Links - the abortion issue

Obama on FOCA“The Bad Old Days of Abortion”

What did pre-legalization abortions look like in practice? There were physicians who ran abortion mills, physicians who did selected abortions on their own patients, physicians who worked patients in through loopholes in the law. In addition to physician abortionists, there were the professional non-physicians, often operating with training, equipment, medications, and back-up provided by physicians. Here are more representative stories of pre-legalization abortions:

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Who performed abortions before they were legal?

(hint:  doctors)

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The bombing of abortion clinics

The last murder of an abortion clinic worker was 10 years ago Thursday.

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What is FOCA?

A government may not

(1) deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose –

(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or

(2) discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph (1) in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.

Section 6 adds:

This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.

The section highlighted above in bold italics means that FOCA, if passed, will accomplish two things:

1. it would invalidate all current and future statutes, ordinances, regulations, administrative orders, decisions, policies, or practices–at any level of government–that regulate or restrict abortion in any way;
2. it would mandate taxpayer funds to be used at the state and federal level for abortion services (not to do so would discriminate against the “rights” of abortion set forth in the bill).

The National Organization of Women says that FOCA “would sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws, policies.” Planned Parenthood says FOCA “would invalidate existing and future laws that interfere with or discriminate against the exercise of the rights protected.”

What are some of these state laws? The Family Research Council has complied the following list:

• All 50 states have abortion reporting requirements
• 46 states have conscience-protection laws for individual health-care providers
• 44 states have laws about parental notification
• 40 states have laws restricting late-term abortions
• 38 states have bans on partial-birth abortions
• 33 states have laws requiring counseling before an abortion
• 16 states have laws about having ultrasounds before an abortion

From Between Two Worlds

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Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength

Do you know what you get if you run a DNA test on an embryo, a fetus, and a baby? Human, I expect, and I would be very shocked to hear anyone even try to maintain otherwise. Too easy to take samples to labs and have the matter settled once and for all. I mean, you could hardly screen for Down Syndrome in utero if you didn’t know where in the human DNA sequence to look for the genetic problem, could you? In the case of a human pregnancy, “embryo” is an early stage in human development. “Fetus” is a later stage in human development. “Baby” is, in Abortion Rights terms, a still later stage in human development. What cannot be so easily escaped at this point is that we are talking about an early stage in human development: the developing human being is not fully developed but is fully human. The Abortion Rights supporters have long confused the two issues, equating “human” with a certain developmental stage. This is the ground on which they are, factually, simply wrong. We have some options in bringing this to light. We could factually call that which is aborted:

• human life in the early stages of development
• the embryonic (or fetal) stage of human development
• developing humans at the embryonic (or fetal) stage.

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From Slice of Laodicia

Note: At 4:48pm central, a call was made to the Clarion Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The clerk was asked to confirm whether a discount was offered to patients at the Cherry Hill Women’s Center (abortion clinic). The female clerk answered, “Yes. The rate would be $59 dollars a night instead of $109.” The caller than said: “Let me get this straight, if I KILL my baby, I get a discount from your hotel. If I KEEP my baby, I don’t.”

The clerk answered, “Yes.”

Wow. Just wow.

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On the “Born Alive” act

Obama’s case against the bill did not revolve around existing state law, as he seemed to suggest last night. The law Obama referred to in the debate was the Illinois abortion statute enacted in 1975. But at the time of the debate about the Born Alive Act, the Illinois Attorney General had publicly stated that he could not prosecute incidents such as those reported by nurses at Christ Hospital in Chicago and elsewhere (including a baby left to die in a soiled linen closet) because the 1975 law was inadequate. It only protected ”viable” infants-and left the determination of viability up to the ”medical judgment” of the abortionist who had just failed to kill the baby in the womb. This provision of the law weakened the hand of prosecutors to the vanishing point. That is why the Born Alive Act was necessary-and everybody knew it. Moreover, the Born Alive Act would have had the effect of at least ensuring comfort care to babies whose prospects for long-term survival were dim and who might therefore have been regarded as ”nonviable.” As Obama and the other legislators knew, without the Born Alive Act these babies could continue to be treated as hospital refuse. That’s how the dying baby that Nurse Jill Stanek found in the soiled linen closet got there.

This is the bill that Obama voted against even allowing the bill to leave committee and be voted on by the full Senate and voted “present” when it was voted on.

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How many late term abortions are elective?

In the middle of 1998, the state of Kansas instituted a mandatory reporting policy that required Tiller to submit information about the abortions that he performs.  The Kansas Department of Health and Environmental Statistics has recently published this information: http://www.kdhe.state.ks.us/hci/absumm.html.

The information sends a clear message: the majority of late-term abortions are purely elective.  They typically involve healthy babies and healthy mothers.  If you are inclined to disagree, or if you have a hard time believing that mainstream abortion practitioners would be willing to kill babies that are months from being born, then I ask that you continue reading.  You will be amazed—and hopefully outraged—when you see the data for yourself.

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Why I Do Not Describe Myself as “Pro-Life”

“Pro-life” is a broad term that covers a lot of territory. And it doesn’t describe me.

I am generally “anti-abortion” - I do not support the “choice” of abortion. When the life or health of a mother is in true danger, that is not a “choice”, that is a necessity.

I am against the “right” of a woman who got drunk, had a one-night-stand, and got pregnant as a result to flush her baby down a drain.

“Pro-life” includes those who would fight against capital punishment and those who condemn those who “pull the plug” to end a loved-one’s suffering. That is not me.

