The Folk Song Army

The more things Change, the more they stay the same:



"And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement. And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar. .... If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud."

Sing for Obama!



It'll be just like in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"! The planets will align, there will be cosmic harmony, communication between all species from the most intelligent extraterrestrials to common house pets, and excellent water slides.

If we just sing for Obama!

Reminds me of this in the simplicity of the people involved:



And the intent of the people behind it?

More like this:

“Look, if fascism ever comes to America, it`s not going to be in jackboots and uniforms. It`s going to be happy fascism, smiley fascism.”
— George Carlin

Another reason to love Eduardo

As if Bella and his empassioned plea to Hispanic voters weren't reasons enough to love Eduardo Verastegui, here's more:

He showed up at a "40 Days for Life" vigil in Los Angeles to pray and speak to the women. The result? Five saved babies and eight nurses who came out to talk to him and walked away with copies of his video.

Separating the chaff from the grain

HT: JJ

Some people get it, others don't as evidenced by this collection of commentaries in the Washington Post

Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest (which gives me no high hopes for what he has to say), entitles his piece, "Time to Untangle Moral from Legal" (which again gives me no high hopes for what he has to say). Fairly early on he says, "I have no interest in making abortion illegal; I would like to make it unthinkable." But he totally ignores the fact that giving it legal sanction and protection doesn't do much to discourage the practice. He then goes into what they much teach in Sunday School at Episcopalian churches, because it seems if you stick a nickle in an Episcopalian, he'll say it: "I am decidedly pro-choice. I believe that the government should have no jurisdiction whatsoever over gestation."

Well, no. Gestation is a biological process, like puberty or old age. The government can't have jurisdiction over it. What it can have jurisdiction over is whether or not going through a particular biological process means that suddenly it's okay for you to kill people.

I won't even dignify the rest of what he says by responding to it. It's just Planned Parenthood talking points.

Susan K. Smith (How fitting that somebody defending abortion has the same name, Susan Smith, as a woman whose claim to fame is killing her own children!) entitles her piece, "The Government Should Leave Women Alone." The title itself sets my teeth on edge. Translation: "We should abandon women to the crushing despair that puts them on the abortion table." Nothing new here.

Chuck Colson, not surprisingly, responds succinctly with "A Clear Moral Choice."

William Tully chimes in with "Nuanced and Morally Serious", which is Leftspeak for "Throw Out A Bunch Of Vague Foggy Philosophical-Sounding Stuff To Obfuscate the Inherent Evil of the Topic in Question." He starts out by citing the falling abortion rate, then follows up his data with the almost laughable absurd statement, "Most of my co-religionists see the freedom both to choose and to discuss the stark realities of abortion as a real contribution to this decline." Well, Mr. Tully, if by "my co-religionists" you mean "people who worship abortion" them maybe you have a point. And he follows with, "Most thoughtful people would not want a society where the civil right of women to choose--which my own church holds sacred--builds a society with wanton disregard for the value of human life." Thus he's admitting that yes, by "my co-religionists" he does mean people who hold abortion sacred. But if you mean "people who adhere to a faith in a God", then it's absurd to claim that we agree with you that the license to kill somehow reduced the incidence of killing.

This paragraph boggles the mind: "The Episcopal Church, within whose traditions I minister, has a nuanced position that I gratefully see as morally serious. We believe in a woman's--and a couple's--right to choose. We also believe that when abortion is chosen, it should come only after thought, prayer and specific counseling. And, in a first where Episcopalian sacramental practice is customarily diverse and individual, confession and absolution, with appropriate penance, is counseled after an abortion. Over the years, that recommendation has had powerful and redeeming effect. I count my own involvement in such a process to be among the most powerful of my ministry."

First of all, anybody who starts to speak of "a nuanced position" on abortion means "We're in favor of it but only after we dress it up in a lot of highfalutin words." And what kind of morally and theologically screwball ideology does it take to endorse something that people are going to have to do penance afterward? It's this sort of bad theology that had Luther nailing things to the door.

Matt Maher starts with a title that could swing either way: "Basic Human Rights Not A Political Issue". You have to read it to find out if the right to have a life or the right to destroy a life is the "basic human right". He's speaking for the former, but adds nothing really clear on the matter.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., posts "The Horrible Legacy of 'Roe v. Wade'". He cuts to the chase and doesn't bring in any tangential issues.

Susan Brooks Thistelwaite uses an abortion-lobby slogan for her title, "A Woman's Life is Human Life". I just want to bitch-slap every abortion fanatic who spouts that one. Why aren't these women's lives human lives? Come back when you learn to give a shit about real women suffering and dying right now, Ms. Thistelwait, and we'll talk.

Willis E. Elliott says, "Abortion: Single-Issue Voting is Immoral". To which I'd say, "Okay, so Hitler wants to kill the disabled, the Jews, and the Gypsies. He has a great plan for a transportation infrastructure!" This guy ads nothing new, but spouts some hoary old NARAL talking points.

John Shelby Spong calls his piece, "Religious Ideology or Rule of Law?" You know where he's going with this. He paints abortion as a beloved right that women are loath to part with. Evidently he's never met any of the women at Silent No More, Feminists for Life, Operation Outcry, or Concerned Women for America. There are plenty of women who see abortion as a "Sophie's Choice" scenario in which we're treated like second-class citizens and told that if we want to fully participate, we have to sacrifice our children. Women who love their babies don't embrace killing them as a right. Mr. Spong might do well to remember that before he slanders us.

Gardner Calvin Taylor goes right where you'd expect him to go with "Guarantee Fetus Right to a Good Life" -- He pretty much asserts that until we make life perfect we should just abort everybody. Except, perhaps, the children of the Beautiful People. Considering that he's a pastor of a church in Brooklyn, doesn't see to think his own parishioners' lives are worth living, since they're not basking in all the things that we should have totally guaranteed for us before we're allowed to draw breath. Be consistent, Rev. Taylor. Go preach in The Hamptons.

Susan Jacoby likewise goes into predictable rhetoric with "The Republicans And The Christian Right: They Want To Decide For Us All". It's NARAL talking points. Don't bother reading it unless you're on a debate team and you want to know what the person arguing in favor of abortion is going to say so you can rebut it. She pretty much hits 'em all.

John Mark Reynolds brings fresh life to old ideas in "Advance Liberty, Overturn Roe". He starts, "Every aborted baby looks alike, but every child allowed to live becomes absolutely unique. Abortion crushes liberty for the sake of a single choice--it ends possibility with the cruel actuality of murder." Reynolds takes the basic moral truths we all know and says them in a new way.

Overall the essay isn't as tight as I'd like it to be, but it's still full of good stuff. I'll give you just a few snippets:

"In a just society there can be no right to do evil. Not every evil should be illegal, but no evil action should be hallowed as a constitutional right."

"Liberty always loses when the weak lose rights for the benefit of the stronger."

"Some assert that killing a baby is no worse than refusing to give a family a government welfare check. Being born into poverty is not good because it limits possibilities, but being killed is a good deal more limiting."

Pamela K. Taylor weighs in with "Abortion Rights Pose a Multitude of Moral Dilemmas". Which I guess before I read it means, "If we talk sad about abortion, then we can sanction it and not feel so guilty." (You'll notice that anybody who starts to talk about abortion being "complex" or "nuanced" or "a moral dilemma" will come out in favor of cart-blanc government sanction.)

On the one hand, Ms. Taylor doesn't disappoint: She does come down in favor of a total green light on abortion from a legal standpoint. I saw that coming. But she does surprise me in that she has done her homework. She does recognize the ramifications and costs to women and families -- and the unborn. In the end, she's a queasy prochoicer who wants to push for "prevention". She'd probably do a world of good if she stopped taking abortion-advocacy organization's word for what actually works when you're trying to prevent abortion. And she's bright enough, and enough of an independent thinker, that I have high hopes that she and others like her might form the hub of a third arm of the abortion struggle.

It's a good read. All Ms. Taylor and others like her need is a strategy that isn't handed down from the abortion lobby, which has no more of an interest in reducing abortion than a tobacco company has in getting people to stop smoking.

Starhawk, with "Abortion and the Goddess", is a must-read, because if I told you what she had to say you'd never believe me. In a nutshell -- she worships abortion. Literally. "We honor the act of choosing as a sacred and moral act." Everything she says just validates the accuracy of the Scriptures:

2 Timothy 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Even if you're not a Christian, odds are you'll be able to see the fundamental creepiness of embracing abortion as sacred.

Thomas J. Reese posts "Abortion: Rhetoric or Results". He's a Jesuit, which doesn't give me high hopes, especially not with a title that promises to snark about prolifers not embracing contraception -- as if the way to reduce unintended pregnancy is to increase the frequency with which people engage in sex in untenable situations. And he doesn't disappoint. He ignores data and instead cites false, debunked statistics. Don't even bother.

Brad Hirschfiled starts with a startling title -- "It's My Body And I'll Cut If I Want To" -- which brings to mind the pieces I've written on abortion and self-harm, and abortion and elective amputations. But that's not where he goes with it. He favors abortion, but says "Roe may have gotten us to a better place in many ways, but it enshrined a notion of privacy that is as morally empty as the alternative is coercive. By focusing on the notion that "it's my body and I'll cut if I want to", Roe turned this complex issue into a battleground about personal autonomy, and complex psychological issues that would be summarized by my kids as 'you're not the boss of me'."

He goes on to amaze me by raising this pithy point:

"Years ago I participated in a public forum on this issue, which included a national leader from Planned Parenthood. She gave a powerful presentation about the right to choose. The problem for me was that I when I asked her if she had ever counseled a young women to keep the pregnancy/baby, she could not recall having ever given that advice! It wasn't about choice for her at all. It was about power - the need to demonstrate that each of us can do whatever we want. And that understanding of choice is as dangerous as the choicelessness which the pro-life community celebrates."

But he ends with NARAL talking points, which is a shame. He really could have taken this somewhere. It'd be nice to see him getting together with Ms. Taylor and doing something constructive instead of just writing some insightful things then trusting the abortion lobby to do the right thing because they say they're for "choice".

Deepak Chopra shows promise with is title: "When Gray Is the Only Color". How often is unfettered abortion promoted as a recognition that after all, life isn't black-and-white? Maybe he's going to critique this.

Nope. He's not going to critique it. It's his argument. For every argument against abortion, he says, there's just as good a one in favor. For every argument for abortion, there's just as good a one against it. So, just to be safe, let's just ignore the arguments against it, keep doing it, but admit that the people saying we ought not to do it have a point.

Which is as morally lame as it gets.

Arun Gandhi writes "The Morality of Abortion" - Predictable but short.

