Abortion Doctor

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September 7, 2010

Don’t Feed the Anti-Abortion Monsters

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Information, Abortion Medical, Abortion Pill, Abortion Rights | Tags: , , , , , |
[17] Comments 
ABortion shot of Paul Jennings Hill.

ABortion shot of Paul Jennings Hill.

Years ago, I received a call from Paul Hill as he was sitting on death row in a prison in Florida.  Paul had been sentenced to die in the electric chair for murdering Doctor Baird Britton, an abortion provider in Pensacola.   From the time I first met Paul when we both appeared on “The Donahue Show,” I had struck up a strange relationship with him.  For those of you who don’t remember, Paul was the first person to say that it was “justifiable homicide” to kill a doctor who was about to “kill a baby” via an abortion.

During this conversation, I asked Paul why he had finally decided to pick up a shotgun and murder the doctor (and his bodyguard).   “Well, Ron, I wanted to send the message to others that it was time for them to take up their arms and stop the baby killing…”  As he talked, my head started spinning and, to this day, I don’t remember much about that rather surreal conversation.

The bottom line, however, is that Paul always enjoyed the attention, he enjoyed giving interviews at the drop of a hat, he enjoyed making people feel uncomfortable with his bizarre doctrine, a doctrine that made even most pro-lifers uncomfortable.  Indeed, I once was in Birmingham, Alabama to witness a demonstration by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue when their leader, Flip Benham, came up to me to ask if I could get any “dirt” on Paul.  Flip was concerned (or perhaps, jealous) that Paul was getting a lot of attention with his “wacky ideas.”

So, the other day I thought of Paul Hill’s desire for attention when I heard the “breaking news” that a gunman was holding several people hostage at the Discovery Channel corporate headquarters in neighboring Maryland.  Eventually, he was killed by the police.

The next day, however, this guy’s face was plastered all over the newspapers, the televisions and the Internet.  He apparently was into some environmental cause and he stormed the building to – you guessed it – bring national attention to his mission.  Over the next few days, there were the inevitable full page stories about him, his family, his website, his reason for taking the hostages.  In other words, he got his much-desired publicity after wrecking havoc for several hours.

It’s the same pattern, over and over again.  Someone does something “spectacular” to bring attention to his cause.  And the media gives them their attention.  Timothy McVeigh, to name one.

Why?

Why publish their names?   Why write articles about the perverted group that they were part of?

How about this one:   what if the media didn’t tell us the person’s name and didn’t tell us about their organization or their cause?  I’m not saying don’t report the incident.  Of course, we need to know something has happened.  But why do I need to know the name of the person?  Why do I need to hear about their wacky cause?   Believe me, we’re gonna forget about them rather quickly anyway.  In fact, here’s a test:   what was the name of the Virginia Tech shooter?

Why put these people on the cover of Time Magazine when that is EXACTLY what they want?  Personally, I don’t give a flying fig that their neighbors thought the killer was “such a quiet boy who was never a problem.”   It’s the same old pattern, time and time again.

Years ago, drunken baseball fans used to run onto the field to get attention.  Then, Major League Baseball stopped showing them when they ran onto the field.  And guess what happened?  The number of such incidents dropped dramatically because those drunken fools didn’t get their attention.

So, the next time a pro-lifer kills another doctor, don’t bother telling me his name, his motivation, the church that he attended.

Don’t feed the monster.

Related Articles
 

August 22, 2010

Thank you, Shannon Locke

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion Blog, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Centers, Abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Information, Abortion lies, Abortion MisInformation, Abortion Pregnancy Centers, Congressman, CPCs Criminal Activity, Obama is Pro Choice, Shannon Locke, Wyden | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[103] Comments 
Congressman Ron Wyden

Abortion Clinics & Congressman Wyden & Abortion CPCs

Sometimes one person can make a difference.

Her name was Shannon Locke.  In 1991, she was living in Arkansas when she discovered she was pregnant.  She decided to have an abortion.  So, she picked up her Yellow Page book and under the “Abortion” category she saw an ad for the “Central Arkansas Crisis Pregnancy Center.”   What attracted her attention was that they offered “free pregnancy tests.”  She called the clinic and, when she asked how much the abortion cost, the receptionist said she wasn’t at her desk and couldn’t check the price.  Still, Shannon made the appointment.

