Abortion

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October 25, 2012

Poisoned Truth in the Media

Posted by DrK8 under Abortion, Abortion & Religion, Abortion Information
[12] Comments 

Following the third presidential debate, I keep thinking about the word truth. It’s swirling around in my head like a single-ingredient word stew simmered in the propagandistic broth of politics. But this stew is not fit for human consumption as evidenced by the debate. No longer can the American diet stomach what is called truth in the media. The admixture of financial greed and political misogyny has poisoned truth.  From corporate greed, government’s corporate welfare programs especially for media conglomerates and corporate donations to politicians, there is little to no incentive to worry about truth. Idealistic journalists intent on investigating wrong doing find their interests ignored by editors who worry that the report will offend their viewers and their advertisers.

So, here are a few examples of what poisoned truth looks like in the corporate-owned, profit-driven, media.

  • When legislators, aligned with the anti abortion movement, pass targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP)laws, the news media will recast the story as a bill advocating for women’s health. For example, the recent spate of laws requiring abortion clinics to meet surgical suite standards does not apply to plastic surgeons, dermatologists, periodontists or family physicians who dabble in minor surgery.  TRAP laws are designed to make access to abortion difficult if not impossible. There’s no real truth in their desire to protect women.
  • Nearly two years ago, Republican Reps. John Boehner, Paul Ryan and tea party adherents took control of Congress, promising to fix the economy. Instead, they attacked women’s health and have continued to this day. Yet, the mainstream media promotes absurd sound bytes from radicals instead of speaking to the obvious truth about the war on women’s health. Those sound bytes about using aspirin between the knees as birth control or special hormones to prevent pregnancy during a violent rape help sell stories but they do absolutely nothing to speak the truth about overwhelmingly obvious religiously motivated battle against women and their reproductive rights.
  • Promiscuity police like Rick Santorum and others in the Republican party promote abstinence education programs in public schools, fearing any comprehensive sex education would only encourage sexual promiscuity. But the research proves otherwise. Studies about condom availability programs, designed to decrease unwanted pregnancy and HIV infections, found no increased rate of sexual activity. Sexuality education programs do not increase sexual behavior but, in fact, tend to delay initiation of sexual activity. But where is the hard-hitting news media when reports are released about the alarming teen STI infection rates where one out of four teens (50% among African Americans) have at least one infection?
  • The availability of emergency contraception, according to the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco conducted a review of 16 studies on the impact of providing EC to adult and adolescent women. The review found no evidence that access increased sexual risk taking. It found that women did not abandon their regular method of contraception when they had access to EC; did not engage in increased sexual activity; and did not have increased incidences of STIs. Instead of reporting on the value of EC, the news media focuses on a myth about high schools who give out emergency contraception without the consent or even knowledge of the parents or stories about religiously affiliated pharmacists who believe that they have the right to refuse to administer EC to women.
  • And the ruckus created by the introduction of the HPV vaccine among sex-phobic parents and politicians, lead to comments about the vaccine encouraging young women to become sexually active. But the facts from research of medical records of young women under age 16 for indications of sexual activity found no difference between those who had been vaccinated and those who had not. This adds to an earlier study of young women ages 15 to 24, which also found no association between the HPV vaccine and risky sexual behavior. But when Governor Rick Perry (R)  demanded that young girls in Texas be required to have the vaccination at the parents’ expense, mainstream media failed the public. It failed to mention that Perry had a cozy financial relationship with the pharmaceutical company that makes the vaccine.

It’s evident that mainstream media loves sound bytes. Featuring gratuitous video of Todd Aiken speaking about rape or Joe Walsh  saying that abortion is unnecessary because the life of a mother is never at risk may be good for business but it’s not good for our democracy which depends on an informed citizenry. Promoting Republican poppycock makes a mockery of the myth of the liberal media. Women deserve facts based on medical evidence not drivel from God-deluded bishops.  Young women deserve age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in schools and not shame-mongering tactics of abstinence only programs or blasts from shock jocks calling women sluts when all they want and deserve is contraception.

We count on the media to provide a well-reasoned voice against power and money but it’s nearly impossible when corporations who support politicians and influence government, own the media.

 

October 21, 2012

A Lull in Anti Abortion Terrorism- Then More Carnage

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion Blog, Abortion Centers, Abortion Clinic, Abortion Information | Tags: |
[12] Comments 
Abortion

Abortion

And then the shooting suddenly stopped…

Between March 1993 and December 1994, the terrorist campaign against abortion providers was relentless.  Over the course of those 20 months, Michael Griffin had crept up behind Doctor Gunn and shot him in the back, Paul Hill put his shotgun to Doctor Britton’s face knowing the doctor wore a bullet proof then took aim at the two other passengers in the car, and John Salvi walked calmly into two clinics and indiscriminately started shooting anyone who happened to be there, killing two clinic workers.  Meanwhile, during this same period, Doctor George Tiller had survived an attempted assassination in Wichita, Kansas.

