Thursday, November 13, 2008

A telling omission

Prochoicers, follow this carefully. I'm talking about a particular group of people, a subset of prochoicers. A set that I hope you are not a part of. So don't think I'm tarring everybody with this brush. I'm just making what I think is a very disturbing observation.

I was looking for a picture of Dr. Robert Spencer, "The Angel of Ashland", revered criminal abortionist of rural Pennsylvania. I found DEAR DOCTOR SPENCER: Abortion in a Small Town

The blurb gives Spencer's career in a nutshell. And toward the end, it notes:

The program includes interviews from those who remember Dr. Spencer, including Ashland residents (his wife, his lawyer, and many of his friends); women who traveled in search of his safe care; and a juror who served at one of his trials and helped to acquit him, even though she opposes abortion.


They're forgetting somebody. Somebody who was the reason for one of those trials. Somebody who died on the table during one of Dr. Spencer's holy abortions. Somebody who mattered. Somebody who had a name: Mary Davies.

If it's all about the women, why was Mary not even worth mentioning?

It's an omission abortion advocates make consistently.

Obituaries for prochoice icon Harvey Karman gush about him. They never make any mention of Joyce Johnson, the woman he killed in 1955 by trying to perform an abortion on her with a nutcracker in a motel room. If it's all about the woman, why is Joyce forgotten?

Likewise, Milan Vuitch gets a hagiographic obituary. If it's really all about the women, why are Wilma Harris and Georgianna English beneath everybody's notice?

Ditto for Benjamin Munson. He is lauded. Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth slide by under the radar.

Abortion supporters' stories about grandfatherly old William Jennings Bryan Henrie, abortionist, do mention that a woman died, but only to lament that poor Doc Henrie got picked on about it. They never mention her name. I finally tracked it down: Jolene Griffith. If it's all about the woman, where does Jolene fit in?

Mary Davies. Joyce Johnson. Wilma Harris. Georgianna English. Linda Padfield. Yvonne Mesteth. Jolene Griffith. All women. Only one of whom even rates a footnote among the self-proclaimed champions of women. And she doesn't even, in their estimation, deserve a name.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If abortion had been legal, poor Mary probably would have survived.

Lola said...

Anon. you can keep telling yourself that "if abortion had been legal"

She sought out a doctor and found one to perform the abortion.

Plenty of women have died from "safe legal" abortions since 1973.

Christina Dunigan said...

anon, how do you explain Wilma, Georgianna, Linda, and Yvonne? Their abortions were "safe and legal".

Every single woman who ever died from an abortion died at the hands of a prochoicer. Every single one. Why don't y'all start taking a little responsibility?

Anonymous said...

Women do not die at the hands of "pro-choicers". They die at the hand of their CHOICE. No one forced them to get that abortion.

There are thousands of surgeries that go poorly every year.

People die in heart surgery, brain surgery, gastric bypass, plastic surgery...

I can even pull stories. Hundreds of stories, of how women died on operation tables of routine surgeries - NON abortions. But I think you women are smart enough to know that.

It was - at least - these women's CHOICE to seek out that surgeon, seek out the abortion.

Tragic as it may be... They died at the hand of their own decisions.

Kathy said...

Are you saying that the person who performed the abortion was anti-abortion or pro-life or anti-choice?

Christina Dunigan said...

Hali,

First of all, 'Feel the LOVE!" Boy, you're just a paragon of compassion for these women, aren't you? What kind of attitude is, "She CHOSE her abortion. If the bitch dies, that's her problem?"

Second of all, where was Marla Cardamone's choice? She was browbeaten into an unwanted abortion by a hospital social worker. Where was Christin Gilbert's choice? Or Diane Boyd's choice? They had mental retardation; their parents chose abortions for them. Where was Allegra Roseberry's choice? She was lied to and literally threatened with death if she didn't get an abortion - they told her, falsely, that she'd be denied cancer treatment if she was pregnant. Where were these women's choices?

Third, since when does the fact that people die from other causes excuse doing things that kill people who are trusting you?

When I start seeing prochoicers care as much about making sure women survive as they care about making sure fetuses die, I'll start believing that it's all about the women.

Anonymous said...

First of all, GrannyGrump, I never used any expletives. I never took a callus attitude, "if the bitch dies" as you oh so eloquently put it.

It's jumping to conclusions like this that makes you condemn these women who choose abortion, or condemn the surgeons who are doing their jobs. When it's not really your place to pass judgement on someone else's choice.

Pro-choicers don't wish death on fetuses or the women who get the abortion. We are not gleefully sitting by, hoping that some baby will be murdered today... We are not wishing for the mother to die as an added bonus.

Pro-choicers simply realize that some other woman's body is NOT OUR BODY.

Death is an unfortunate part of life.

If you want to save a life, go out there and make a difference. Adopt an unwanted child, don't just complain about it on some blog.

- Hali

Christina Dunigan said...

First of all, GrannyGrump, I never used any expletives. I never took a callus attitude, "if the bitch dies" as you oh so eloquently put it.

You typed in all caps that HER CHOICE killed her. That sounds a lot to me like "If the bitch dies, it's her own fault."

It's jumping to conclusions like this that makes you condemn these women who choose abortion,

How does my outrage that quacks get away with killing these women constitute condemning the women? It sounds a lot more like you're condemning them. To death at the hands of quacks.

or condemn the surgeons who are doing their jobs.

Since when is killing the patient a surgeon's job?

When it's not really your place to pass judgement on someone else's choice.

If he chooses to play Russian Roulette with his patient's life, it is very much my business to condemn his choice.

Pro-choicers don't wish death on fetuses or the women who get the abortion.

The point was supposedly safety. But you don't give a rat's ass about the woman's safety. If you did, it'd be the prochoicers up in arms when these guys did the horrible things they do. Instead, y'all set up legal defense funds for them or block state attempts to take corrective action. What IS the freaking point, then? It's not the woman's well being, because you don't object when she is killed. There must be SOMETHING these abortionists are doing that you value enough that you're willing to buy it at the cost of these women's lives.

Pro-choicers simply realize that some other woman's body is NOT OUR BODY.

Yeah. You're not dead, so big fat hairy deal, who could possibly care. That's the attitude.

Death is an unfortunate part of life.

Which excuses these guys' behavior, I suppose. What other kinds of killing do you shrug off on those grounds?

If you want to save a life, go out there and make a difference.

So the women walking into abortion clinics are disposable somehow, I have no business wanting them to come out upright rather than under a sheet?

Anonymous said...

If you genuinely think this:

"You typed in all caps that HER CHOICE killed her. That sounds a lot to me like 'If the bitch dies, it's her own fault.'"

There's really no sense in even debating your opinion. You see what you want, you hear what you want. Clearly, no one is going to be able to get any light into that narrow mind of yours.

Christina Dunigan said...

What light? The light that shines and makes me agree that it's okay to kill women as long as the fetus dies too? I"ll never agree with the abortion advocates that it's okay to treat women like cannon fodder in the war against fetuses. So yes, it's a waste of time to try to enlighten me. I'll hold that women deserve better, no matter how much you tell me that careless quackery and death is good enough.