When she arrived at the facility, Shannon was greeted by several people wearing white lab coats.  She filled out some paperwork and was escorted to a waiting room where she was told she had to watch a tape about abortion.  Shannon sat there for about ten minutes, watching a film replete with pictures of mangled fetuses.  At some point, Shannon realized she was not in an abortion clinic and left in an almost traumatized state.  Ultimately, she obtained her abortion in Little Rock.

Months later, in my capacity as a staff person for the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, I met Kim Farrell, the administrator of Little Rock Family Planning Services.  At one point, Kim told me about Shannon Locke’s story (without revealing her real name).  I had no idea there were such things as “phony abortion clinics” but Kim gave me a good education.    The next day, I started calling random clinics and discovered that these facilities were all over the country.  We soon discovered an actual manual published by the Pearson Foundation, an anti-abortion group, which gave instructions on how to set up a “crisis pregnancy center.”   Among some of the tips were: adopt a name similar to the real abortion clinic, get a building as close as you can to the real clinic, wear clothing that makes your office look like a medical facility.

About a week later, Congressman Ron Wyden of Oregon told me he had just become the chairman of a committee that had jurisdiction over consumer protection issues.  I immediately thought about how “consumers,” i.e., patients, were being defrauded by these anti-abortion clinics.  I told him about this national problem and we devised a plan to hold a congressional hearing to expose the existence of these facilities.  And, to get us as much national exposure as possible, I knew we needed a “star witness.”  That’s when I thought of the young woman in Little Rock.

Working with Kim, we convinced Shannon, who was 19 at the time, to fly to Washington to testify.  I met her at her hotel that morning and she was understandably very nervous.  I have to admit I felt like I was using her, but I kept thinking of the greater good.  That morning she was the lead witness at a packed hearing.  This is an excerpt from her testimony:

I thought it was an abortion clinic because the ad said “free pregnancy testing, abortion information.”…I was taken to a small room and the lady explained to me that I was about to watch a film on abortion and I would enjoy it. I felt forced to view the film in order to know the result of my pregnancy test. The film showed very pregnant women entering clinics and showed abortions in the late stages of pregnancy. The film said the abortions were on women who were 8 to 10 weeks pregnant, but all of the women had cantaloupe-size bellies. The films said that abortion caused women to bleed to death, never have children again, and many women had hysterectomies….the lady started telling me I was killing a life that is God-given and that a fetus is a baby at the time of conception. . .One week after I received my abortion, a person from the Central Arkansas Crisis Pregnancy Center called my mom’s home. I had listed her number as an emergency contact on the medical form (Shannon did not want her mother to know about her abortion).   I advocate against the businesses existing because women like me will continue to look in the Yellow Pages and be fooled.. .Women who look in the Yellow Pages for abortion want an abortion and not harassment.

There was not a dry eye in the house.

The hearings made national news.  Shannon Locke had told millions of women of the existence of these phony abortion clinics.  On a side note, she had also told the world that she had had an abortion and when she got back to Arkansas, being a national “celebrity,” she faced incessant harassment from the local anti-abortion movement.   It was an unbelievably courageous act.

A few days later, I got a call from the lobbyist who represented the Yellow Pages.  He said that they had no idea that these facilities were not real clinics and that they wanted to correct the situation.  About a month later, the Yellow Pages established a new category for these anti-abortion centers called “Abortion Alternatives.”  Under the heading, they put in language warning consumers that the facilities listed in that category did not perform abortions.

Over the years, these crisis pregnancy centers have continued to ply their trade (as evidence by the recent HBO documentary).  But, after all the publicity generated by this congressional hearing, the number of women who unwittingly went to the anti-abortion centers dropped dramatically.  Hundreds of thousands of women were now educated about these facilities.

Go pick up your Yellow Page book and see the “Abortion Alternatives” category.

Then, take a moment to thank Shannon Locke.

 

August 18, 2010

The Donohue Show

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion Blog, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Information, Abortion Late, Abortion Medical, Abortion Pill, Late Term Abortion | Tags: , , , , , |
[27] Comments 
Abortion Pill

Abortion Pill

I follow the discussion on the Abortion.com Facebook page very closely and I appreciate the moderator posting some of my pieces.  From what I can see, a number of people are interested in some of the more unique stories about the days when I was at the National Coalition of Abortion Providers.   I’m not sure if this will be to your liking, but…..