Then, for almost three years, the guns went silent.

Not that this campaign of “domestic terrorism” ceased altogether.  During those years, there was a rash of butyric acid attacks against clinics.  At night, an assailant would take a syringe that had been filled with the acid and injected it through the keyhole of an abortion clinic. The next day, when clinic staff opened the door, they were hit with the powerful smell that, while it did not kill anyone, sent numerous workers to the hospital.  It also forced abortion clinics to close for days and spends hundreds and thousands of dollars trying to get rid of the toxic element.

Abortion

Abortion

Then, on October 28, 1997, Doctor David Gandell, an abortion doctor in Rochester, New York was sitting in his home when a shot went through his window and he was injured by flying glass.  Unfortunately, no one really paid much attention to the incident.  Part of the reason was because the doctor was not well known, he did not go to any meetings, was not public about what he did.  And he was “up there” in Rochester.  Furthermore, he wasn’t killed, he was “only” injured.

So, for a few years, things were relatively calm.  We felt that the Clinton administration’s Department of Justice was on the watch, many doctors started shelving their cumbersome bullet proof vests and we started to let our guard down a little.  We didn’t know that another terrorist by the name of Eric Rudolph was out there plotting.

On July 27, 1996 Rudolph detonated a bomb at the site of the Atlanta Summer Olympic games, killing spectator Alice Hawthorne and wounding 111 others.  Then, in January 1997 he planted a bomb at the Northside Family Planning Center, an abortion clinic in the suburbs of Atlanta but no one was injured so, again, because there were no “bodies,” the media did not cover it well.

Then, on the morning of January 29, 1998, Rudolph left a bomb composed of dynamite surrounded by close-packed nails in some bushes near the entrance to the All Woman New Women abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.  He lingered near the scene holding a remote-control and at 7:33 a.m. he detonated the device when he saw Robert Sanderson, who was providing off-duty security for the clinic, approach the device.  The bomb went off, killing Sanderson instantly.  Also injured severely was a nurse, Emily Lyons, who lost an eye in the explosion.

Clinics across the country went back to red alert status.  Rudolph was quickly identified as the suspect and a manhunt ensued that lasted several years.  There was much evidence that he had escaped into the Appalachian wilderness and over those years, he actually because a folk hero to the yahoos in that part of the country who were so anti-government that they were rooting for Rudolph to elude the authorities.  I even remember seeing a tee shirt for sale that said “Run, Eric, Run.”  It was sick and the authorities became a laughing stock because of their inability to find this man who was living off the earth and eluding them and their sophisticated tracking equipment.

At the same time, on March 7, 1998, Rudolph’s older brother, Daniel, videotaped himself cutting off one of his own hands with a raial arm saw to “send a message to the FBI and the media.” According to Rudolph’s own writings, he survived during his years as a fugitive by camping in the woods, gathering acorns and salamander, pilfering vegetable gardens, stealing grain from a grain silo, and raiding dumpsters in a nearby town.  Finally, Rudolph was arrested in North Carolina on May 31, 2003, by a police officer who saw him rummaging through a garbage disposal behind a convenience store early in the morning.  Years later, Rudolph struck a plea bargain and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

With Rudolph in custody, abortion clinics breathed a sigh of relief.

The terror was over for now.  But another terrorist was waiting in the woods behind another doctor’s house.

Related articles
 

October 18, 2012

More “Family Values” Malarkey

Posted by DrK8 under Abortion
[27] Comments 

What could be more oriented toward caring for people in families than to ensure universal access to health care that includes abortion? Yet, the Republicans have spent over two decades fighting against what is in the public interest, favoring their own political and corporate interests.  In 2009, just weeks after Obama’s inauguration, members of the GOP determined to roadblock the administration’s efforts for universal health care. In fact, just as they did during the Clinton administration, the Republicans were far more concerned with their party than with the good of the nation.  You may recall all the specious arguments made by the right wing over health care including death panels and government takeover of health care. Their worry was not about the health care of Americans but the viability of their own party.  So while the GOP worries about their own survival, pushes for states’ right and less government, here’s a few troubling points that make their self-interested agenda seem downright draconian and against family, children, and, especially, women.

