and yeah, that autonomy thing).
I have a serious question, Courtnay: Why do you self identify as a former slut? What relevance does that have to this conversation? Why is your sex life (or former one) anyone’s business but your own?
I don’t want women to hurt their unborn babies with drugs etc… but if we prosecute these women THEY WILL ABORT. If they don’t care enough about their babies to stop using drugs (and there are treatments available even for the poor) then will they care enough to not abort in order to stay out of jail? Denise Noe’s point is an excellent one. Sometimes good deeds have unintended consequences. We think we’re saving children by punishing their mothers but in the end more babies may die through abortion because of our punishments.
Rachel,
Please elaborate a little more on your comment concerning the ivory tower.
I think that there are few things more counterproductive than putting someone in jail for drug use, whatever the circumstances. I am never going to understand when people argue for it, even when it’s pretty obviously not working for our country. I’m glad that woman didn’t get a criminal record, she she be given help (which isn’t going to be found in the prison system).
And you don’t “pass on addiction” by ingesting cocaine while pregnant necessarily, that’s really awkward phrasing.
Rachel, I identify myself as a former slut because we pro-life Christian women are perpetually accused of slutshaming, of pointing the finger at any woman who is in a less than ideal situation, pregnant, and chooses to have an abortion because she doesn;t have the support and wherewithal to go through a pregnancy. It’s important that I brought it up because it lets you know I come to this issue with some context, and a piece of that context is that I have walked many a mile in other shoes. Just because I’m a happily married Republican Sunday School teacher and librarian totally sold out to Jesus doesn’t mean I don’t GET IT.
Now, you miss the point of my point. You want to smoke, drink, or shoot heroin, God bless you. I will tell you that it’s nothing but spiritual and physical ruin, but sometimes, especially addicts, you gotta figure that out on your own. I don’t think prison is particularly helpful, no, though it will help you get some sober time and some clear thinking. Drug rehab is helpful, but I can’t make you go there either.
However (and this is a big one, so stay with me here), if you are pregnant you are the sole provider and caretaker for that baby. You can argue personhood or bodily autonomy (and don’t forget to throw in patriarchy, that’s always a crowd pleaser), blah blah blah, but the fact is : if you’re a pregnant mom and you’re using, you are abusing your baby. JUST AS it would be if you were putting the vodka or cocaine in their bottle. At one point, the baby is inside you and then, naturally, he comes out. But inside you, you have the responsibility of a mother and an adult to make the right choices for him. Fetal abuse is real. your baby’s daddy could be charged for trying to assault an unborn child by hitting you, stabbing you, throwing you down the stairs; why would you not be equally culpable of physical abuse yourself?
I don’s have to intend to harm my child to harm my child, and be legally repsonsible for that. But this is the third time I am going ask you: why should any mother abstain from drugging or drinking while they are pregnant?
To answer your question, I would counsel my friend not to take drugs anymore. I would do whatever I could by way of prayer, pleading and begging to get her to see how she was harming her child. I would share with her what I’ve done, the bullets I missed, and the things I’ve seen. BUT to be clear, I would ALWAYS err on advocating for the unborn child, who needs a clear-minded advocate if her mom’s smoking crack. If that meant getting the law involved, you betcha. As a last resort, of course, but I would. I would do that if a mom was knowingly giving her born child drugs, why, wouldn’t you? And if not, why not?
Rachel, if you’ve been told that a baby isn’t really a human until he’s born, I will tell you forever and a day that you’ve been lied to, and grievously.
Courtnay said “. I would do that if a mom was knowingly giving her born child drugs, why, wouldn’t you? And if not, why not?”
I wouldn’t because a woman cannot legally kill her born child to escape prosecution. But right now it is legal to kill an unborn child. So if a woman is faced with prosecution for ingesting drugs while pregnant don’t you think she will just go and abort in order to escape facing prosecution?
I think you’re missing the point of our points Courtnay. It isn’t that we don’t think the unborn are fully human babies but that we’re concerned that if we jail pregnant women who use drugs they will simply keep using drugs and make themselves “unpregnant” (you know what I mean).
Courtnay, something about identifying yourself as a former slut to prove you’ve been-there-done-that somehow reminds me of someone that prefaces saying something racist or offensive by saying some of your best friends are those you’re about to offend or disparage, so it’s somehow OK. ‘You’re a slut but that’s OK for me to say because I’m a former slut. Woot!’ I don’t think it redeems yourself or your point of view in any way. You’re just reinforcing the fact that you think all women that seek abortion are sluts.