Next stop: Selling flowers in airports

HT: Gazizza -- Children taught to sing hymns of praise to Barack Obama:



Rev. Moon, move over! Chairman Mao, you've met your match!

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee has a partial list of people who put together this little neighborhood sing-along:

Jeff Zucker — American television executive, and President & CEO of NBC Universal.

Post-producer (former choreographer?) Holly Shiffer.

Motion picture camera operator/steadicam specialist Peter Rosenfeld (appropriately enough, worked in "Yes Man," a movie about " a guy challenges himself to say 'yes' to everything for an entire year."

Darin Moran, another motion picture industry professional, who just finished filming — how appropriate — Land of the Lost.

Andy Blumenthal, Hollywood film editor.

Can you say "astroturfing"? I knew that you could!

1985: Abortion embolism leaves mom dead

Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy Oklahoma clinic. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers.

It was into this operating room that 21-year-old Gaylene Golden stepped on September 30, 1985. During the abortion, Reynolds lacerated Gaylene's cervix. This allowed both air and amniotic fluid to get into her bloodstream, causing a fatal embolism. Gaylene left a little boy without a mother.

Gaylene's tragic death is usually overlooked, however, when people remember Dr. Reynolds. For what is Joe Bills Reynolds most known?
A baby was born with her right arm missing after Reynolds had tried to abort her at 32 weeks.
He beat his wife to death on Valentine's Day.
He let his wife bleed to death during a liposuction he was performing on her.
The Humane Society had to confiscate 4 of his 11 horses because they were half-starved and living in filth.



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Paging Captain Obvious

Pro-Abortion Forces Air TV Ad That is Deliberately Misleading

I've yet to see them put out an ad -- or even a simple statement or press release or bumper sticker or t-shirt -- that wasn't deliberately misleading. Bringing out women or families whose situations wouldn't be impacted by a law is old hat. When the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act was being debated, abortion advocates went so far as to have a woman speak to the legislature about her personal tragedy, when her baby died in-utero during the third trimester. They had her claiming that the law would have prohibited her doctor from inducing labor to deliver the already-dead fetus. Since laws against abortion only ban the deliberate killing of live babies in the womb, the Act was no more relevant to that woman's situation than a homicide law is to the selection of funeral caskets.

Go read the article, since it's clear and straightforward and serves as yet another example of the old adage, "How do you know an abortion advocate is lying? His lips are moving."

For more on why the ad is deliberately misleading, see this.

For more about abortion-advocacy dishonesty, see Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

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Not sure what they're getting at...

I'm not sure what they're getting at, but it's still funny:


Obama Runs Constructive Criticism Ad Against McCain

Then I couldn't resist looking at more:


Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Searches: Self-induced, deaths, Delhi Thweatt, and videos

Self-induced abortions remain a popular search. Here are summaries of some interesting sites about self-induced abortions. Here is my page of self-induced abortion deaths. You can also look at 19th Century Abortion Cases and Other Self-Injury, Self-induced abortions: 'Self-help' vs. self-harm, Coathanger abortions. They did happen. And they still happen, and Coathanger Abortion: Powerful image, but how true to life?

Here's eveything you need to know about 13-week fetuses and how they're aborted. And here are 18-week fetuses and 20-week fetuses.

If you want to know about death by abortion, I specialize in cataloging the maternal deaths. You can visit the Cemetery of Choice to see all of the deaths I've learned about. I have broken them down into women who died from infection, from mishaps with abortion anesthesia, from embolisms, and hemorrhage. There's also a search box at the top of the Cemetery of Choice if you're interested in something more specific.

Delhi Thweatt is the abortionist who performed the fatal abortion on Kelly Morse.

A great collection of abortion videos is here.

1923: Mysterious Chicago abortion death

On September 29, 1923, 18-year-old Mollie Monilson of Chicago died from complications of a criminal abortion. The person or persons responsible for her death were never identified or brought to justice.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1923: Was Annie Allison the only victim of "Dr. Green"?

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison of Brooklyn died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard, who practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green.

Mottard alleged that Annie had died after an accidental fall down an elevator shaft at the premises. However, Annie's death certificate, signed by another physician, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis. In the wake of the autopsy's preliminary findings, Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. The autopsy had shown no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fatal fall, and therefore showed that Mottard had lied about the circumstances of Annie's death.

Police, who were investigating Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme, were suspicious and had Annie exhumed. It was revealed that she had died from an abortion. A Grand Jury questioned Dr. Norris, who had performed the autopsy; one of Annie's friends; the undertaker who buried Annie; Annie's brother; and the owner of the building where Annie had supposedly fallen to her death.

During the investigation, police searched Mottard's ten-acre farm outside the city for evidence of more bodies after allegations arose that Mottard had also performed an abortion there on a young woman the previous January. Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse, which was outside Long Island, but denied having performed the fatal one on Annie. The police were also searching for the remains of the sick baby the nurse had returned to Mottard's care. When questioned about the infant, Mottard was unable to give the police a satisfactory answer.

An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. A second homicide case was filed against Mottard by officials of Suffolk County, where the farm was located. They had evidence that one of Mottard's rural abortion patients had suffered the same fate as Annie Allison.

For more on pre-Roe abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Searches: Teens, Chicago, and more

Somebody was looking for teenage abortion death stories. Here are the ones I have. For some non-fatal stories about teens and abortion, see Parental Involvement Won't Fix This, Cutting to the Chase: Underage Pregnancy, Finally Taking It Seriously, Parents: Choose Your Risk, Audio of woman's testimony about coerced illegal abortion, Abortion Survivor Lauren Pulliam (pictured, born of a teen mother), No Hope for Raped Teen at Hope Clinic, and Not Surprising.

Somebody wanted "abortions in Chicago". I'll give you the first ten stories that come up in my internal search engine at RealChoice: Chicago, 1928: Abortionist Sentenced to Die, Abortionist Arnold Bickham, Diane Smith, Sharon Floyd, Kate Radochouski, Lauretta Schranz, Bridget Masterson, Lottie Lowy, Mary Morehead, and Elizabeth Welter. If you want more, hop over and do a search. There are a lot more.

Somebody searched for "nurse Chicago baby born alive". They're probably looking for Jill Stanek.

I have a top-notch collection of abortion videos here.

I don't know why somebody wanted to find "August 20, 1880". What I have on that date is the death of M. Faulkner from a Chicago abortion.

For more about 13-week fetuses, see here.

About "third trimester abortions" -- I found, to my surprise, this mysterious snippet that says, "Reporting Errors Inflate Third-Trimester Abortion Rate in Georgia; True Rate is Four per 100,000". Not all third-trimester abortions are intentional. On the other hand, William Waddill (pictured) knew Mary W. was at least 28 weeks pregnant when he started the abortion that led to the birth (and subsequent strangling) of Baby W. Ana Rosa Rodriguez was well into the third-trimester when Abu Hayat ripped her arm off in an abortion attempt. Abortionist Douglas Karpan initiated a third-trimester abortion on a teen who changed her mind. Teen Denise Montoya died from complications of a third-trimester abortion. Other mothers who died from botched third-trimester abortions include Lou Anne Herron, and Magdalena Rodriguez. Second and third trimester abortion images are available here. A chiropractor in Florida got caught doing a third-trimester abortion on a teenager. Seedy abortionist Steve Brigham did at least one third-trimester abortion in his New York office. Here are my reflections on how Tiller's staff determine if a third-trimester fetus is viable or not. You can read about Midtown Hospital's third-trimester abortion scandal. And you can look here at claims that such abortions are only done for health reasons. This is not a comprehensive set of information, just a sampling. If you want more, let me know.

Search: Miami abortion clinics

Well, there was Nabil Ghali's clinic, Blue Coral Medical Center, which was shut down under an emergency order describing "deplorable conditions," including a suction device with green mold growing in it, improperly discarded bloodstained sponges, generally poor infection control, about 70 different kinds of medication with expired dates, unsafely administered general anesthesia, stirrups covered with blood, and untrained workers monitoring women in recovery. One of the inspectors told the Miami Herald, "When we got there, there wasn't any soap in the place, so our inspectors had to go next door to wash their hands." But despite the conditions at Blue Coral, it was re-opened under stipulations.

Women's Care Center is where Ruth Montero, Myrta Baptiste, Maura Morales, and Shirley Payne died. It was owned by Hipolito Barreiro, trained in Argentina and West Africa, but not licensed in U.S. Barreiro was accused of practicing without a license and tampering with witness.

Former criminal abortionist Luis Barquet opened a Miami abortion clinic, where Marina DeChapell met her death.

Carolina Gutierrez (pictured) suffered sepsis, gangrene, and multiple amputations before finally dying of complications of an abortion performed at a Miami clinic.

Dadeland was perhaps the most infamous of the Miami abortion mills, run by Betty Eason and her felonious children. It's the deplorable, seedy place where Ellen Williams was treated with tea, sympathy, and a bottle of oral antibiotics to treat the raging peritonitis that took her life.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Eduardo Verastegui's video, with subtitles

According to Breitbart TV, YouTube yanked the original video in which Bella star Eduardo Verastegui pleaded with American Hispanics to stand up against abortion. This version, with the graphic images edited out and English subtitles added, is still up as of this posting:



Let me address the content, lest the Obama Truth Squad seek to arrest every Missouri resident who dares to view this video. I'm going to add comments as I pull links together, so I welcome any substantiating links you might have found.

"Did you know that minority children are being aborted at more than double the rate of white children?"

Way more than double. According to the latest Alan Guttmacher Institute study, reported in the Washington Post, the abortion rate for Hispanic women is triple that of white women.

"We Hispanics are the ones most affected by the abortion industry and I want to know why."

Actually, according to the latest data, it's the Black women who are most affected. Their abortion rate is five times that of white women. But Hispanic women are still suffering disproportionately.

"Most abortion centers are found in Hispanic neighborhoods. Why is that?"

Does anybody know of any studies? I know anecdotal evidence places a lot of abortion facilities, particularly the seedy and dangerous abortion mills, in Hispanic neighborhoods.

"Spanish newspapers, magazines, radio and television are saturated with ads and commercials promoting abortion. How come?"

Rosa Rodriguez was lured into Abu Hayat's seedy abortion facility by an ad in a Spanish-language newspaper. Hayat ripped the arm off Rosa's baby then sent her home; Rosa gave birth to a maimed child (pictured) early the next morning.

Operation Rescue pointed out that Laurence Reich's chain of seedy abortion mills targeted Hispanic women, many of whom were in the country illegally and thus not likely to step forward to report malpractice or abuse for fear of deportation. Operation Rescue reports that "Reich only spent one day in jail for sexually assaulting two women at the Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy abortion mill in Panorama City.

