Friday, June 05, 2009

Averting Our Eyes

Judith Warner offers a very real article on the murder of Dr. Tiller, with real-life examples of why late term abortions remain an important and needed medical service. The problem is, you won't read it because it makes you too uncomfortable to know the truth:
[S]ometimes terrible things happen to young girls. We have to face the fact that sometimes desired pregnancies go tragically wrong. We have to weigh our repugnance for late abortion against the consequences for women and girls of being denied life-saving medical treatment.
* * *
By averting our eyes from the ugliness and tragedy that accompany some pregnancies, we have allowed anti-abortion activists to define the dilemma of late abortion. We have allowed them to isolate and vilify doctors like Tiller.

We can no longer be complicit — through our muted disapproval or our complacency — in domestic terror.

3 comments:

ross said...

It's a bit odd that Judith Warner calls partial-birth abortion,or infantacide, a life-saving procedure.

I say that because there has not been one case where this procedure was performed in order to save 'the life' of the mother.

I say that because when the justice department under John Ashcroft attempted to gather the statistics on this type procedure from doctors to test that anecdotal evidence, the courts shut it down. And the situation has not changed since then.

One can be sure that the current administration will also not be interested in surveying the circumstances of this procedure as relates to the mortality of the mother.

This 'saving the life of the mother' argument is a straw man argument where saving the life of the mother is not and never has been the issue. That Ms. Miller seems to have forgotten about the organization called Planned Parenthood, that will step up and see to it that the girl gets the abortion she wants, is also odd.

Her argument that the 9 yr old couldn't survive a birth, and should have a partial birth abortion is convoluted. As I understand it, a partial birth abortion is much like giving birth, except the baby is destroyed in the vagina first. Besides all that, what is gained by letting the baby go full term before killing it? It's almost like some sick 'sport.'

The pregnant women that choose to not have an abortion in the first trimester, where abortion is legal and not quite so barbaric, then choose to carry their baby to term. It's all their choice. And what they do with the baby after birth is also their choice. She may choose to raise it herself, or themselves if a father actually is present, or she can choose to put it up for adoption where someone else will raise the child in a loving, caring home.

Most people respect freedom of choice. Warner seems to prefer not having to make a choice, no matter how bizarre the circumstances.

Duralee said...

i love this blog! it was very enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

Why is it always some crazy MAN killing or ranting that he has a problem with abortion?