Abortion and Unwanted Children

According to Russo and David, writing for Transnational Family Research Institute, “there is a substantial literature that documents the serious health, social, psychological, and economic consequences of unintended and unwanted childbearing. These consequences can include increased maternal and infant death and illness, unstable marriages, and the restriction of educational and occupational opportunities leading to poverty and limited roles for women. These adverse effects are not shared equally by all segments of society, and in the United States fall more heavily on those who are poor, young, or members of an ethnic minority group. Further, evidence suggests that even in advantageous social and economic circumstances, when a pregnancy is unwanted and the women requests an abortion, to deny it forces her to bear a child at risk for psychological problems that are long lasting.”

In a follow up to the 1995 report, The Best Intentions: Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families, the current study, a white paper titled The Consequences of Unintended Childbearing, suggest that experiencing a birth or pregnancy that was unintended by the mother, who is most often studied, is associated with an array of negative outcomes, including delayed pre- natal care, reduced likelihood of breastfeeding, poorer mental and physical health during childhood, poorer educational and behavioral outcomes of the child, poorer maternal mental health, lower mother-child relationship quality, and an increased risk of the mother experiencing physical violence during pregnancy.

Yet, the so-called prolife folks, mostly Republicans, want to deny abortion rights, claiming all life is sacred. What a bunch of BS.

Child Abuse

Here’s a look at what happens when states are responsible for protecting children. Some states have little to no money to protect them.

Of the 715,760 children confirmed abused and neglected in 2008:

• 71.1% did not receive proper food, clothing, shelter, hygiene, education, medical care or protection.

• 16.1% were physically abused.

• 9.1% were sexually abused.

• 7.3% suffered from emotional abuse.

• 2.2% suffered from medical neglect.

• 9% suffered from other mistreatment such as abandonment, threats, and congenital drug addiction

• 60% of people in drug rehabilitation centers report being abused or neglected as a child

Children Unwanted, Abused and KilledOf the millions of children reported abused or neglected each year, several thousand are in life threatening situations. In response to the statistics, the federal government began work in 2010 to increase public awareness of child fatalities and to enlist the federal government in elevating the issue. In their report, they found among the rich democracies, the U.S. child abuse death rate is 3 times higher than Canada’s, and 11 times higher than Italy’s. What accounts for the differences? Among other things, teen pregnancy, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty rates are much lower in these countries. Further, their social policies in support of families are much greater and typically include childcare, universal health insurance, paid parental leave, visiting nurses, and more—all things which together can prevent child abuse and neglect in the first place—-all social policies the Republican party wants to deny American families.

The media repeats the meme “The Party of No” to define the GOP. There’s a bit of truth here when Republicans care more for their party’s survival and less for the very families they claim to embrace. It’s more family values malarkey.

 

October 14, 2012

And Some people that support Abortion Rights are Still Considering Voting for this Anti Abortion Turkey?

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion Candidates, Abortion Centers, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Heroes, Abortion Information, Abortion Pill, Abortion Rights, Abortion RU486, Methotrexate, RU486 | Tags: , , , , , |
[24] Comments 
Romney Abortion

Romney Abortion

Okay, now I am totally confused about Mitt Romney’s ever-moving position on the abortion issue.  You don’t think he is trying to cater to as many people as possible, do you?

In the past, I’ve written about how when Romney was Governor of Massachusetts he was pro-choice straight down the line.  And not only was he pro-choice in terms of legislation, he actually met regularly with staff people from the Massachusetts branch of the National Abortion Rights Action League to strategize.  They were buddies.

Romney Abortion

Romney Abortion

Then, when Mitt decided to run for President, his position on this very basic issue started to “evolve.”

Now, I can see how over a period of years someone might change their views on certain economic models or on the pros and cons of rehabilitating prisoners.  There are a lot of fuzzy areas in those issues so one could become more educated over time.  But abortion?   Gimme a break!  What is more fundamental than whether or not to allow a woman to terminate her pregnancy?  I mean, there’s something living inside the woman’s body and, if she gets an abortion, that once-living thing is no longer living, pure and simple.  How does an adult “evolve” on that basic issue?  Did Romney suddenly learn how pregnancies work?

Romney Abortion

Romney Abortion

Of course, the answer is he had to be pro-life to get the Republican nomination.  That’s because the nominating process in that party is totally dominated by right wing nut balls and you gotta pander to them if you hope to have any chance of securing the nomination.  And Romney did pander.  Oh, no, I’m sorry.   He “evolved.”

So now that he has the nomination, he’s had to shift gears again to cater to the independent voters. And to do that you have to move to the political middle.  So, the other day Mitt Romney actually declared that ““There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my legislative agenda.”

What the hell?

Is Romney telling us that when the new Congress comes to town and pro-life Congressman James McNabb from Podunk, Illinois introduces legislation banning third trimester abortions or requiring women to get the consent of their husbands, he will have absolutely nothing to say about those bills? If the Republican House of Representatives decides to pursue one of those “personhood” measures on a national level, is Mitt Romney actually going to resist the incredible amount of pressure from the pro-life lobbyists and not take a position on that issue?