At about 2:00 p.m. on March 10, 1993 I learned that Doctor David Gunn had been murdered as he approached his clinic in Pensacola, Florida.  For months, those of us in the abortion provider world knew something was going to happen.  Anti-abortion terrorism was spreading everywhere, folks were on edge.  I have to say that when I got the call, I was not in total shock.

The murder was front page news for several days.  A short time later, I got a call from a producer from “The Donohue Show.”  For you youngsters out there (or you oldsters who can’t remember where your bathroom is anymore), Phil Donohue was basically the first “Oprah.”  The producer said they wanted me to join Susan Hill, Doctor Tom Tucker, David Gunn, Jr. and a Mr. Paul Hill on the show a few days later.  I readily accepted the invitation.  Unfortunately, Doctor Tucker got stuck in a snow storm but Doctor Takey Crist, an abortion provider from North Carolina, chartered a private jet at the last minute to fill in for Tucker.  Susan Hill owned 8 clinics at the time and employed Doctor Gunn.  David Gunn, Jr., the son of the murdered doctor, had already become a celebrity of sorts by that time.  None of us knew who Paul Hill was.

When we got to the television station, we were escorted to the “Green Room” which is where we all met Paul Hill.  By that time, we had learned that he would represent the anti-abortion side on the show.  I shook his hand, he was very cordial.  When we went up to the stage, I was seated next to him.  Then, once the show started, Paul quickly told the world that it was “justifiable homicide” to kill an abortion doctor.  The crowd, a liberal New York crowd, collectively gasped.  They had never heard such a thing (neither had I).  I thought the audience was going to lynch him.  His remarks were especially outrageous in that the son of the murdered doctor was sitting three chairs from him on the stage.

I answered a few easy questions, although later on my friends said I had the “deer in the headlight” look about me.  At one point, I was talking about how some police were letting protestors block the clinics and I said that “we HAD a sheriff in Corpus Christi, Texas, who testified that he would never arrest the protestors because he was pro-life.”  Unfortunately, millions and millions of people across the country thought I said we “HAVE” a sheriff down there.  The next day I got a call from the sheriff of Corpus Christi who, screaming in my ear, told me that his office was being barraged with phone calls from angry pro-choicers.  I felt terrible when he told me he was actually pro-choice – but the damage had already been done.

During one commercial, Phil Donohue himself came over to me and said “Okay, someone is going to call in and ask you about that abortion pill.  What is it called, RU-483 or something?”    I told him it was RU-486.  Minutes later, “Marianne from Brooklyn” called to ask about the abortion pill.  I found out later that “Marianne” was actually one of the co-producers of the show calling from backstage.

Then there was Doctor Crist.  He was a large, dashing bearded doctor of Greek descent who on that day was not going to take any crap from Paul Hill.  He massacred him verbally, got more applause from the audience than anyone.  After the show, over the course of the next few weeks, his clinic received hundreds of calls from women who wanted to meet Doctor Crist personally.  He told me later that he received at least 50 proposals of marriage in the mail after his appearance.  Ah, the power of television.

During the commercials, I talked to Paul Hill and over the next year I saw him at a number of anti-abortion protests.  He became the national spokesman for the “justifiable homicide” doctrine.  Then, about 15 months later I got another call that Doctor Baird Britton and his bodyguard had been assassinated in Pensacola.  They were both shot by Paul Hill.

 

August 16, 2010

Pendergraft Abortion

Posted by Elena Carvin under Abortion Blog, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Pendergraft Abortion | Tags: , , , , |
[17] Comments 
Pendergraft Abortion

Pendergraft Abortion

A Florida abortionist’s medical license has been suspended a fourth time — and a prominent pro-life group is outraged the man hasn’t been drummed from the practice altogether.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman has tracked abortionist James Pendergraft — a “proven quack,” as Newman describes him — for years and tells OneNewsNow that a fourth suspension is not enough. The medical board, says the pro-life spokesman, is apparently missing the point: the impact on people.  “[He has] endangered women [and] killed women,” Newman states. “And so Operation Rescue is calling for not just a suspension of his medical license, but finally and completely an absolute revocation of his license before more women and children die.”