- Capital Punishment

I believe there are times when capital punishment is a righteous punishment. The preciousness of life is reinforced by the severity of the punishment. It is like-for-like justice; if you take a life, yours will be taken.

The punishment of capital punishment is not parallel to death by abortion. The death of a person convicted of murdering another human being…is not the same as ending the innocent life of an unborn child.

A murderer chose to commit an act that may be punished with the death penalty. The unborn victim of abortion makes no such choice.

A murderer is executed by a governmental authority that is put in place by God to protect its citizens. The unborn victim of abortion is executed by his or her mother.

A murderer has exerted the power of life and death over another human being. The unborn victim of abortion is the victim of another who exerts the power of life over another human being.

A murderer has preyed on another. The unborn victim of abortion is the prey.

- End of Life Issues

Ideally, adult Americans think about this part of the future.  Making a choice about “end of life” issues involves making a choice in their own future (which is different than choosing to end the life of an unborn child.)  If a person is essentially “dead already”, there is no medical hope for survival, that person (or designated power-of-attorney) should be able to hasten the inevitable.  Especially for a Christian, one who is suffering on this side of the grave knows that eternity is on the other side and death is the invitation to the wedding feast with the Bridegroom.  There is a bottle that hold the key and the dying know that.

- War

I believe there is such a thing as a “just war”.   A just war is not about money or oil or boundaries or power.  A just war is about protecting people.  A governmental authority has the responsibility of protecting its citizens.

If that means hunting down and killing Osama Bin Ladin (which I think could and should have been done long ago) in order to prevent him from killing more people, that is just.

If that means coming to the defense of a country that has been invaded, that is just.

If that means hunting down a dictator who has killed and tortured many of his own citizens, that is just.

A “just war” makes a point of protecting the innocent as much as is humanly possible.  Soldiers who deliberately attack civilians should be punished to the full extent of the law.

(NOTE ABOUT IRAQ)  Even in the beginning, I was skeptical about our country’s invasion of Iraq.  I did not support that war, although many of our congress (both sides of the aisle) believed it was the right thing to do at the time.  Whether or not the reason to have gone was just, we are there now - for better or worse.  The question for the next president is:  how do we get out?

I am not about protecting every beating heart.  I’m about protecting the innocent…and who is more innocent than an unborn child?

“It’s Somebody Else’s Fault…” (NOT)

Read the story here.

The synopsis…”Mr Bush made this woman have an abortion she didn’t want.” Seriously (but not literally), that’s what she believes.

A 42-year-old woman with two kids and her husband discovered themselves with some “rare couple time” and were “overcome with passion”…and she “forgot” to use her barrier method of birth control.

So…the next day she called her doctor to get a prescription for “plan B” (the “morning after pill).

Oh…like all contraceptive pills, you can only get this by prescription. There was a movement to make this contraceptive pill available “over the counter”, but the FDA has major doubts about whether or not the product was safe for young women under 17. There is NO procedure in place at this time for making the same product, for the same indication, available for both prescription and over-the-counter sales, with age being the only factor involved. The “morning after pill” remains prescription only - “bad Republicans” (not)

So…she tried to get a prescription.

Oh…in Virginia, health-care practitioners are allowed to refuse to prescribe any drug that goes against their beliefs. This woman was “dumbfounded” to discover that physicians (first, do no harm…”) are allowed to make decisions based on their ethics - “bad Republicans” (not)

So…she decided to take her chances and hope for the best…

Oh…nature wins. Now, this woman is “angry” - the morning after pill was supposed to be available (proposed to have been) OTC by now…and those “nasty Republicans” want to make sure that the product is safe for use by all who can legally purchase it.

So…the FDA and all of these doctors were “partly responsible for why I was stuck that Friday, and why I was ultimately forced to confront the decision to terminate my third pregnancy.”

Oh…does she think that perhaps her “momentary lapse” (irresponsibility) might have had just a little bit to do with her accidental pregnancy? “Bad Republican” (not)

So…she had to find an abortion provider. Maybe she just isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but she says, “trying to get information on how to abort a pregnancy in 2006 is an even more Byzantine experience.”

Oh…Honey, one word. “GOOGLE”. It took me 5 seconds (including backspacing through a typo) to find six abortion providers sin my area. Including one called “Abortion Clinic.” This woman eventually discovered (drumroll….) “Planned Parenthood” - only about the most famous abortion provider in the country.

So…she didn’t want to wait for 24 hours (her state has a mandatory waiting period) so she went to downtown DC…

Oh…but she feels that “this administration gave [her] practically no choice but to have an unwanted abortion”

Definitely…somebody else’s fault.

NOTE: I have no objection to a couple’s responsible - and informed - use of (non-abortificant) birth control. I have used birth control and I remain anti-abortion. I have had two accidental pregnancies (one was miscarried, the other is named “Amanda” and is almost 18).

It is the liberal mindset of “it’s somebody else’s fault” and playing the blame-game for one’s one irresponsibility and choice to have an abortion that angers me.

This woman chose to have unprotected sex and then she chose to abort the child that was conceived as a result. She needs to own both of those choices.

Here’s Something I Already Knew

Read the article here.

My son was born at 32 weeks gestation. I watched the “heel pricks”, the IV’s, the gavage tubes. I said then that babies that little feel pain.

There is a place where we need to go with this information.

The nervous system development of babies is the same whether they are at 32 weeks gestation (inside the womb) or at 32 weeks gestation (and about to be born) or at 32 weeks gestation (and just been born).

They all feel pain.

“Partial birth abortion” is about the most barbaric way for an unborn baby to die. And they can’t say anymore that they don’t feel pain.