Though Suresh Gandotra spoke no Spanish, he preyed predominately on Hispanic women. He performed a fatal, illegal third-trimester abortion on Magdalena Rodriguez.

Other abortionists who typically targeted Hispanic women have included Nicholas Braemer, Alicia Hannah (Who was targeting her own people.), La Clinica Femenina, and Clinica Eva.

Hispanics for Life has more about this.

"Abortion is not only a lucrative industry; it is also used by people who are racists as a means to eliminate our people, since they consider us to be a threat to democracy in this country."

Abortionist Edward "Fast Eddie" Allred, who owns the largest for-profit chain of abortion mills in the world, told the San Diego Union, "Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing, pro-life types. Take the new influx of Hispanic immigrants. Their lack of respect for democracy and social order is frightening. I hope I can do something to stem that tide. I'd set up a clinic in Mexico for free if I could. Maybe one in Calexico would help. The survival of our society could be at stake."

"Unfortunately, most people do not know the truth about abortion and its terrible consequences."

"We all instinctively know that abortion is something evil, and if it is something so terrible that we can't even see it, shouldn't we perhaps not tolerate it either?"

(Images edited out of video. Most of them are the of sound, whole unborn children, showing prenatal development, though some of the babies have clearly been removed from the womb. The video then cuts to the video showing an abortion being performed, complete with blood and the recognizable head of the now-dead baby. Other abortion images follow, showing heads, a face, hands, some intact babies from induction abortions and saline abortions (easily recognizably by discolored, mottled skin), a few early first-trimesters toward the end, and other extremely graphic pictures and bits of video. The aborted babies in question range, in my best estimate, from late first-trimester to early third-trimester. You can see the images in the Spanish language version, at Dura Realidad.)

"After seeing this video some people ask how it is possible that abortion could be legal."

"Did you know that Barack Obama supports abortions performed during the last trimester of pregnancy?"

Yes. Although when speaking to evangelicals he parses it in terms of being okay with restricting third-trimester abortions for "mental distress" or "feeling blue". But as one hardcore supporter of the abortion lobby says, if Obama really was okay with prohibiting third-trimester abortions for "mental distress" or "feeling blue":

... Obama ... is ... backing away from a proposed federal law (of which he is a co-sponsor) that envisions a much broader definition of mental health than the one he laid out this week.

That proposed federal legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act, refers to the key Supreme Court case on the issue, which was decided the same day as Roe v. Wade in 1973. In that case, Doe v Bolton, the Court said a doctor could decide to perform an abortion based on "all factors--physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age--relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health."

Subsequent cases in the Supreme Court and lower courts have said states cannot ban abortions where the doctor deems them necessary to protect a woman's physical and mental health. Lower courts have taken that to mean a state cannot prohibit an abortion--even one post-viability--if the woman would suffer severe emotional harm without it.

Nowhere do those cases impose criteria of "serious clinical mental health diseases."

So, in supporting FOCA, Obama supports abortion, even in the third trimester, under the Doe vs. Bolton definition of "health", which includes maternal age, and financial and family concerns.

Either Obama supports third-trimester abortions, but only in those cases in which a woman has at least some mental or physical diagnosis (Tiller's patients typically have "adjustment disorder", meaning that they're not well-adjusted to being pregnant), or he supports third-trimester abortions as long as the woman can give a reason, and she doesn't need any kind of diagnosis from a doctor to justify it. Either way, he supports third-trimester abortions.

"That Obama supports the inhuman partial birth abortion?"

Obama not only supports D&X, he lent is wife and his name to fund-raising efforts to protect the practice.

"That Obama wants to finance abortions with the tax dollars you and I pay?"

Obama opposes the Hyde Amendment that banned Federal funding for elective abortions. He believes the Federal government should fund any abortion the woman signs for, because to do otherwise would constitute the Federal government using funds to intrude on abortion choices! Yes -- in Obama's view, refusing to pay for your abortion is intruding into your choice!

"As a lawmaker, Obama voted on several occasions against a law to protect babies who survived an abortion and were born alive."

Four times, to be exact.

"Obama is committed to removing all the pro-life laws that in many states currently offer protection to unborn babies and their mothers."

Yes. He is a co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act. Supporters of FOCA characterize it as merely "codifying Roe", but it goes beyond that and would strike down parental consent, restrictions on tax funding of abortions, informed consent laws, and waiting periods.

"Mr. Obama does not agree that the parents of a 13-year-old girl who is pregnant should be notified before she has an abortion."

Yes. See the above on FOCA.

"Absurd laws like this one that ignore the opinion of parents are precisely the ones that make it possible for pederasts (sic) and the sexually depraved to force young girls to have abortions in secret in order to cover up their sexual crimes."

The word the translator was looking for is "pedophile", not "pederast", since a pederast has sex with underage boys, not girls. But Verastegui's point is right on the money.

Verastegui then refers viewers to the following web sites: HispanicsForLife, VidaHumana, and Prolife.com.

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Totally amazing catch

I don't usually care one way or the other about football, but this is amazing -- Edwin Baptiste's stunning catch:

Missouri bans free speech about election

Turns out that law enforcement will be targeting anybody who says anything that doesn't get the Obama Seal of Approval. No ads or "statements" that are "false" or "misleading" about The Anointed One will be tolerated. A "Barack Obama Truth Squad" of law enforcement officials -- sheriffs and prosecutors -- are out to tell the public (I am NOT making this up) "that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 a year." And woe betide anybody who disagrees with anything they assert.

Don't just take my word for it:



Read The Gulag Archipelago if you wonder where this is heading.

Anybody in this country who thinks he or she has been the subject of slander or libel -- including the President, Supreme Court Justices, cabinet members, or even Oprah Winfrey -- has to go through the civil courts to seek redress. But not The Annointed One, at least not in Missouri. He can just send his goons to toss you in the hoosegow. And do you think having achieved this in one state he'll stop there?

This from the man whose supporters say that Sarah Palin is trying to impose a police state. Obama literally has Thought Police working for him in Missouri. If this is what he's like, and the kind of power he wields, as a mere candidate, what will he do if he becomes President? God help us if he makes it to the White House.

UPDATE: Missouri Governor Matt Blunt fires back:

St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer, and Obama and the leader of his Missouri campaign Senator Claire McCaskill have attached the stench of police state tactics to the Obama-Biden campaign.

What Senator Obama and his helpers are doing is scandalous beyond words, the party that claims to be the party of Thomas Jefferson is abusing the justice system and offices of public trust to silence political criticism with threats of prosecution and criminal punishment.

This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society.”

Thank God somebody is standing up to this egomaniacal man. Whenever he feels like somebody is picking on him, he runs to Daddy -- Daddy in this case being the friends in high places he has thanks to his links to the Chicago political machine.

Power and immaturity are a very dangerous mix. Obama doesn't need public office. He needs therapy. He is a danger to himself and others.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: For all his whining that everybody's telling lies about him, Obama ought to get his own facts straight once in a while. He said in the debate that Henry Kissinger said that the President of the United States should meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Well, Kissinger says otherwise:



Are Obama's Thought Police going to hold him accountable for saying things that are false and misleading?

1982: Safe, legal abortion leads to septic death

Rhonda Hess was 20 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion. After the procedure, she developed an infection. The infection led to problems with clotting of the blood. Rhonda was taken to Moss Regional Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she died on September 28, 1982.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1929: Chicago woman dead from abortion, perp never caught

On September 28, 1929, 29-year-old Barbara Auer died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed at an unknown place. The person or persons responsible were never identified or prosecuted.

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What I told the Utne Reader

Utne Reader has a new article up, New Group Enters “Born-Alive” Fray with Anti-Obama Video. Being a good leftie, the author, Jake Mohan, launches into the usual "political nuances" turf, going so far as to object to using "freighted terms" like "born alive". As if a neglected baby, gasping for breath in a utility closet, is in any way nuanced. As if describing that baby as "alive" is a cheap, sleazy political trick.

Here's the comment I made. I'm guessing they'll post it when pigs fly.

Obama's main concern seems to be protecting abortion rights. If anybody wants to see how this plays out in practice, they need only look at the case of Ximena Renearts, who was born alive in a Canadian hospital after her mother had undergone an abortion earlier in an American facility.

Hospital staff treated Ximena like an expelled fetus, not like a live-born infant. They put her in a bedpan in a utility room and waited for her to die. After she'd been left for over an hour to suffer from hypothermia and lack of oxygen, a nurse finally sent her to a children's hospital for care. But the damage had already been done. Ximena was left quadriplegic, with the mental capacity of a three-year-old.

BC police made two abortive investigations of the case, with spokesman Sergeant Bob Cooper calling the case "bullshit", dismissing what was done to Ximena as beneath his notice.

Part of the reason for the callous attitude of the police may be that the spokesman for the BC Minister of Health's Office, Michelle Stewart, is dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." And, presumably, providing care to babies like Ximena would, as Obama so clearly put it, "burden" the choice of abortion for those women whose babies had the audacity to survive.

British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected". Since Ximena was expected to die, had she been left in that closet until she died, the death would have been expected, and no big deal, not worth getting all in a tizzy about.

The hospital never conducted an internal review of how a live-born infant was treated like a pathology specimen on their premises, in violation of the law forbidding anyone to abandon or expose a child under the age of ten "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured." Under Canadian law, having been born alive, Ximena was a living human being entitled to full protection under the law. Prolife activists hold that charges of attempted murder might be more appropriate, since nurse Wood's intent in putting the child in the bedpan aside in a room for dead fetuses was to allow the baby to die and be sent to the pathology lab with the other results of recent abortions.

The law, it seems, doesn't matter if it "burdens" the "reproductive choice" of a woman who elects abortion, even if it means leaving a baby, cold and alone, to suffer in a closet.

Parse it with all the nuances you want. The kind of dedication to "choice" at any cost displayed by Obama is the same kind of dedication to "choice" at any cost displayed by Canadian authorities in Ximena's case. And if you're at ease with putting a live, shivering, whimpering, gasping baby in a closet and leaving her to die lest you hamper her mother's choice, by all means parse Obama's stand with great nuance. Just please stay away from babies like Ximena.

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Searches: A wide assortment

Paul Harvey stem cells: He totally got it wrong.

Abortion videos: In spite of my best efforts, my abortion videos post won't stay in the Top 10, where it belongs. I have quite a collection.

Planned Parenthood of Mid-Michigan: I'd certainly not recommend them.

Back-alley abortion stories: I have a collection here.