The pro-life leader describes Pendergraft’s five abortion clinics in Florida as “a menace to the public” that should be shut down. “The Florida Board of Medicine seriously dropped the ball by not revoking Pendergraft and forcing the closure of his clinics,” he says in a press release.

While outraged that Pendergraft’s license was not permanently revoked, Newman says people can have the last word on the subject.

Operation Rescue’s website contains contact information for Florida officials, and Newman is urging people nationwide to use that information to deliver a clear message to the Florida Board of Medicine that Pendergraft should be pushed out of the profession for good.  According to Operation Rescue, Pendergraft’s clinics — manned by other abortionists — continue to operate while he is on suspension.

 

August 15, 2010

Protecting the Rights of Anti-Abortion Protestors

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Advocates, Abortion Blog, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Doctor Murder, Abortion Information, Abortion Medical, Abortion Pill, Abortion Rates, Abortion Rights, Abortion RU486, Abortion Terrorism, Abortion Violence, FACE law, Free Speech, Free Speech Constraints, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, Muslims, Terrorism | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
[49] Comments 
Abortion Violence is wrong

Abortion Violence is wrong

As you probably know, a group of Muslims have indicated their interest in building a mosque a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.  Understandably, folks are up in arms, screaming that it would be an insult to the memory of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2011.   I totally understand their reaction.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up every day only to think about the loved one who was killed on that day.  But there is a bigger picture that opponents of the mosque are missing.

This country was founded on several basic freedoms, including the right to practice one’s religion.  And I would argue that that freedom extends to the desire to construct a site where your followers can congregate.  This debate over the mosque reminds me of the debate over the right of anti-abortion protestors to express their views on the abortion issue.  And, the pro-choicers may not like it, but I would generally defend the right of protestors to exercise their freedom of speech, including participating in some rather ugly activity.

Now, before you bust a gut, let me acknowledge that there is a limit to free speech and the fact is that most cities have laws that restrict certain activity.  So, for example, most cities have noise ordinances that would restrict the use of bullhorns outside of an abortion clinic.  Most cities have stalking laws that prohibit protestors from following someone and putting that person “in fear of bodily harm.”  Some cities have enacted laws creating “bubble zones” around an abortion clinic that protestors cannot enter.   Meanwhile, however, many people allege that the protestors are “harassing” abortion clinic staff and patients, but “harassment” is much harder to prove.  Generally, when the police get a call from a person claiming they were being “harassed,” the police will go to the site and try to resolve the problem without making any arrests.    Finally, on the federal level there is the FACE law (“Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances”) which basically guarantees the right of a woman to walk into a clinic unimpeded.

So, there are a crap load of laws out there that can be enforced.  And, as always, the police use them at their discretion.

But, back to the bigger picture.

I support the right of an anti-abortion protestor to stand in front of a clinic, as long as they are not trespassing.   I support their right to hold up those very ugly aborted fetus signs.  I support their right to scream at the top of their lungs as long as they don’t violate the noise ordinances.  I support their right to call the patient and/or the clinic staff “murderers.”   Indeed, in the mid-1990’s, when the Congress was considering the FACE law referenced above, I worked with the pro-choice Members of Congress and insisted that we insert language in the bill that reaffirmed the protestor’s right to free speech.

I don’t like the fact that the anti-abortion protestors are out there in front of the clinics.  I think it is mean spirited, not very Christian like.  I think all they do is upset the women who are already in a somewhat emotional state.  And the workers in the abortion clinic are understandably sensitive to the anti-abortion activity that is taking place in front of their very eyes.

But in this country, we need to think long term.  As in the case of the mosque, we need to remember that the Constitution guarantees some very basic and important freedoms that should not be restricted to accommodate some short term political agenda.

 

August 12, 2010

Guaranteeing Access to Abortion Clinics – The Time the Government Helped

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Advocates, Abortion Blog, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Heroes, Abortion Information, Abortion Late, Abortion Law, Abortion Medical, Abortion Pill, Abortion Rates, Abortion Rights, Community Development Block Grant, Cranston, Late Term Abortion | Tags: , , , , , |
[29] Comments 
Cranston Abortion

Cranston Abortion

This past weekend, I got a great treat.  I was alone in my house.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love my family.  But I have to admit it was fun to just putter around the house, drinking wine at 1:00 in the afternoon, taking a nap, drinking wine at 5:00.  At one point, however, I found some old newspaper clippings and noticed an article about something I was involved in when I worked for the National Coalition of Abortion Providers.