Poppycock.  He just continues to pander to anyone who will listen.

I will give him some credit, however, in that he is actually being candid when it comes to Planned Parenthood.  He has said unequivocally that he will “cut off funding for Planned Parenthood”  and that is certainly an extreme position that might not go over well with independent voters.  The irony, of course, is that Planned Parenthood clinics probably prevent thousands of abortions each year but then Romney probably still has not “evolved” on the issue of birth control.  Give him 20 more years to catch up.

Hopefully, the American public, and especially those who for some unfathomable reason are still undecided, will not buy into this “it’s not on my agenda” bull crap.  Indeed, if Obama is not in another coma during the next debate, this is an issue that he should jump all over.

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October 10, 2012

Behind the GOP’s Abortion Jingoism

Posted by DrK8 under Abortion, Abortion Information
[32] Comments 

The Romney and Ryan team supports programs and reforms that in many ways undercut their Orwellian rhetoric of family values. Behind all the antiabortion, prolife jingoism is a harsher reality than abortion.


In health care, the language of the GOP platform reads like a Republican’s wet dream. They use God terms like common sense, quality health care, choice, and lower costs to frame their idea of health care while framing Obamacare in devil terms like outdated liberalism, budget busting, lawsuit abuse and halting progress. In fact, this platform claims abortion is dangerous to well being of women, a statement that flies in the face of reality for millions of healthy, happy women who have had abortions. They believe that protecting the life of the unborn is affirming the dignity of women, regardless of what any woman may want. Conservatives in red states should be proud of these facts:

  • The GOP’s silence on infant and maternal deaths is revealing.
    • Infant mortality rank is 49 in the world at 5.98 deaths per 1,000 live births—behind all of Europe, Cuba, Iceland, Singapore
    • Maternal death in 2008 in US was 1,000. Lifetime risk of maternal death 1 in 2100
    • Pregnancy rates are higher in red states while abortion rates are lower. Sadly, extreme poverty is concentrated in red states, with a little over half of infants and toddlers living in red states live below poverty, meaning 2.3 million
    • Red states have seen incomes grow 4.6 percent since 2007, adjusted for inflation, in large part to government benefits payments, like the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
    • Cuts to Planned Parenthood mean access to primary health care will no longer be available to the low-income women.
    • Conservatives’ targeted regulations against abortion providers (TRAP) laws will continue to ravage a valuable health care sector.

On education, the GOP platform speaks of a “world-class system of primary and secondary education with high standards in which all students can reach their potential is critically important to America’s future. We believe parents should be empowered to send their children to the school of their choice.” From the perspective of national security, Condaleeza Rice, claims our schools are failing to prepare students for the 21st century. So here are a few facts from Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, facts that get in the way of the GOP’s political oratory.

  • The United States is #23 in global science and #31 in global mathematics education while it is #2 in teachers’ entry-level salaries.
  • The high school graduation rate is 77%, behind Germany, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy and Hungary.
  • Students in Latvia, Chile and Brazil are making gains in academics three times faster than American students.

And let’s not forget that abstinence only education fails miserably in actually helping young people behave more responsibly when it comes to their sexuality.

 

Family values is a humpty dumpty term that conservatives love to use as if it’s biblical in origin. The term is as much about culture as it is about economics. So, let’s talk about how family values plays out across this nation by asking, “Which states have more teen births and more divorces?” If you were a gun-toting, pickup-driving tea bagger, you might think it would be the more liberal blue states like New York or Connecticut. The current statistics, however, show conservative, red states, with their traditional notions of family and failed abstinence programs,
having the highest rates of teen births and divorce. These are but two factoids that belie the conservative mantra of God-fearing family values. In fact, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States’ ranking among 29 other countries for family indicators is deplorable and is strongly correlated to policies pushed by conservatives. For example, paid maternity leave entitlement as a percentage of annual wage (29/29) and child poverty rate (25/ 26) are just a few of the pathetic family indicators for the U.S.

Behind the GOP’s jingoism about antiabortion, prolife and family values are counterintuitive realities that require your serious consideration before you vote in November.

 

October 7, 2012

John Salvi Ups the Ante – Abortion

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion Doctor Murder, Abortion Information, Abortion Terrorism | Tags: , , |
[16] Comments 
Anti Abortion Terrorism

Anti Abortion Terrorism

It’s quite possible that I met Lee Ann Nichols just a few weeks before she was killed at an Abortion office..