Infection after abortion: I have a selection here, selected from this page. A sample: Dorothy Brown, age 37, underwent an abortion at Friendship Medical Clinic in Chicago on August 16, 1974. Within hours, she was dead at a nearby hospital. Carolina Gutierrez (pictured) suffered multiple amputations before finally dying of sepsis from her safe and legal abortion. Sophie McCoy died after abortion at the hands of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat. Vivian Tran, like Holly Patterson, got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood. Ellen Williams had raging peritonitis after her abortion at Miami's Dadeland. The administrator gave her tea, the abortionist gave her a bottle of oral antibiotics.

And that essentially adding an additional doctor, who then has to be called in an emergency situation: Quote by Barack Obama:

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See also: Obama and the Born Alive Babies

Douching with Lysol: Actually recommended at one time. Those ads go a long way to explain the frequent apocryphal "Lysol abortion" tales.

Dr. Thomas Tucker live birth: As I mentioned just today, Tucker's former employee, Joy Davis, said that she'd seen him use forceps to crush the skull of a baby born alive in his clinic.

More Born Alive Babies

This time I searched my files for "infant" rather than "baby", as I did last time. And remember that these are just the babies whose births were caused by an attempt to abort them, and doesn't include babies that survived early abortions and continued to gestate to a more viable age. (Codes after entries are references to my source documents, which are somewhere in the attic. If you know of links to such documents, please let me know.)

A deposition of a former employee of Dr. Ronachai Banchaonmonie states an infant aborted alive was placed on a tray, covered, and allowed to die. (418 - summary)

Dr. Jesse Floyd was indicted on charges of illegal abortion and murder in the death of a 2 lb 5 oz infant boy of approximately 27-28 weeks gestation who survived 20 days following a third-trimester abortion performed in Richland Memorial Hospital, South Carolina in September of 1974. The state dropped the charges due to reluctance of the infant's mother to testify and Floyd challenging the constitutionality of the abortion law. Floyd said that he had no reason to believe that the fetus was over 20 weeks gestation, but also said he selected prostaglandin to induce the abortion in an effort not to harm the fetus -- an odd assertion, since he'd been paid to kill the baby in question. (The Columbia State 8-29-75, 8-30-75; Indictment for Murder 43590; Omaha World-Herald 10-19-79; Philadelphia Inquirer 8-2-81; New York Times 3-6-79)

Ruth Ann S. was sent to Detroit Memorial for an abortion performed October 3, 1984 by Dr. Enrique Gerbi. There, saline was injected to kill the fetus. At 12:30 AM on October 4, Ruth Ann delivered a live infant girl, that she named Vanessa. The hospital did not have a NICU, and did not transfer Vanessa to another hospital for NICU care. Little Vanessa was "left to languish without the care of an obstetrician and/or a pediatrician." Vanessa suffered brain damage, required heart surgery due to saline damage, and required surgery "to relieve hydrocephalic conditions produced by the result of the salt injection." The baby suffered blindness, mental retardation, severe scarring and burning of her feet, growth retardation, and "Lack of coordination, ambulation and other dysfunctions not yet manifest." The suit also charged Jack Ryan, President/Chief Medical Officer, with failing to "require the checking of the eleven malpractice suits in claims filed against [Gerbi]I," and with failing to require Gerbi "to present evidence of knowledge and skill" for performing abortions. The suit also faulted the hospital with failing "to require that physical evaluations would be made on patients to determine the gestational age of the fetus before an effort was made to kill the same by abortion techniques," failing to have arrangements for care of live-born infants after abortion, and failure to have Gerbi placed under adequate supervision. (Wayne County Circuit Court Case No. 85-529757)

Dr. Martin Haskell is a National Abortion Federation member who provided training on D&X abortions (aka Partial Birth Abortion), performed 20 weeks and beyond, in which live fetus is extracted feet first but the brain is suctioned out just before the head emerges. (Nurse Brenda Pratt Shaffer describes the procedure here.) An Associated Press article dated December 11, 1989, says that a witness who allegedly observed 17 other procedures told police one infant girl of 21 or 22 weeks gestation had emerged alive before the procedure had been completed, and survived approximately 20 minutes, on September 21, 1989. The police did not prosecute because it was the student observer's word against Haskell's. Haskell claimed that her complaint was a personal attack because he does abortions, but the student said, "I don't want this to sound like I'm a freak antiabortionist. I don't want to sound like a radical," and noted that she had gotten permission to observe abortions because she would like to be nurse or doctor specializing in abortions. Another of Haskell's patients went to a hospital between phases of one of his D&X procedures, where she gave birth to a premature infant who later died.

Nicolette C., sixteen years old, was subjected to the first two days of an illegal third-trimester abortion, without parental consent, by Dr. Douglas Karpan at Women's Pavillion in Houston. Nicolette repeatedly stated that she did not wish to go through with the abortion, and requested a referral to a doctor to help her to complete the pregnancy. Both Karpan and his associate, Richard Cunningham, refused to remove the laminaria that were endangering Nicolette's baby. When she refused to undergo the final phase of the abortion, she was told "to look in the yellow pages for an anti-abortion group," made to sign a release form, and ejected from the facility. Nicolette sought emergency care, but hospital doctors were unable to stop labor. She gave birth to an infant girl, Ashley, who survived only six months due to extreme prematurity.

Dr. C. J. LaBenz was charged with unlawful abortion and criminal neglegence in 1979. Allegations are that he estimated a gestational age of 19 to 20 weeks prior to initiating an abortion on September 6, 1979. The woman expelled an infant boy who weighed approximately 2.5 pounds, indicating a gestational age closer to 27 weeks. A nurse involved with the abortion testified that the infant was placed on a sink drain board in what she described as a "dirty utility room." The baby moved his arms and legs, and cried intermittently. The nurse said that the baby's breathing appeared to be normal. LaBenz reportedly took no action to kill the baby, but he also took no action to allow the child's life to be saved. The neglected infant died after 2 1/5 hours. (Omaha World-Herald 10-9-79, 10-12-79, 10-13-79, 10-19-79, 11-12-79, 11-25-79, 10-10-80, Associated Press 10-10-79, 11-15-79, 12-14-79, 12-15-79, 12-28-79, Lincoln Star 10-12-79, 10-31-79.) According to coverage by the Omaha World Herald, February 8, 1980, and Associated Press coverage, February 7 and 15, 1980, Planned Parenthood Federation of America provided "financial and moral support" for LaBenz during his trial for allowing the baby to die.

An article in the August 2, 1981 Philadelphia Inquirer states that in July of 1974, Dr. Leonard E. Laufe initiated an abortion at West Penn Hospital. The woman had been turned down at another hospital after gestation had been estimated at 26-31 weeks. Laufe estimated gestation at 20-22 weeks and injected the woman with prostaglandin. Laufe was filming the procedure for educational purposes. The film showed a 3-pound live-born infant, which moved and gasped. The infant subsequently died, but no charges were filed. Laufe contended the infant had sustained fatal injuries during the procedure.

Carol P. filed suit after her ordeal. She was examined by employees at Portland Feminist Women's Health Center on June 24, 1985. Staff estimated Carol's pregnancy at 13-15 weeks. Carol returned for an ultrasound on June 26 by John Wayne Loomis, and she was instructed to return on June 28. She returned on June 29, and was informed pregnancy was 16 weeks. After two unsuccessful attempts by Dr. Gilda Lorensen to abort the pregnancy by suction, Carol was transferred to a hospital where physicians discovered that the fetus was actually of 29-30 weeks gestation. They transferred Carol to Bess Kaiser Hospital, where an infant girl, Brandi Nycole, was delivered by C-section the following day. Brandi suffered bruises and lacerations, and was abraded "from her left shoulder blade to her anus and leg." She also had "extensive abrasions, lacerations, wounds and pain to her right shoulder, side, back, buttocks, rectum and legs." Brandi was hospitalized 5.5 weeks, during which time she suffered "respiratory distress syndrome, infections, apnea and jaundice." ( Multnomah County Circuit Court Case No. A8605 03177)

Dr. Fred H. Pulver voluntarily surrendered his medical license at the age of 79 in the wake of allegations regarding his January 18, 1990 attempt to perform an abortion on a woman who gave birth to a three-pound, 27-week baby boy five days later. Pulver said that the woman was obese and had deliberately misstated her last menstrual period in order to get the abortion. Pulver had estimated the pregnancy as 11 weeks. Planned Parenthood Health Services of Northeastern New York, where the abortion was attempted, did not have an ultrasound to verify estimated gestational age. (Schenectady Daily Gazette 11-1-91, 11-5-91, Sunday Times-Union 11-24-91, 12-8-91)

An August 2, 1981 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer said that in April of 1973, Dr. Xavier Hall Ramirez initiated a saline abortion at Greater Bakersfield Hospital. The patient expelled a live 4.5 pound infant. Nurses called Ramirez, who ordered them to discontinue the oxygen they were giving the baby. Another doctor countermanded that order, and the infant survived to be adopted. Ramirez was indicted for solicitation to commit murder.

Dr. Joseph Rucker (scroll down) reportedly examined 14-year-old Cecelia G. Rucker, estimated her pregnancy as 14 weeks, and tried to perform a suction abortion on her on January 26, 1977. Cecelia began to hemorrhage, and was transported to a hospital by car. There, a doctor examined her, and discovered she was 7 months pregnant. She was released, but returned days later. Her infant girl was born February 1, with a 2-inch piece of her scalp missing. ( Detroit Free Press 11-14-82; The Abortion Profiteers)

Dr. Herbert Schreiber reportedly committed suicude on July 18, 1976, one month after being charged with first degree murder and illegal abortion after reportedly strangling to death an infant girl who had survived abortion. (1828)

"Taranda," age 17, went to Family Planning Clinic for Reproductive Health for an abortion on December 22, 1989. Dr. Karen J. Smiley estimated the pregnancy at 6 weeks and performed an abortion. Four days later, Taranda gave birth to a one pound, critically ill infant girl in a hospital corridor. Taranda's lawyer said, "She's devastated, obviously. She would never have dreamed of having an abortion had she known it was 26 weeks old." Taranda needed psychiatric care after her ordeal. (The Tennessean 3-15-90; Today's Tennessean 2-2-90; Associated Press 1-11-90, 1-26-90, 1-29-90)

Tommy Tucker's former employee, Joy Davis, alleged that he crushed a live infant's skull with forceps after it survived an abortion. (New York Times 4-23-94)

An August 2, 1981 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that in February of 1979, a 1 lb. 11 oz. baby girl was born at Inglewood Hospital following a saline abortion. Staff there supposedly summoned a rescue team from Harbor General Hospital, but the team didn't respond. The baby died.

According to The Abortion Profiteers, an illegal abortion was attempted at Michigan Avenue Medical Center in 1978. The teenage patient was 26-29 weeks pregnant. The hospital where the girl was taken for emergency treatment reported the incident to the health department. The baby was born prematurely on October 2, 1978.