In the 1990’s the anti-abortion movement would hold massive demonstrations in front of abortion clinics.  It seemed like they could get hundreds of people at the drop of a hat to converge on a local facility.  They would march to the front door and sit down, preventing women from entering the clinic.  Of course, the clinic staff would immediately call the police but in conservative cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana or Birmingham, Alabama the police would just watch the demonstration.  That’s right – they would do absolutely nothing.  Hundreds of protestors were clearly trespassing but the police would just sit on their hands and let the demonstrators do their thing.  It was totally outrageous.

One day I was talking to a friend of mine who worked for Senator Alan Cranston of California and I told her about this problem we were having.  We started to think about how we could get local police to enforce the trespassing laws in those cities.  We came up with a brilliant idea.

In those days, just about every city in the country received “Community Development Block Grant” (CDBG) funds from the federal government.   These CDBG dollars were used for all kinds of projects:  to build affordable housing, construct new sewer lines, repair roads, etc.  Cities got millions and millions of these dollars (I know, those were the good ole days).

So, one night, when the U.S. Senate was in session Senator Cranston proposed an amendment to a bill saying in so many words that if the police did not do their job and arrest the trespassers, then that city would lose its CDBG funds.  Before the anti-abortion Senators knew what was going on, the amendment passed and ultimately became law.

The first thing we did was write a letter to every mayor of every major city in the country to tell them about this new law, just to put them on notice.  Our announcement caused an explosion around the country.  For example, within two days of the letter going out, I got a call from the Mayor of Philadelphia asking me about the new law.  No, that’s not entirely accurate.  What he actually said was “What the *%$)(#*@&% is this new law all about?   What the *#%()@#*%$# are you doing?”

After picking myself off the floor, I politely told him that he just had to make sure the police did their job and he would have nothing to worry about.  “*$()@*@(#%$,” he concluded and hung up the phone.  We never had a problem in Philadelphia again with protestors.

Also, whenever we heard about a demonstration that might take place, just to make sure I would call the Mayor of that city and warn him or her that they stood to lose a crap-load of money if the police ignored the protestors.  All of a sudden, police started making arrests in the most conservative of cities.

A lot of people are down on government.  They say there’s too much of it, it’s broken, keep it out of my face.  I get the argument.  But there are times like this one when government actually helped us guarantee that women would be able to exercise their constitutional right to have an abortion.

Is this a great country, or what?

 

August 12, 2010

Aborticentrism

Posted by Elena Carvin under Aborticentrism, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Advocates, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Pill, Abortion Rights, GAL | Tags: , , , |
[7] Comments 

Aborticentrism –

Learn More

Abortion.com
FaceBook Page


http://www.FaceBook.com/abortion.com.opine

http://www.Abortion.com


 

August 9, 2010

The Anti-Abortion Strategy

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion Advocates, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Doctor Murder, Abortion Heroes, Abortion Information, Abortion Medical, Abortion Pill, Abortion RU486, Late Term Abortion, morning after pill | Tags: , |
[59] Comments 
Abortion

73% of America is Pro Choice

For years, there has been a raging debate within the anti-abortion movement about whether to take an incremental approach to restricting access to abortion versus going for the whole enchilada, i.e., banning abortion outright in the Congress or through the courts.  Fortunately, they’ve taken the wrong approach.

For years after Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, the anti-abortion movement focused most of its energies on trying to pass the “Human Life Amendment” and/or the “Hatch Constitutional Amendment.”    The HLA was a non-starter from the beginning.  That legislation, introduced by the late Senator Jesse Helms, simply declared that “life begins at conception” and that the fetus was a “person” from the moment of conception.  That one was laughed out of the room.  The more serious effort was the Hatch (as in Senator Orrin Hatch) Amendment which basically overruled Roe v Wade, thus sending the issue of the legality of abortion back to the individual states.  After years and years of furious lobbying, however, that measure was handily defeated in 1981.