As a staff person for the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, in early December, 1994, I had gone up to the Boston area to visit a number of member clinics.  One of my first stops was the Preterm Clinic on Commonwealth Avenue.  As always, I was escorted around by the administrator and introduced to all the staff people.  Lee Ann was the receptionist but I just can’t remember if I met her.

Just a few months after Paul Hill murdered Doctor Baird Britton and his bodyguard, pro-life terrorist John Salvi also took the law into his own hands in a shooting spree at two clinics in the area.  Witnesses had testified that Salvi had been a somewhat regular presence in front of Preterm and the Planned Parenthood clinics. As for his mental state, letters released after his arrest indicated his belief in conspiracies by the freemasons, the Vatican and the KKK, which he thought was targeting Catholics.   Salvi’s mother later said that her son had told her that he “was the thief on the cross with Jesus.” He also told her that “…the mafia and KKK are out to get me.”

Anti Abortion Terrorism

Anti Abortion Terrorism

On Decebmer 30, 1994, John Salvi calmly walked into the Planned Parenthood facility and shot Shannon Lowney, the receptionist.  He then walked over to Preterm where he killed Nichols and engaged the security guard, Richard Seron, in a gun battle.  After that, Salvi dropped a bag containing a second gun and 700 rounds of ammunition and fled the city.  A nationwide alert was put out and the NCAP office was inundated with calls from clinics all along the east coast asking what security precautions they should take.  The next day, 1,200 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia, the Reverend Donald Spitz and his followers ended their regular protest outside the Hillcrest Clinic and fifteen minutes later, Salvi suddenly appeared at the building’s main entrance.  He sprayed the lobby with a hail of bullets but no one was hurt.  Within 10 minutes, police surrounded a pick-up truck and Salvi was arrested.

At one point, the Boston Globe reported that Salvi had a piece of paper with Donald Spitz’ name on it.  Spitz was “follower” of Paul Hill and espoused the “justifiable homicide” theory.  Spitz was never charged with aiding Salvi in any way but Salvi’s trial gave Spitz a lot of national attention because he stood outside the courtroom defending Salvi’s actions.

I had met Spitz a few times and I always thought that, like Paul Hill, he loved the media spotlight.  So, this particular case was ripe for him and his ego.  He knew folks would be outraged if he said he supported Salvi and some pro-choice folks were apoplectic that he was out there applauding Salvi’s rampage.  Still, I was one of the few that suggested that he was within his Free Speech rights and that we should just ignore him and not give him the attention he desired.

About two years later, after he was convicted of murder, Salvi was found dead in his prison cell.  The official report said that his death was a suicide but there was some controversy because other reports claimed that he was found with his hands and feet tied together, cotton shoved in his mouth and a bag placed and tied over his head.

For the abortion provider community, this new outrage upped the ante even more because now someone had just decided to walk into a clinic and start shooting.  He was not necessarily targeting a doctor.  Indeed, I remember talking to some clinic line staff who very privately expressed some “comfort” that the assassins until then had “just” been targeting the doctors.  But this was different.  Suddenly, parents and loved ones of clinic staff were asking their loved ones to leave the potentially dangerous situation.

It seemed that no one was safe anymore.

 

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October 3, 2012

Reasons for Abortion, Reasons for Compassion

Posted by DrK8 under Abortion, Abortion Information, Abortion Late, Late Term Abortion, Late Term Abortions
[58] Comments 

Recently, Pat said that pro-choice folks have to face the fact that late term abortions are very difficult.  I would agree. A late-term abortion raises many issues for the general public, the doctor, the woman and the opponents of these procedures. As such, I’d like to address some of these issues.

To begin, let me dispel the general myth perpetuated by mainstream journalists (such as TIME magazine and the Washington Post) and by antiabortion activists that late term abortions are widely available. First, the reality is such that access to first term abortions, up to and including 12 weeks gestation, is difficult because of geographical hardships, arrangements for childcare and time off from work, finances and, for some younger women, parental support. The Guttmacher Institute provides further data about availability citing “Some 87% of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider and 35% of women aged 15–44 live in those counties. The proportions are lower in the Northeast (53% and 18%) and the West (74% and 13%). In 2005, nonhospital providers estimated that while more than seven in 10 women traveled less than 50 miles to access abortion services, nearly two in 10 traveled 50–100 miles and almost one in 10 traveled more than 100 miles.”