According to an August 2, 1981 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, a woman went to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland for an abortion. The infant was born live. A source told the newspaper, "The doctors had a very hard time making her realize she had a child. She kept saying, 'But I had an abortion.'" The infant was discharged in the care of its mother.

A suit by patient L.H. alleged that she underwent an abortion by Dr. Alan Beer at Planned Parenthood of Mid-Michigan on July 16, 1985. No ultrasound was performed to determine gestational age. Beer ruptured the amniotic sac, then referred Harat to University of Michigan Medical Center, where five days later she gave birth to a 2 lb. 3 1/2 oz premature infant boy of approximately 25-29 weeks gestation. The infant, named Bryan, suffered developmental delay, intracranial bleeding, hydrocephalus, and disfigurement.. (Washtenaw County Circuit Court Case No. 85-30344 NM)

The August 2, 1981 Philadelphia Inquirer said that in the spring of 1979, two infants were born live at Wilmington Medical Center after saline abortions. Both survived to be adopted. The first infant was placed in a plastic specimen jar and rescued by a nurse who noted that baby was struggling for breath and had a heartbeat. The second infant was immediately determined to be alive and given help.

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For more information, see:

More Born Alive Babies and Their Fates

Obama, Babies, and the Benefit of the Doubt

Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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Jill Stanek and FactCheck's Faulty "Facts"

I encourage you to read Jill's Fact-checking Factcheck.org on Gianna and Obama ads. I'm going to just pull a few points Jill makes and add some information.

It is easy for somebody who doesn't know about the legal, judicial, and medical wrangling and double-speak that go on in abortion practice to think that Jill is being either nit-picky or deliberately painting everything in a worst hypothetical light. I've been doing abortion malpractice research for a quarter of a century now, and I can add my experience to Jill's.

To restate, there was no enforceable definition of "born alive" in IL law when Obama opposed IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

To the layman, "born alive" seems obvious. The baby emerges from the mother. He or she is breathing, crying, wriggling, or showing other signs of life. But in practice, things like "alive" and "dead" aren't as clear when you are dealing with abortion.

The degree to which things that ought to be painfully obvious become distorted and turned upside-down in abortion is best illustrated in the Waddill case. Waddill strangled a live-born baby girl in front of multiple witnesses, including a pediatrician and NICU nurses. He made repeated statements such as "I can't find the goddam trachea!" "This baby won't stop breathing," and "This baby can't live or it will be a big mess." The autopsy performed on the baby found that neither the abortion injuries, nor the baby's prematurity, had caused her death. She had died of manual strangulation. But two trials produced hung juries. Waddill was never brought to justice for murdering a child in front of witnesses. Why not? Because there is a definition of "death" on the books in California that allowed Waddill's attorneys to claim that Waddill didn't cause the baby to be dead under that particular definition of death. After that, all Waddill would need is one adamantly pro-abortion juror to stand on that obscure legal definition of "death" to prevent a conviction. How much more would a vague definition of "birth" allow an abortionist to get off the hook?

The IL Abortion Act applies only to viable infants, while Born Alive applies to all live-born infants, regardless of viability. In other words, the former dealt with viability, the latter with live birth. Thus, in the case of the live birth of a child who was determined not to be viable at the time the abortion was committed, the 1975 law did not apply.

"So?" you might say. "If the baby isn't viable, what's the point of providing any care?"

Jill goes on to explain that:

The one determining a baby's viability according to the IL Abortion Act is the abortionist, and s/he is allowed to determine viability pre-birth. Rational people understand the potential for the very person trying to kill the baby pre-birth to subjectively assess the baby's likelihood of survival post-birth.

In other words, all that was necessary to prove that the baby wasn't "viable", and therefore not in need of care, is for the abortionist to point out that he did an abortion. Circular logic gets him off the hook.

Take some time to look at how these legal loopholes play out in practice.

Start with the Cooper case in Philadelphia. A baby boy was born alive when Cooper performed an abortion at 23 weeks. The baby gasped and tried to breathe. No efforts were made to revive the infant due to the parents' wishes and the infant's size. The baby was placed in a utility room used as an infant morgue. Cooper instructed nurse, "Leave the baby there -- it will die." The nurse testified that the baby was still gasping in the closet when she returned to work 12 hours later. Cooper then finally agreed to allow the baby to be transferred to intensive care, where he died 4 days later. But in spite of all this, the baby's death was ruled "accidental" rather than homicide. Leaving the baby, cold and alone, without any medical care or even a warming pad, in a closet for 12 hours was not accidental. It was done deliberately in order to achieve the baby's death. But these facts were ignored.

Dr. Gordon Sean Goei was arrested on suspicion of murdering what he had thought was a 26-week baby born live during an abortion. The baby, whose gestational age was revised to 30-32 weeks after examination, died due to blunt force trauma. At 30-32 weeks, the baby had as much a chance of survival as a term infant; he or she would just have needed NICU care.The death was ruled a homicide. But the charge against Goei was reduced to practicing medicine without a license and illegally performing an abortion.

Of course, the BAIPA is only any good if it's being enforced. And clearly the federal law isn't:

Back in 2006, prolifers had high hopes that staff at a Miami-area abortion facility would be charged with murder for killing a baby. A search warrant reported that there was “probable cause” to pursue a second degree murder investigation. The mother, 18-year old Sycloria W., told police that she had arrived at the facility to complete a late-term abortion. She says she gave birth to a live baby girl in the facility’s recovery room. Sycloria said that she had watched her daughter moving and gasping for air for about five minutes. Staff “began screaming that the baby was alive.” Then “Ms. Belkis Gonzalez [an owner of the facility] cut the umbilical cord, threw it into a red bag with black printing. Ms. Gonzalez then swept the baby, with her hands, into the same red bag along with the gauze used during the procedure.” She then threw the bag onto the roof of the building so police wouldn't find it. Eight days later, police searched again and found the body of the baby, which had been treated with a caustic chemical and left in the sun to accelerate decomposition and muddle the autopsy findings. The police were horrified and outraged and wanted to see the guilty parties prosecuted, but the coroner ruled that the baby had died of "extreme prematurity", leaving prosecutors in the lurch.

The fact that they stuck the baby in a bag and tossed her on the roof instead of sending her to the NICU to be assessed should have been enough to prosecute under BAIPA. But nobody picked up the ball.

What do we, as citizens, need to take away from this? The fact that babies that could possibly survive are being aborted. And that Barack Obama has no beef with this. His only beef is with people who think these babies are entitled to an assessment by somebody who doesn't have a personal, professional, and financial interest in making sure that they die.

And that clearly the people who want these babies dead have enough clout that they're rarely held accountable.

That ought to be scary.

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More Born Alive Babies and Their Fates

Obama, Babies, and the Benefit of the Doubt

Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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1975: Undiagnosed ectopic kills California woman after abortion

Early on the morning of September 27, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle." They put her in restraints, and
she was pronounced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

She had undergone a safe and legal abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County on September 13, and had been sent home.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit.

In practice, does this hold true?
Yes. Women who choose abortion have lower rates of death from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.
No. Women who choose abortions are more likely to die from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County. The others are Yvonne Tanner, Kathy Murphy, Belinda Byrd, Cora Lewis, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Searches: Fetuses, embolisms, and more

Yay! Searching for "abortion videos" finally has started bringing people to the abortion videos post.

Eastern Women's Center is the den of quackery where Venus Ortiz, Dawn Mack, and Dawn Ravenelle all submitted to their fatal abortions.

Yes, whoever was searching, it is possible to identify the sex of a fetus at 13 weeks. There was also interest in fetuses at 18 and 20 weeks.

A bad vaginal smell after an abortion could be a sign of infection or bowel injury. Seek medical care!

Someone was interested in scarring after abortion.

If you want to know about death by abortion, I specialize in cataloging the maternal deaths. You can visit the Cemetery of Choice to see all of the deaths I've learned about. There's also a search box at the top of the page if you're interested in something more specific.

Somebody was interested in books about perinatal hospice, which is a way of providing comfort care to babies and their mothers and families in cases where there has been a fatal fetal diagnosis. I can't find any books on the topic.

Air embolism from abortion was another search. I have the following fatal cases: Laura France, Betty Ladel, Elizabeth Radcliffe, Sharonda Rowe, Rhonda Ruggiero, Barbara Lofrumento (suspected), Adelle Roe (suspected), Cindy Roe, and Gaylene Golden.

As for hospitals in Atlanta that do abortions, I'd not recommend any of them. Sara Niebel underwent her fatal abortion at Midtown Hospital in Atlanta. Midtown was a National Abortion Federation member facility that experienced numerous scandals pertaining to illegal late abortions and filthy, chaotic conditions. Jacqueline Reynolds died after an abortion at Grady Memorial in Atlanta. Allegra Roserberry's fatal abortion was performed at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.

More Born-Alive Babies and Their Fates

I'm going through my e-files for stories of what happens to babies who are born alive during abortions. I'm just doing a search for "baby" and cleaning up my notes for your edification. When you read these cases, keep Barack Obama's words in mind:

(If you want to post the video on your web site, there's a button at the top of the video screen that gives you the embed code.)

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Occasionally instead of a normal source you'll see a code. That's so that when I drag my files down out of the attic I can look and see the document in question and fill in what it is.

An August 2, 1981 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer said that in July of 1979, Dr. Boyd Cooper performed an abortion at 23 weeks at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The 1 lb 2 oz infant boy gasped and tried to breathe. No efforts were made to revive the infant due to the parents' wishes and the infant's size. The baby was placed in a utility room used as an infant morgue. Cooper instructed nurse, "Leave the baby there -- it will die." The nurse testified that the baby was still gasping in the closet when she returned to work 12 hours later. Cooper then finally agreed to allow the baby to be transferred to intensive care, where he died 4 days later. Despite having left the child gasping, cold and alone, in a morgue for over twelve hours, the baby's death was ruled accidental.

Dr. Joseph Durante was put on probation for five years Sept. 3, 1996, over case where a baby survived an abortion at San Diego Womancare. Durante was fined $14,000. (M29, M207) There was also an incident in 1980, when Baby Boy Sanchez was supposedly born alive at Indio Community Hospital, I’d guess after an abortion. Durante had announced that the baby was dead, and had the body incinerated. (M207) Also: Melisha W., age 17, underwent an abortion by Joseph Durante at Womancare on March 7, 1992. Durante did not follow standard exam procedures or use an ultrasound. He estimated that Melisha was 11-12 weeks pregnant, but during the abortion he discovered that the fetus was much larger than he expected. Only then did Durante perform an ultrasound, which revealed a 25-26 week fetus. Durante gave Melisha painkillers and referred her to a facility specializing in late abortions. Melisha's mother instead took her to Kaiser medical center, where infant Victoria G. was born weighing 1 lb 13 oz. The baby suffered physical and cognitive disabilities. (Why Would Planned Parenthood Bother?)