I am not missing the point of your point. Not every pregnant woman instantly realizes or accepts they’re now responsible for the development of this new being. Maternal instincts don’t always kick in, or exist at all. You also know as well as I do – as I also speak with addiction and recovery experience – that we’re not the most rational human beings when we’re using. We’re also probably the most selfish. Which leads me to answer your other question: if a mom was giving her born child drugs? – this is my point of ‘intent’. A pregnant woman taking drugs is intending on getting herself high. A woman giving drugs to a born child has nothing to do with getting herself high. If there’s intent to self-abort by ingesting drugs – that’s an entirely different conversation, in my opinion.
if a mom was knowingly giving her born child drugs, why, wouldn’t you? And if not, why not? – See more at: https://www.jillstanek.com/2013/03/plbb-3-1-13/#comment-443697
if a mom was knowingly giving her born child drugs, why, wouldn’t you? And if not, why not? – See more at: https://www.jillstanek.com/2013/03/plbb-3-1-13/#comment-443697
I am sober now and if I were to get pregnant, I know my reaction and decision to keep or not to keep would be much different than when I got pregnant 15 years ago. The clarity, gratitude, and – yes – appreciation for life – that we experience through our sobriety is nothing short of amazing, but we’re not on pedestals. We are always one drink, or one drug away from going right back to where we were.
I’m curious if you were in early recovery when you were pregnant and if so, how that experience was for you?
For Mary, I found this report on prenatal care in NJ and I thought you’d find this interesting:
http://www.state.nj.us/health/fhs/documents/task_force_report.pdf
“… a recent study which ranked New Jersey 40th in women receiving first trimester prenatal care, showed the critical needs that must be addressed to ensure the health of women and children in this state”
If prenatal care is as easy to afford and to access as McD’s, drugs and cigarettes, then why would a *task force* be needed to expose the fact that thousands upon thousands of women are not able to access, or unaware of the availability of prenatal care in the Garden State? Now lump upon that the goal of the right to cut Medicaid and eliminate resources such as Planned Parenthood and can you see how some women are left to wonder where they go, how they get there and how they’ll afford it? In your quest to make it harder to access abortion, you also make it harder to access healthcare. Oh, and the report also highlights the need of comprehensive sex ed. I believe this is also a big no-no in your book? When I comment on your ivory tower it’s because you’ve found it so easy to judge from your safe place and it’s apparent you haven’t stepped outside it to see why this might be difficult for some women. I found the NJ report easily by Googling. Maybe you should look past Ms. Stanek’s misleading headlines, the myths and falsehoods she and those like her perpetuate and do some research for yourself. Honestly, though I remember the crack-baby scare of the 80s, I was only a young teen then so I haven’t given it a 2nd thought until I saw this post claiming a cocaine addicted baby. I guess this is what I expect from people like Ms. Stanek who would probably like nothing more than to get this woman’s real name and photo so she can make a poster child out of her situation.
Rachel,
You were a young teen in the 1980s? LOL. Good grief do I have a head start on life on you or what? For starters, don’t you talk to me about ivory towers. Having worked in the medical area for over 40 years, probably about as long as you’ve been born, I’ve had the misfortune of seeing the side of human nature and social problems that aren’t quite as simplistic as any of your studies. I assure you my life has not ever been, and is not now an ivory tower so kindly refrain from making assumptions about what you know nothing about. I have seen and see real life, I don’t indulge in the luxury of studies. I got jarred out of my naivete when as a teenage nursing assistant I would encounter women in the wards of a large city hospital making no secret of the fact their multiple illegitimate pregancies were no accident. BTW, all these welfare ladies were getting prenatal care, hospital care, and pediatric care. They also were plenty old enough to access birth control and obviously knew where babies come from.
I was pointing out that there are women who do not have their priorities quite right. They can find the drug dealers, etc. but can’t take the time to see the doctor. A local doctor offered free prenatal services to a low income community free of charge. All the women had to do was show up. None did. The doctor was especially concerned because these women had a high rate of obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, and cigarette use. But as the doctor pointed out, he couldn’t hogtie these women and drag them in. You see Rachel, there’s something called personal responsiblity. I find it hard to believe that people know when to visit the ER, often times for the most trivial of reasons, but can’t figure out they need prenatal care. Maybe some just flat out don’t care. I’ve encountered plenty of that.
Also Rachel, if Planned Parenthood has been performing such a marvelous service, why are thousands of women unaware of prenatal care and not getting it? If Medicaid has been so valuable, why aren’t women getting care? It doesn’t seem like the existence of these programs has done much good, at least according to you.
Comprehensive sex ed. Rachel, do you have any idea how many of these young girls I have tried to talk out of becoming pregnant? They know all too well how to make babies…and prevent them. Yeah, you read that right. I wish the problem were as simplistic as handing out a birth control pill or condom. I have no problem with sex-ed. Unlike you I’m not so naive as to think it will solve this problem. I wish it would.
Oh and another thing youngster, the Maryland Attorney General is investigating Carhart so this young woman’s name was going to come out, especially since the medical examiner and police were also called into her case. Sorry, that’s the way it goes. Family tragedies become public for any number of reasons. Also, as such a supposed advocate for women, I would certainly expect you to be outraged that Carhart skipped town, leaving no physician coverage should this young woman suffer complications, and if she did then her written discharge instructions were not to go to the ER but attempt to call him instead. Yeah makes a lot of sense right? He’s on the other side of the country but call him. I wonder how much valuable time was lost because her family tried to contact him. This left the ER staff scrambling to desperately try to save this woman’s life, while frantically trying to contact Carhart, who they couldn’t reach, for vitally important medical information. It seems your disdain for Jill is a bit misdirected.