Second, access to abortions in the second trimester, defined as 13 to 27 weeks, grows increasingly difficult beginning at 21 weeks. There are very few physicians in the United States who are skilled enough and willing to provide abortions services past 22-24 weeks. While, attempting to corral definitions of “widely available” and “late term” is like trying to herd cats, the facts are easier to grasp. According to the CDC’s latest surveillance (2007) from reporting agencies, of all 877, 609 abortions performed, only 1.3% were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation. To further illustrate other aspects of the late term abortions, consider that among the clinics listing themselves as late term abortion providers on Abortion.com, three provide services up to 21 weeks (Atlanta, sister sites in Philadelphia and NJ, and Hartford), four provide services up to 24 weeks (Dallas, and multiple sister clinics in NY and FL), and two provide services up to 26 weeks (D.C. and four locations in Maryland). These listings hardly exemplify widespread access.

For the general antiabortion population, late term abortion providers are vilified as heinous murderers who have no moral compass, who kill unborn children capable of feeling excruciating pain.  On the other hand, for women who need later abortions, these providers are compassionate and highly skilled angels in their darkest hour. Overall, first or mid-trimester termination of pregnancy for fetal anomalies is legally and morally accepted amongst the majority of the population. Over the past decades screening and diagnostic methods have improved noticeably and, as a result, increasingly more anomalies are being detected at an early stage in pregnancy. Research on late termination of pregnancy finds that, “When a severe congenital anomaly is diagnosed, the majority of couples opt for termination of pregnancy . . . Termination of pregnancy in case of a fetal anomaly is a complex and conflicting life-event” (Prenatal Diagnosis 2005) especially because it is a voluntary act and because it may interfere with loss and grieving. In an especially touching case study, Kersting and colleagues found that an induced abortion due to fetal malformation is a traumatic loss which may entail a complicated grieving process with needs to be detected and treated at an early stage. Their advice for clinical staff is such that the affected parents not to be subjected to pressures of time when making the decision to terminate the pregnancy, but that the individual options and their consequences should be carefully considered, especially in light of the extent of fetal anomalies. So, let’s take a look at a few fetal malformations.

To begin, a diagnosis of Meckel Gruber at 20 weeks means the pregnancy becomes high-risk. The condition, characterized by the triad of encephalocele, bilateral polycystic kidneys and polydactyly, occurs in 0.7 per 10,000 births. Women and their families have the option to terminate the pregnancy or wait and deliver a child who will live only a few hours. Either choice is heartbreaking.

 

Hydranencephaly, encephalocele, Down syndrome, microcephaly, to list a few more, are anomalies that can lead to fetal demise, early death after birth or life long health issues with poor prognoses. For some women, the choice to terminate, while excruciating, is made on the basis of avoiding fetal suffering or simply wanting the dead fetus removed. In the rare case of severe twin-to-twin fetal transfusion syndrome, unless one twin is terminated, both will die in utero. For some women, the diagnosis of Down syndrome is a justifiable reason for terminating a pregnancy. For example, a thirty-seven year old married woman with two children and with an unplanned pregnancy has a fetal diagnosis of D.S. at 30 weeks. She may determine that her duty is to her born children. She may want to protect them from the adverse effects of having a needy sibling with D.S. while also wanting to execute her duty of beneficence to a fetus with a future negative net quality of life. She may also want to protect her family’s resources as a child born with Down syndrome often consumes excessive amounts of finances, emotional resources and healthcare resources. Despite amazing progress in quality of life issues for those born with D.S., not every woman, not every family, is willing to assume the responsibility for a child with Down syndrome.

For the overwhelming majority of women who choose later abortions, their pregnancies were wanted (or accepted), often loved from the beginning, and greatly mourned after the loss. Late abortions are difficult emotionally, financially and physically. Those who glibly chirp about selfish women or greedy doctors, demonstrate their inability to fully grasp the gravity of these cases, however, repellant they may be to outsiders. These folks fail to feel the devastation these women and their families feel. They are simply unwilling or unable to show compassion for the woman who learns that her fetus with no brain will live no more than a few seconds after birth, that her dead and decomposing fetus is infecting her, or that her fetus has a high level myelomeningocele that will mean, if it survives, will lead a life of absolute dependence. From listening to those who claim to be life advocates, it’s clear to me that they believe a woman should deliver the brainless fetus rather than terminate it early with an abortion. They believe that no woman carrying a fetus with a positive diagnosis of Down syndrome should abort. The reality is that some women and their loved ones DO choose to carry the pregnancy to term, knowing that they will have precious little time to with their child, knowing that death is imminent or knowing that their child has DS and accept the challenges of parenting. Others want to terminate their pregnancy because they do not feel capable of caring for a handicapped child or because they cannot bear to continue the pregnancy knowing they are carrying around a dead or deformed fetus.

Regardless of the reason, the choice should always remain with the woman and her family and her physician whether she terminates a fetus with a fetal anomaly or continues the pregnancy to deliver the fetus. The discovery of a pregnancy with fetal malformation is a traumatic event that any woman finds hard to withstand and which entails the potential risk of severe and complicated grieving. This is an event that demands expertise from the medical community, for certain, and understanding and compassion from us all.