The Edelin case is fairly well-known. Dr. Kenneth Edelin, a member of the National Abortion Federation's Standards Committee, had been convicted for manslaughter in the case of an infant boy aborted by hysterotomy (a c-section in which you intend for fetal death rather than live birth) in 1973 at Boston City Hospital. Edelin had estimated fetal age a 20-22 weeks pre-abortion. Witnesses said Edelin smothered the baby, and the prosecution held that at 1 lb 8 oz, the infant was viable. The prosecution also said that a right to abortion constituted a right to terminate a pregnancy, not a right to a dead baby. The defense contended that the death of the baby -- okay, they said fetus -- is a desired and foregone conclusion in such cases. Edelin's conviction was overturned on the grounds that the jury had been improperly instructed. Edelin later became national chairman of Planned Parenthood. (Omaha World-Herald 10-19-79; Philadelphia Inquirer 8-2-81; also cited in Orange County Superior Court Case No. C-37815)

Dr. Gordon Sean Goei was arrested on March 19, 1998, on suspicion of murdering a 26-week preemie born live during an abortion Goei had performed six days after his license had been suspended for failing to pass a competency exam. The charge was reduced to practicing medicine without a license and illegally performing an abortion. The fetus had been found in a trash bag at Centro Mexico Family Planning Clinic. The mother was age 42. She had been rushed to a hospital for severe bleeding, and the police found had found the baby's mutilated body in a dumpster. The baby's death was ruled a homicide due to “blunt force trauma.” Later reports placed the baby's age as 30-32 weeks. Goei's license had been revoked in 1995, but the revocation was overturned by order of an Administrative Law judge because although the Medical Board had sent two letters by surface mail, and another two by registered mail, Goei hadn’t gotten the letters. A witness for Goei said that he had opened the letters, felt sorry for Goei, and hidden them. ((M20, M195, M196, M197, M199, M200)

Dr. Joseph Melnick was convicted of infanticide and unlawful abortion after the death of 32-week infant girl (3 lb, 9 oz) born during an abortion Melnick performed on a 13-year-old girl at what was then West Park Hospital, Philadelphia, in 1984. The nursing supervisor testified that "Baby Girl Smith" showed signs of life and gasped and moaned following the abortion, others in the room pointed out infant's condition and requested that Melnick aid the infant. The nursing supervisor attempted CPR on the baby, detecting a heartbeat. She found a death certificate filled out by Melnick stating that the infant was stillborn. She tore up the death certificate, whereupon Mewlnick filled out a birth certificate for the infant. Another doctor ordered resuscitation, but the baby died after 90 minutes. Melnick indicated on medical records that he observed "agonal breathing" in the infant, which he defined for the judge as "It's the last effort a human being makes to sustain life." After the judge asked him three times he admitted that agonal breathing would not be observed in a stillborn infant. An autopsy found that the infant had a full head of hair, and skin typical of a term infant. Melnick allegedly admitted, "After the fact, it occurred to me that I had miscalculated." He also admitted that when the patient insisted that she was four months pregnant, Melnick noted the size of the infant and told her "if that's true, your baby would have been 18 pounds at birth." Melnick's defense claimed that the prosecution was based on "frustration raised over the abortion issue" rather than the evidence, and that a conviction would have "chilling effect" on other doctors' willinglness to perform abortions. (LA Times Magazine 1-7-90; Houston Chronicle 6-13-89; United Press International 10-3-84; Associated Press 3-16-89, 5-13-89, 6-12-89, 12-20-89)

Dr. Raymond Showery was found guilty in 1983 of the 1979 murder of a 5-7 month baby aborted by hysterotomy (cutting the mother open and taking the baby out to die). Five of his employees testified that the infant girl had light brown hair, was about a foot long, and curled up in Showery's hand. One employee saw the infant apparently attempting to breathe as Showery held the placenta over her face. Showery then dropped her into a bucket of water. His employees testified that bubbles rose to the surface. Showery then put the baby in a plastic bag which was tied and put at the end of the operating room. The bag moved as though someone were breathing in it, then the bag stopped moving. One witness said he was holding the bag as Showery put the infant in, and that he later put the bag in the freezer where fetuses were stored. Showery was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison even though the body of the infant was never found and employees could not identify the patient upon whom the abortion was performed. The jury chose to convict for murder even though they had the option of convicting for manslaughter. A news report said that Showery, "his voice breaking and tears filling his eyes," denied all the allegations. "I never killed a baby," Showery said, "and if I'm not telling you the truth, may I die right now." Showery had also been convicted of a felony charge of altering his hospital's records, which hindered the state's attempts to locate the woman. The former employees alleged that Showery falsified records on all patients over 20 weeks pregnant, saying they were all exactly 20 weeks pregnant, and that such abortions were routine. One former employee, Gloria, said she assisted in abortions in which Showery would sedate the patient, dilate the cervix, and pull the fetus out with forceps. "He wanted them in pieces, but a lot of times they would come out whole." She said that she saw signs of life in at least two fetuses aborted this way. Another former employee, Belinda, said she looked away as Showery removed a fetus through a hysterotomy incision, and that when she turned back Showery had placed the fetus in a plastic bag within a bucket "and just waited until it stopped moving." She said the fetus squirmed and wiggled for about 10 seconds. Former employee Anita alleged that for late abortions, "He walks in, closes the door, and locks it." She also said Showery instructed them, "If you see any movement or anything, you don't see anything, you don't know anything," and that he always asked employees to look away when the fetus was extracted. A former employee said the fetuses would be put in plastic bags and frozen, that employees did not know what became them but that someone removed them from the freezer. An autopsy on a male fetus identified as Baby John Doe #81-01, found among other fetuses in the freezer at Showery's hospital, was inconclusive as to whether he was born live due to decomposition during thawing. The fetus was just over 2 pounds, just over 13 inches long, with sparse dark hair; the autopsy also found meconium, usually found in the intestine of full-term fetuses. Showery denied ever performing abortions after 20 weeks, and is quoted as saying, "If that baby takes a breath, that's life. Now the department of vital statistics comes into it and you fill out death certificates. It cried once. It took life. It took breath. It becomes a person. You cannot dispose of it with hospital wastage. It must go to the mortician and et cetera." Family Hospital was not known to have ever filed fetal death certificates. While out on bail pending appeal of the murder conviction, Showery performed the fatal abortion on Mickey Apodaca. (New York Times 4-29-84; DesMoines Register 5-5-84; El Paso County Offense Report No. 00-380101, Houston Chronicle 6-9-85; El Paso Times 9-22-83, 9-23-83, April 5-8, 1981; Dallas Morning News 4-20-84, Dallas Times-Herald 9-29-83)

The woman in the following case never consented to an abortion, but I'll include it because I think it illustrates the attitude some abortionists have toward infants. Carmen H., age 36, reported that in 1983 she was 8 months pregnant to Dr. Pravin Thakkar, who had seduced her when she was his patient. He gave her drugs while she was at his house, knocking her out. She briefly awoke to hear the muffled sound of a baby's cry. Thakkar told her the baby was still-born while she was unconscious. She did not consent to terminate the pregnancy. No death certificate was filed for the fetus. Thacker was convicted in the baby's death. (Tyler Morning Telegraph 6-12-91, 6-13-91; Associated Press 2-9-89)

I have this mysterious note: Baby Roe survived Allred abortion saline, born 7 PM, kept 7 hours, sent to USC medical center, died next day 10 AM. ()

Ohio State University Hospital faced a lawsuit filed by Joseph M. He said his infant girl was alive when expelled during an abortion performed on Joseph's wife, Peggy, on September 9, 1981. Joseph faulted staff Debra Clapp and Mervyn Samuel with failure to take measures to preserve the child's life, resulting in her death. The baby was estimated to be of 20 weeks gestation, and sent to the pathology lab with permission of her mother, and destroyed before Joseph could request an autopsy. Defendants contended that the baby was nonviable and therefore by definition dead upon delivery. Joseph's case was dismissed. (Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 83CV-09-5231)

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1990: Butcher of Avenue A leaves teen mom dead

On September 26, 1990, 17-year-old Sophie McCoy died in a New York hospital, leaving a one-year-old son motherless.

The events that led to her death started on September 17, when Sophie went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat. She was accompanied by her mother and by the husband of the operator of a facility identified as "the Willoughby Avenue Clinic." She had been referred to him, but medical board documents do not say by whom.



Sophe and her mother returned to Hayat's office the next day and paid $300 for the safe, legal abortion. Sophie was given intravenous medications which put her to sleep. She was kept about four hours and discharged with another prescription for antibiotics.

That evening, Sophie was bleeding, had abdominal pain, and was having trouble breathing.

The next day, September 19, she was taken to a hospital, reporting vaginal bleeding, chest pain, and shortness of breath. Dr. Harding, who treated her, discovered that Sophie had a perforated uterus and serious sepsis. An emergency hysterectomy was performed, but Sophie developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) and septic shock, which killed her.

After Sophie's death, Hayat originally denied having treated her at all. But Sophie's mother identified Hayat by name and from a photograph.

While continuing to deny having treated Sophie, Hayat told one of the physicians who had tried to save her life that she had expelled a fetus at home and come to him for treatment, whereupon he'd sent her to the hospital. But Margie, an employee of his, recognized Sophie from a photo and said that Hayat had indeed treated the girl on two occasions. Margie added that after the second visit, Sophie's mother had called, hysterical and crying. Margie further said that she had seen medical records for Sophie at the facility, and that Hayat had argued with the referring clinic about payments for Sophie's treatment.

The case was reported to the district attorney and the New York Health Department, but nobody took any action against Hayat until he pulled the arm off Ana Rosa Rodriguez during an abortion attempt in 1991.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Beautiful Down syndrome montage

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I know it's a rerun, but with Trig Palin in the news lately it's nice to remember that Sarah isn't the only proud mom of a kid with designer genes.

Search: Abortions for health reasons

First of all, they're rare. A Planned Parenthood study of why women have abortions found that a total of 7% of all aborting women reported choosing abortion because of concerns for their own health, or concerns that the baby had health or disability issues. Even later abortions are rarely done for health reasons.

Keep in mind, first of all, that these are women's self-reported reasons, not reasons that were verified by a physician's diagnosis:

Women who felt that their fetus's health had been compromised cited concerns such as a lack of prenatal care, the risk of birth defects due to advanced maternal age, a history of miscarriages, maternal cocaine use and fetal exposure to prescription medications. Concerns about personal health included chronic and life-threatening conditions such as depression, advanced maternal age and toxemia.