Badly beaten, the anti-abortion movement started coming up with ways to make it more difficult to obtain an abortion in this country.   They were successful early on in restricting the use of federal funds for abortions.  Then they started looking to the state legislatures for help.  They came up proposals imposing 24 hour waiting periods, requiring minors to get the permission of their parents to get an abortion, mandating that clinics show women pictures of fetal development and others.  Then there was the famous “partial birth abortion” campaign that took place on both the national and state level.

In many states, these efforts were successful.  Or I should say they were successfully enacted into law.  But if the goal of the anti-abortion movement is to “save babies,” well, these laws hardly had an impact.

The fact is that the desire to have an abortion can be so strong that most women will walk over burning coals to get one.  So, having to jump through some additional hoops and fires is not the deciding factor for most women.  And before you pro-choicers start jumping all over me, I will say that, yes, having to wait 24 hours when you’ve traveled across the state will mean an extra expense.  And the minor who feels she cannot talk to her parents might wind up going to an adjoining state that doesn’t have any restrictions.  These are very unfortunate situations, but while it’s impossible to prove a negative, my gut tells me that the number of abortions has not dropped dramatically because of these laws.   Babies have not been saved, folks.

Then there’s the “partial birth” abortion law.  That one is the biggest joke and biggest scam.  I can tell you for a fact that this law has had no effect whatsoever.   That’s because abortion doctors have other procedures at their disposal to do late term abortions.  Yes, the pro-choice groups argued that the “partial birth” abortion procedure as defined in the legislation was so vague that it could apply to most abortion procedures but, guess what, not one doctor has been prosecuted under this law.  Geez, were our friends hyping things a little?

The fact is that the number of abortions has been decreasing every year, but lemme tell you honey, it ain’t because of these pesky little laws.  It’s because young people are getting smarter, pure and simple.  Just sit in on an 8th grade sex education class in your local high school and you’ll see what I mean.

If I were running some anti-abortion organization, I’d be looking at the Supreme Court.  I’d be anticipating a one-term Obama presidency and I’d be trying to pass some outrageous anti-abortion legislation, just outlawing it outright, in the hopes that 10 years from now it would reach a possibly more conservative Court.  But if the anti-abortion movement wants to waste their time on 24 hour waiting periods, I say go for it…..

 

August 3, 2010

New HBO Documentary: Boring

Posted by Pat Richards under 12th & Delaware, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Doctor Murder, Abortion Information | Tags: |
[32] Comments 
Abortion

12th & Delaware - Abortion and CPCs

Boring, boring, boring.

Last night I watched the new HBO documentary entitled “12th and Delaware.”  On the corner of that street in Fort Pierce, Florida there is an abortion clinic called “A Woman’s World” and right across the road is an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center” called, uh, well I don’t remember their name and I’m too lazy to do the research but it’s something like Pregnancy Center.

The show basically depicted a week (or so) in the lives of the folks who work in each facility.  The cameras focused more on the anti-abortion center and their efforts to persuade women from having abortions.

They started off by taking us inside the anti-abortion center where some “counselor” is trying to convince a young woman to have the baby.  The one thing that they didn’t tell us was how the young girl actually got into the anti-abortion center.   Did she go there thinking she was going to an abortion facility or did she just go there on her own free will?   I ask because the pro-choice movement makes a big deal out of these center luring women under false pretenses.  But I suspect that these women, and several others after her, went in on their own and just sat there and listened to a bunch of drivel about how abortion causes breast cancer, how it makes it more difficult to have future babies, how it makes you go psycho, etc.  A few of the women actually told the counselor that they were going to have the abortion but they still remained in the facility.  One even shared a MacDonald’s lunch with the counselor.  I know I was missing something.

Then, at one point a young lady tells the counselor that she will not have the abortion.  Praise Jesus!   We’ve saved a baby!  The counselor was in tears.  Hurray, we’ve convinced another indigent, 17 year old to bear another baby to add to the welfare rolls!

Boring.

Then the cameras shifted to a pathetic group of anti-abortion protestors who were standing outside the clinic.  One female octogenarian would wave a little plastic fetus at the women as they walked into the facility.  Then, accompanied by dark, foreboding music, the cameras turned to a stocky, young lad in sunglasses and a too tight biker t-shirt.  They followed him as he tailed a yellow Mustang that was used by the clinic staff to escort the abortion doctor (who had a bed sheet over his head).  This protestor was your typical misogynistic, chauvinistic, supercalifragilistic white trash, probably divorced with three kids from three different mothers, recently lost his job at the auto body shop type of a protestor.  I swear to God that when he finally caught a glimpse of the abortion doctor, when he actually saw the vile abortionist’s face, Joe Six Pack had an orgasm.