 

September 30, 2012

Hooray For More Abortion Doctors?

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion Doctor, Abortion Information | Tags: , |
[53] Comments 
Abortion

Abortion

I recently read that California Governor Jerry Brown (yes, he’s still alive and kicking) signed a bill into law that would allow certain non-physicians to perform abortions. Predictably, the pro-choice groups hailed the measure as an important step towards making abortions more accessible to women.  The pro-life groups basically said Brown is pond scum and that he would spend all of eternity in Hell.

The pro-choice groups are excited because in many parts of the country there is a serious lack of abortion providers.  A lot of the ones that entered the field years right after Roe was decided are now rather old and are close to retirement (or death).  In many cases, when a doctor retires or dies it means the clinic closes because there are no replacement physicians. So, you’d think that everyone in the pro-choice movement would rally around a new law like this one.

Not so fast.

Think about this for a second.  Say you run a hot dog stand on the corner of 51st Street and Lexington Avenue in midtown Manhattan.  You’ve been working the same spot for 21 years.  You’ve gotten to know your patrons personally and you know their order before they can spit it out.   You also get used to making a certain amount of money every week and your income determines your lifestyle.

Then, one day a young whipper-snapper opens up another hot dog stand right across the street.  I mean, he is right there in your field of vision and you can’t ignore how many people are now patronizing his business.  You can practically count how many customers you’re losing to the competition and pretty soon your income decreases and your way of life is affected.

So, although the pro-choice groups are applauding the action of Governor Brown, some of the doctors and owners of abortion clinics in California are undoubtedly watching things with a wary eye.  Now, a clinic that only has one doctor who is ninety nine years old will no doubt welcome the new blood and they’ll be out there recruiting them to work at their clinic. But then there are the other clinics that actually have several young doctors who will not necessarily need replacing for a good 20-30 years.  These clinics, like others, have been watching the number of abortion patients declining to begin with and all of a sudden they now have to think about the prospect of a young nurse putting together some capital to open up her own office in the same town.  It might take a little while but ultimately that nurse and her clinic will start siphoning off patients from the established clinic and, like the hot dog guy, their income and life style could be affected.

Now, the pro-lifers will scream that I’ve just admitted that the doctors are “in it for the money.”  Well, to some extent that is true.  Like any other doctor or businessperson, when you enter a field and open up shop your goal is to make enough money to pay the expenses, the staff salaries and – dare I say it – a profit for the person who invested the money in the first place.

So, while the bigger picture says to thank Jerry Brown for this new law, I’ll bet you anything that some current doctors and owners of abortion clinics are just a tad bit nervous.

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September 26, 2012

Abortion and the Single Issue Voter

Posted by DrK8 under Abortion, Abortion & Religion, GOP, ProLife, Romney, Vote
[156] Comments 

You have heard, no doubt, people saying that their choice for president is based on sentiments such as “we have shared values” or “he’s authentic” or “he’s prolife.” Political scientist Samuel Popkin of the University of California, San Diego, calls this kind of reasoning “gut rationality.” Essentially, people vote by heuristics and go with their gut, with whom they most identify, or with how the candidates make them feel. But such a vote, while rational sounding, tells us that voters often vote with their heart and not their head.

For most prolife voters (and other single-issue voters), emotional voting is a substitute for their cognitive-processing limitations. Most voters simply do not know all that there is to know about a candidate. The information available on the candidate’s record, the assessment of the veracity of the information and prognostications for what the candidate might do if voted into office, is a daunting task for political pundits. For ordinary citizens, sifting through this data, if available, could cause an overload for even the most studious.

The average citizen is woefully ignorant of facts and, thus, relies on sound bytes and obfuscatory God terms like family values, patriotism, freedom and progress. In fact, according to political voting behavior expert, Drew Westen, PhD, when given empirical data that pushed voters one way or the other, that had no impact, those facts only hardened their emotionally biased views. In politics, Westen claims, “when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins.” It’s a sad reality for our democracy when reason and facts lose to emotions, when politicians’ sound bytes reign over the complexities within the platform of each candidate aspiring to lead our country.