There is no breakdown of maternal health concerns versus fetal indications, and no breakdown of whether a physician had recommended an abortion or the woman had just chosen to check "health" on the survey box because she was thinking, "I'm too old for this."

You can really break "health of the mother" abortions down into three categories:

1. The woman self-refers for reasons that can range from trivial to the wretched nightmare of hyperemesis gravidarum. I've never seen any evidence that abortion facilities do any screening of these women to verify their perceptions that abortion would ease their health concerns.

2. The woman is referred by a doctor who is either ignorant, lying, or lazy. She might have actual health problems that he either doesn't want to deal with or doesn't know how to deal with. She might have social issues, or a prenatal diagnosis, that the doctor thinks calls for an abortion, and he'll say whatever it takes to get her to consent.

3. The woman actually has one of those rare pregnancies that actually is a danger to her life.

If there's interest in the topic, I'll expand this post. Right now it's late and I'm not feeling up to it.

Obama, Babies and the Benefit of the Doubt

(If you want to post the video on your web site, there's a button at the top of the video screen that gives you the embed code.)

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There's often a world of difference between intent and effect. It's referred to as "The law of unintended consequences." And while it's plain to many people that Obama's vote against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act had the effect of fostering infanticide, we can't know that this was Obama's intent.

He might simply have taken at face value things his friends at NOW, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood have told him. Many of us in the prolife movement can remember foregone times when we trusted one or more of those organizations. Many prochoicers still do trust them.

So, let's give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt here. I'm going to do a multi-post feature looking at Obama's statements and assessing them in a charitable light.

He makes the point that when a baby is born alive during an abortion, a doctor has already "made that assessment" -- presumably that the baby in question isn't "viable" -- that is, able to survive outside the womb. But if the baby is born alive, the doctor in question has already established in a pretty palpable way that his clinical judgment isn't all it's cracked up to be. He already thought the baby wouldn't survive the abortion process. Now are we to trust him to judge the baby's chance of survival when she's already proved to be much more tenacious of life than he expected?

Obama indicates that it's somehow just burdensome to bring a second doctor in, after the abortion doctor has made his assessment: an assessment that has been proved to be flawed.

As if doctors are all the same. As if a second opinion is never called for.

Imagine for a moment that your wife, daughter, or sister is in a car crash. She's brought into the emergency room with a serious head injury. A doctor examines her, tells you that there is no hope, and hands you papers for organ donation.

This doctor is telling you that your loved one's brain injury is fatal. If that doctor is a neurosurgeon, how much would you trust the assessment? What if the doctor isn't a neurosurgen, but an ob/gyn? Would you want him making that call?

Probably not. He might be the best ob/gyn in the world, but brain surgery is tricky business. You'd want a specialist, somebody with experience assessing patients with brain injuries.

Some areas of medicine are fairly simple, and don't really require a specialist. Probably just about any doctor can set a simple fracture, drain an abscessed toenail, or treat your poison ivy. But for a brain injury, you're rightly going to want a specialist, with intensive specialized training and extensive specialized experience. The same goes with preemies -- especially the micropreemies that can be expected in an abortion-triggered birth. These tiny babies are not easy to assess and care for. They require a very high level of skill and clinical judgment. Only neonatologists are qualified to assess and care for them.

The doctor making the initial assessment in an abortion is likely an ob/gyn, though he might be a psychiatrist or dermatologist or ENT. There's no requirement that abortions be performed by ob/gyns. But let's for the sake of argument assume that he is an ob/gyn.

Ob/gyns who are providing care to women who don't intend to abort routinely concede that assessing and caring for critically ill, premature, or injured babies isn't their speciality. They have sense enough, when the mother loves and wants her baby, to call in an expert to make an expert assessment.

But Obama is asserting that in the case of an infant born during an abortion, the usual standard of care -- to have a neonatologist assess the premature and/or injured baby -- suddenly doesn't apply. In abortion cases, and abortion cases alone, Obama asserts, the ob/gyn's skill is adequate to assess and care for that baby.

But to reiterate, the ob/gyn in question has already shown poor clinical judgment in his own specialty by trying to abort a baby strong enough to survive the procedure.

Obama isn't necessarily endorsing infanticide of babies born during abortions. He might not even have thought through the fact that he's stating that a lesser standard of care is adequate. It might simply never have occurred to him that a premature baby needs a neonatologist, not an obstetrician.

It doesn't show murderous intent. But it shows poor judgment and lack of reasoning. And it still leaves babies in the lurch if they're born after an abortion.

A grain of rice

I had an abortion:

I know that I writhed in my twin bed, suffering from debilitating, convulsing cramps. My roommates, best friend, and boyfriend hovered around; they brought me pain killers, Tiger Balm, hot-water bottles, and applesauce, and all the while they stroked my head and conferenced in the background about how I was doing. I bled profusely as my body rejected the fetus that had been described to me as “the size of a grain of rice.” I threw up. And finally, I fell asleep.

She was "six weeks pregnant". Which typically means six weeks past her last menstrual period, with an embryo four weeks old. If so, Planned Parenthood was technically not too far off in describing it as "the size of a grain of rice": a four-week embryo is indeed about as long as a grain of rice, but it's no more "the size of a grain of rice" than any two people the same height are also "the same size".

And does size matter that much? Does being tiny make it okay to kill you? Thumbelina would find few protectors, it seems, in the prochoice movement.

"Six weeks pregnant." Four weeks into life:

Brain is well marked by its cerebral hemispheres. The hindbrain, which is responsible for heart regulation, breathing and muscle movements, begins to develop.

....

External retina pigment is visible ....

Primary cardiac tube separates into aortic and pulmonary channels and the ventricular pouches deepen and enlarge, forming a common wall with their myocardial shells.

The mesentery, which attaches the intestines to the rear abdominal wall, holds them in position and supplies them with blood, nerves and lymphatics, is now clearly defined. Ureter, the tube that will convey urine from the kidney to the bladder, continues to lengthen.

Hand region of upper limb bud differentiates further to form a central carpal part and a digital plate. The thigh ..., leg ... and foot areas can be distinguished in the lower limb buds.

Somebody who was never given a chance. Whose mother feels ashamed not for having snuffed him, but because other women have to go to more trouble to cut off every chance at life for their own children.

And that's sad.

What's really the size of a grain of rice, it seems, is the conscience.

HT: JJ

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1925: Two physicians, one abortion, one dead woman

On September 25, 1925, Faye McGinnis, age 23, died at her home in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. The coroner identified two physicians, Walter Penningdorf and Walter Voight, as being responsible. They were arrested on September 25. Faye's husband, Roy McGinnis, was also arrested as an accomplice in his wife's death. The doctors were indicted for felony murder on October 15.

Faye's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

For more on pre-Roe abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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1986: "Therapeutic misadventure" during abortion kills California woman

Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez underwent a safe and legal abortion by Leo Kenneally at his Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on September 20, 1986.

Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. After the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest. There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later.

Liliana's death was ruled a "therapeutic misadventure," which a coroner's spokesman called, "a nice medical term for a mistake."

An attorney for Her Medical Clinic said, "If something like this happened at a hospital ... people would just say it was bad luck, one of those flukey things. But ... all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen."

Other deaths I know about at Her Medical Clinic include Donna Heim and Michelle Thames.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortion in the 1940s updated & other searches

A lot of searchers come looking for Abortion in the 1940s. I've added more deaths I've uncovered, with a bit of information indicating how reliable my source is and who was blamed for fatal abortions.



People were looking for abortionists Steve Lichtenberg (responsible for the death of 13-year-old Deanna Bell) and Abu Hayat (who ripped the arm off Ana Rosa Rodriguez (pictured) trying to abort her at 32 weeks). Abortionist John Baxter Hamilton's Valentine's Day murder of his wife remains a popular search.

The search for abortion videos still isn't taking people to the right post!

Folks wanted Kris Humphrey, who did herself in when trying to kill her baby with pennyroyal.

Others wanted Sandra Cano, who was "Jane Doe" in Doe vs. Bolton. Cano never wanted an abortion; she wanted custody of her kids in a messy divorce. But her lawyer slipped a document in for her to sign that ended up going to the Supreme Court and getting "health" defined so broadly with regard to abortion that heartburn, not wanting to get up to pee so often during your kid's Little League playoffs, or storm damage to your house would meet the test.

Somebody was looking for "abortion mentally disabled". Both Diane Boyd and Christin Gilbert (pictured) were mentally disabled 19-year-old rape victims brought for abortions by their families. Both died as a result.

Several similar searches brought folks here. Let me reiterate: There's no such thing as a self-induced miscarriage. If you're inducing it, it's an abortion. Though it may be either "self help" or self harm. And, in the same vein, searches for "coathanger abortions".

I have a post of abortion songs. Not the most upbeat bunch of ditties. Gosh, you'd think they would be! What's more liberating, and thus more worthy of joy and celebration, than an abortion?

Then there's 14 week abortion, 18 week fetus, and 20 week abortion.

Last but not least, deaths from abortions. All gathered in one place, with a handy search box. If you don't find what you're looking for, just ask.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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The real scoop on the Palin/Rape Kit brouhaha

Newsbusters covers the whole thing in great detail.

I had postulated that rape victims might have been sent bills but not pressed to pay them if their insurance companies didn't cover it.

Turns out that there was ONE rape in Wasilla during the time period between Palin becoming mayor and the state law going into effect (requiring local law enforcement to pick up the tab for rape kits). And that victim was not charged for her rape kit.

Another tempest in a teapot.

Repeat: Neither Palin herself, not the town of Wasilla on her behalf, billed any rape victim for a rape kit.

NEXT: Palin's overdue library books! And photographic proof that Todd Palin drove nearly 200 miles with one tire under-inflated! And this just in: Piper sometimes colors outside the lines!

1927: Nurse held responsible for fatal Chicago abortion

On September 24, 1927, 35-year-old Martha Kohnke died in Chicago from a criminal abortion performed that day. A nurse. Emma Schultz, was held by the coroner on October 5.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Obama and the Born Alive Babies

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Here is the script, for those who need it in print. I've added links to additional information.

If you want to post it on your web site, there's a button at the top of the video screen that gives you the embed code.

"I suspect that doctors feel that they would be under that obligation, that they would already be making these determinations, and that essentially adding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion."

Barack Obama
Illinois Senate
April 4, 2002
Expressing his opposition to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act

"...adding an additional doctor..." was burdensome for Dr. William Baxter Waddill. Waddill had called in an additional doctor after Baby W was born alive during a saline abortion done at 32 weeks. The other doctor testified in court that he had seen Waddill strangle Baby W.