Boring.

Then there was the abortion doctor.  I know docs have been killed over the last two decades.  I personally knew 3 of them quite well.  I know more might get killed.   On the other hand, I cringe when I see a doctor, like the one who worked at this clinic, putting a bed sheet over his head as he is driven into the garage of the clinic.  I know it’s for security reasons.  I get it, I get it.  But I also think that the doctor hiding in the shadows bit perpetuates the abortion stigma.  Fortunately, on the other hand, there are so many other abortion doctors who walk into their clinic, face held high and even talk to the protestors.  Yes, they may be carrying a gun and they’re on red alert, but I prefer that approach to the “I will not show my face” approach.

So, in the end I learned nothing new.  The activities of the anti-abortion counseling centers have been the subject of congressional hearings in the 1990’s, “exposes” by Prime Time and Nightline and numerous articles in the mainstream media.  We know they’re out there and I basically don’t like it but nothing will change.  The protestors, the phony counselor and the abortion clinic staff will continue to go about their business.

Boring…

 

July 31, 2010

Do Anti-Abortion Laws Cause More Late Term Abortions?

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion & Religion, Abortion Advocates, Abortion Discussion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Doctor Murder, Abortion Information, Abortion Late, D&E, Hyde Amendment, Late Term Abortion, Not Informed | Tags: , , , , , |
[23] Comments 
Henry Hyde Abortion

Henry Hyde Late Abortion Creator

The anti-abortion movement thinks abortion should be illegal.  Good for them, go for it, knock yourself out.

I would guess, however, that if they had their druthers, the anti-abortion crowd would also say that if you’re gonna have an abortion you should have it as early as possible.  I mean, it goes without saying that if you wait too long, the fetus will grow and grow and grow.  And no one likes the idea of abortion at 23 or 24 weeks.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of women who get “later” abortions are minors or poor women.  But here’s the irony – it might be the anti-abortion movement that is responsible for a lot of these late term abortions.

Hey, Pat, are you off your rocker?   Have you totally lost it?

Chill out, folks, lemme explain.

A woman receiving Medicaid assistance gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion.  She calls the local clinic and they tell her that the price for a first trimester abortion is $400.  That’s a lot of money for this woman.   Years ago, the anti-abortion movement enacted the “Hyde Amendment” which says that you cannot use your Medicaid card to get an abortion unless your life was endangered.   Now, if there was no such thing as the Hyde Amendment, this woman would just go to that clinic, give them her Medicaid card and have the abortion right away.    But, instead, she is now looking for $400 that she didn’t anticipate needing.  She doesn’t have a credit card, no bank account to speak of, no rich friends.   So, she has to spend precious time finding the $400 somewhere.  Meanwhile, the baby is growing.  Ultimately, she might get the $400 but by that time she is more advanced and abortions cost more money the later they are performed.   It’s a viscous cycle.  Ultimately, she might get the cash but she’s now in her 19th week.

Were it not for the Hyde Amendment, the abortion would have been performed within days of her discovering her pregnancy.

Then there are the minors.    A 15 year old girl discovers she is pregnant.  Now, at that age she might delay any conversation about her situation because she just might not be sure that she is pregnant.  But once she verifies it, the chances are that she lives in a state that requires her to get the permission of her parents.   These laws, of course, are all courtesy of that anti-abortion movement again.   But the girl’s family is not Ozzie and Harriet land.  In fact, she is petrified of going to her parents, one of whom beats her on a regular basis. So she waits and waits, perhaps thinking she might have a miscarriage and the issue will just go away.  In denial, she remains mum.  Then, her stomach starts to expand and, despite her wearing loose clothes, she ultimately is panicking that her parents will notice.  Only at that point, perhaps now in her 18th week, does she reluctantly go to her parents to give them the news and, hopefully, get their permission for an abortion.

If there were no parental consent laws in her state and she felt she could not talk to her parents, she would have found a good friend or close relative that she could confide in and secured the abortion much earlier.

Ironic, isn’t it?

 

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