  Not surprising, for most prolife voters, abortion, couched as the all-encompassing prolife moniker, is their single issue vote looking for a prolife candidate. So, if you are that voter, ask yourself how ending legal abortion will improve the lives of single mothers, homeless and hungry families or unemployed parents. Ask yourself how your prolife candidate will address the astronomical rise in sexually transmitted infections in teens (one out of four) in spite of the failed conservative-embraced abstinence-only education in school districts. Ask how ending legal abortion will help the woman carrying a dead fetus at 14 weeks or help the woman with a hydranencephalic fetus. Ask how ending legal abortion will help the woman who is forced to continue her pregnancy despite suffering from affective psychosis and serious hyperemesis gravidurum.  Ask how ending legal abortion will help the pregnant woman who does not want to continue the pregnancy, does not want to be a mother, does not want the fetus to be inside her, has no emotional attachment to this thing growing inside her and does not want any outsiders telling her what she can or cannot do with her body. These questions are just about abortion. They’re not about the larger issues that support women and their families. They’re not about the very real issues that families face as they try to put food on the table, tutor children with their homework, juggle work and family, and juggle finances to pay the rent or buy the groceries. Some say that it’s a matter of conscience. They say they cannot support someone who agrees with taking innocent life. OK. But does your prolife candidate support the military’s taking of innocent lives in the many U.S. invasions? Does your candidate support capital punishment? Does your candidate support budgetary cuts that break the lifelines for the poor, the disenfranchised and our veterans? And after you’ve pondered your answers to these questions, issues that the Congress and the president can impact, remember that the president doesn’t decide the abortion issue. The only role the president has in that regard is through his judicial appointments, primarily to the Supreme Court.

To sum things up, consider two more questions. First, if you’re an antiabortion single-issue voter making your bet on the prolife candidate, ask yourself if abortion is something that is paramount to the safety, prosperity, to the very existence of all in this nation. Second, ask yourself if the end of legal abortion will save the nation from destruction in the long run. I’m betting you cannot answer in the affirmative to either question, if you are truthful.

 

September 23, 2012

Romney and Abortion

Posted by Pat Richards under Abortion, Abortion Clinic, Abortion Information | Tags: , , , |
[67] Comments 
Abortion

Abortion

Well, we have officially entered the silly season of the presidential campaign.  And even the abortion issue has somehow got caught up in all the hyperbole and downright nastiness.

Take, for example, the latest outrage, at least according to press releases by the pro-life movement.   Did you know, they scream in horror, that the president of United Airlines actually hosted a fundraiser for a Texas-based Planned Parenthood affiliate?  OMG, what is this world coming to?

Then there’s the latest out of Hollywood, that den of iniquity whose residents support abortion up to the moment of high school graduation.  It seems that the Obama campaign is actually “tapping celebrities” for his re-election effort and the pro-life movement apparently thinks it’s important for the American public to know that actresses Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman have joined Obama in his support for “abortion on demand.”  Oh, the outrage!  (And don’t get me started on Clint Eastwood)

On the macro level, the abortion issue has been the source of some very interesting – and disappointing – turn of events.  Indeed, I must say how disappointed I am in the Obama campaign.  Yes, you heard me right.

Abortion

Abortion

At this time, it is extremely clear (at least to me) that as President, Mitt Romney would outlaw all abortions unless the woman’s life was endangered or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.  Now don’t get me started on how abortion isn’t “murder” when it was the product of rape or incest.  I still don’t get that rationale.  But a few weeks ago, a commercial produced by the Obama campaign caught my attention.  Accompanied by the usual foreboding music and grainy photographs reminiscent of the one of the Loch Ness monster, a voice says that “Romney Ryan” would outlaw all abortions except when the woman’s life was endangered.  Yep, it says very clearly that Romney and running mate Paul Ryan have “both backed proposals that would outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest.”

This is an accurate reflection of Ryan’s position but, as for Romney, the Obama folks are pushing it.

What the Obama campaign points to is that at some point Romney also said he supports legislation that defines life as beginning at conception and that legislation is normally interpreted to be a ban on all abortions.  Now, not to defend Romney, but he is not a smart guy and like so many others he gets tongue tied when it comes to the abortion issue. He clearly has not thought about the implications of defining when life begins in a legal sense because all of his other statements make clear he supports some exceptions.  Even Mr. Ryan has acknowledged that he will support Romney on that one.

Romney’s obvious confusion about abortion was also in evidence when he recently said that he would ALSO support abortions if a woman’s “health” was endangered.  As all pro-lifers know, that is the third rail of their movement because they believe you can drive a Mack truck through that “loophole.”  They suggest that abortions could be performed if a woman had a headache, as it would affect her “health.”  Indeed, I am shocked that I have not seen screaming press releases from the pro-life movement condemning Romney’s comments.   Hello out there?

So, Romney is all over the board, like he is on so many other issues.  But, getting back to the President and his team, I really think they are stretching it a bit.  Romney has said over and over again that he supports rape and incest exceptions for abortion, despite his confusion about when life begins.  He is just not a smart man.  But the President is a smart man and he has no reason to play these kinds of games.

The commercial is misleading, Mr. President.  You don’t need to go down that road and get in that gutter.

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