"We had a baby come out live from a saline abortion, and it can't live!"

"This baby won't stop breathing."

"I said, 'Why not just leave the baby alone?' He said, 'This baby can't live or it will be a big mess.'"

"...adding an additional doctor ... is really designed simply to burden the original decision ... to perform an abortion."

Ana Rosa Rodriguez was born alive after an attempted abortion at 32 weeks. Fortunately for her, her mother went to a hospital where an additional doctor delivered the baby ... minus the arm the abortionist had torn off.

"...adding an additional doctor ... to burden the original decision ... to perform an abortion."

Ximena Renearts was born alive after an abortion. She was shivering, whimpering, and gasping for breath. She was put in a bedpan and into a utility room and left to die. After a delay of over an hour, a nurse sent her for care. Ximena suffered from hypothermia and lack of oxygen. She was left quadriplegic, with the mental capacity of a 3-year-old.

Citizens demanded to know why no attempted murder charges were filed.

"[We are] in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health."

"...adding an additional doctor ... to burden the original decision ... to perform an abortion."

Dr. Robert Bolognese did abortions at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.

"[I]t has been our policy to wrap the fetus in a towel. ... our attention is turned to the care of [the woman]... Once [she] is stable, the fetus is evaluated. Almost invariably all signs of life have ceased."

"...adding an additional doctor ... simply to burden the original decision ... to perform an abortion."

Rowan was born alive in an abortion clinic toilet. As soon as his mother saw him, she regretted her choice. She cried out again and again for clinic staff to call 911 for her baby. They refused to make the call.

The mother's friend called 911, but staff sent the ambulance away.

The staff didn't make any calls until Rowan had died.

They called the police -- to remove Rowan's hysterical mother from the building.

"...adding an additional doctor ... to burden the original decision ... to perform an abortion."

The CDC estimated that 500 babies are born alive during abortions every year.

For more information visit bornalivetruth.org

They make 'em tough in Alaska

"The one time H.R. 6107 got out of the Senate, President Bill Clinton vetoed it because it would take 10 years before it produced. That was 13 years ago."

U.S. Representative Don Young (R-AK) says we can produce oil out of ANWR in three years, and he backs up his talk. The Alaska pipeline took only 3 years before oil began flowing.

Put down that soda

Then check out this sign.

Searches: A motley assortment

ureter damage in surgery: Here are some cases of ureter damage by abortionists, during abortions and other surgery.

Lime 5: Read the story of how it all came about here.

Linda Boom: Wisconsin woman who died during an abortion she was having because her baby had Down syndrome.

Abortion video: Here is a collection.

Doctor's accident deaths at Emory crawford long: Allegra Roseberry died from an abortion performed at Emory Crawford Long. She'd been falsely told that her baby was "doomed" and that she'd be excluded from a cancer treatment program if she didn't abort.

"john hamilton" oklahoma city murder: John Baxter Hamilton (pictured) is an abortionist who was convicted of the Valentine's Day murder of his wife.

how do you abort a 20 week baby: Here is everything you'd want to know -- and then some.

coffee table book about down syndrome: Band of Angels produces a beautiful coffee table book, Common Threads, available in hard or soft cover. (I recommend the hard cover! This book is too beautiful to go for anything but the very best!) If you run any sort of a business that has a waiting room, leaving this book for customers to explore will go a long way toward reducing the misconceptions and prejudice.

Dennis Miller abortion: You're probably seeking the opinions of the famous Dennis Miller. He's pretty outspoken and clueless. But there is also Dr. Dennis Miller, responsible for the death of Erna Fisher in 1988.

Reasons to vote for McCain: Because abortion fanatics hate him, for starters.

Search: Dr. Cicero Coimbra

I mentioned Dr. Coimbra in a post about KOA, an organization of parents who found out what happens to "brain dead" transplant donors only after they had signed consent for their children's organs to be harvested.

In 1968, the "Harvard criteria" for determining brain death were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, under the title "A Definition of Irreversible Coma." The article was published without substantiating data. A conference was held in Rome reviewing the "Harvard criteria" and finding the criteria scientifically invalid.

From the KOA site:

In his presentation at the conference, Dr. Cicero Coimbra, a clinical neurologist from the Federal University of Sao Paolo, Brazil denounced the cruelty of the apnea test, in which mechanical respiratory support is withdrawn from the patient for up to 10 minutes, to determine whether he will begin breathing independently. This is part of the procedure before declaring a brain-injured patient "brain dead." Dr. Coimbra explained that this test significantly impairs the possible recovery of a brain-injured patient, and can even cause the death of the patients.

He argued:

A large number of brain-injured patients, even in deep coma, can recover to lead a normal daily life; their nervous tissue may be only silent, not irreversibly damaged, as a consequence of a partial reduction of the blood supply to the brain. (This phenomenon, called "ischemic penumbra," was not known when the first neurological criteria for brain death were established 37 years ago.) However, the apnea test (considered the most important step for the diagnosis of "brain death" or brain-stem death) may induce irreversible intra-cranial circulatory collapse or even cardiac arrest, thereby preventing neurological recovery.

During the apnea test, the patients are prevented from expelling carbon dioxide (CO2), which becomes a poison to the heart as the blood CO2 concentration rises.

As a consequence of this procedure, the blood pressure drops, and the blood supply to the brain irreversibly ceases, thereby causing rather than diagnosing irreversible brain damage; by reducing the blood pressure, the "test" further reduces the blood supply to the respiratory centers in the brain, thereby preventing the patient from breathing during this procedure. (By breathing, the patient would demonstrate that he is alive.)

Irreversible cardiac arrest (death), cardiac arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, and other life-threatening detrimental effects may also occur during the apnea test. Therefore, irreversible brain damage may occur during and before the end of the diagnostic procedures for “brain death.”

Dr. Coimbra concluded by saying that the apnea test should be considered unethical and declared illegal as an inhumane medical procedure. If family members were informed of the brutality and risk of the procedure, he stated, most of them would deny permission. He pointed out that when a heart attack patient is admitted to the emergency room he is never subjected to a stress test in order to verify that he is suffering from heart failure. Instead the patient is given special care and protection from further stress to the heart.

In contrast when a brain-injured patient is subjected to the apnea test, further stress is placed on the organ that has already been injured, and additional damage can endanger the patient’s life. Dr. Yoshio Watanabe a cardiologist from Nagoya, Japan, concurred, saying that if patients were not subjected to the apnea test, they could have a 60 percent chance of recovery to normal life if treated with timely therapeutic hypothermia.

See also: Just how dead does an organ donor have to be?

1971: Saline abortion proves fatal for Michigan woman

On September 23, 1971, 35-year-old "Barbara" died in a New York hospital, leaving five children motherless. The autopsy could find no anatomical cause of death. All that was known for certain is that she had traveled from Michigan to New York for an abortion. She had been 20 weeks pregnant. Within 24 hours of being injected with saline for the abortion, she went into convulsions, then her heart stopped, and all efforts to save her life failed.

Why did Barbara travel to New York for her abortion?
All abortions were illegal prior to 1973. Barbara had correctly guessed that it would be easier to arrange an illegal abortion in a big city like New York than anyplace closer to home.
Abortions were illegal in Michigan, but legal in New York, so Barbara had traveled to where she could obtain her abortion legally and safely.
Though abortions were legal, Barbara's pregnancy was so far advanced that she had to seek out a specialist in late abortions. The nearest one was in New York.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1899: Midwife performs fatal abortion in Chicago home

On September 23, 1899, Mary Kakacek died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed that day by midwife Annie Stonek. Stonek was held without bail by the Coroner's Jury.

Which was more common before legalization: For a woman to find a non-physician with medical training, such as a nurse or midwife, to perform her abortion? Or for a woman to rely on somebody with no medical training at all?
It was more common to find somebody who had some medical training.
It was more common for the woman to find somebody with no medical training at all.
Both scenarios were equally unusual.
Nobody knows for sure.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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1995: Abortion for Down syndrome kills baby, mother

Linda Boom, age 35, went to Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee for a safe, legal abortion on September 21, 1995.

Linda and her husband, Dennis Boom, had married in 1993 and planned to start a family. Linda learned that she was pregnant in June of 1995, but in September elected abortion because the fetus had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Linda's aunt had Down syndrome, which Linda believed meant "no life."

Fourth-year resident Karen S. Watson administered an amnioinfusion -- injecting chemicals into Linda's uterus. Linda reported pain and said she was "burning up all over." This is consistent with what a woman might experience during a botched saline abortion.

Watson's supervising physician, Daniel Gilman, injected more chemicals into Linda's uterus. Dennis Boom's attorney, Patrick Dunphy, said that the two injections caused the heart damage that killed Linda 36 hours after the first injection.

Watson did not use ultrasound to guide the needle injecting the poison, and apparently she injected the chemicals directly into Linda's bloodstream instead of into the amniotic sac.

The defense, of course, says that there was no negligence. Also, the hospital says that Gilman is responsible for Linda's death, because he performed the second injection and was supervising Watson. Gilman can't be named in the suit because the statute of limitations expired before Linda's husband filed.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Gilman "had performed more than 100 abortions." Watson has started an ob/gyn practice in Milwaukee.

News coverage of the case does not indicate why Watson and Gilman chose the antiquated instillation technique for Linda's abortion. Since the late 1960s, nations such as Sweden, Japan, and the Soviet Union had abandoned instillation abortions as being far too dangerous for the mother. US abortionists finally began abandoning the technique in the mid-1980s -- for logistical reasons, not to protect women's lives. Saline took too long, was typically performed in a hospital, and carried the risk of a live birth.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Searches: videos, quacks, and complications

Joe Bills Reynolds: Oklahoma quack responsible for the abortion death of 21-year-old Gaylene Golden. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers. Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife's life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

Palin divorce scandal: The Smoking Gun found out pretty readily that it was all a matter of tawdry speculation over an innocent man's desire to keep the media from getting his home address and phone number.

Teen abortion stories: Read an overview here.

Infection after abortion: I have a sampling of fatal cases here, and a more thorough listing here.

George Elliot Kabacy MD sentenced: This Planned Parenthood abortionist was sentenced after he when he pleaded guilty in late 2007 to possessing more than 8,000 images of child pornography at his home in Lacey, Washington. The FBI began investigating Kabacy in September of 2006 after another child pornography suspect, this one in Georgia, gave Kabacy's email address as the source of his material.

Self-induced abortions: Takes various forms, such as the herbal teas embraced by some women as natural and safe and gentle. These safe and natural abortions are how Kris Humphrey and Penny Roe ended up killing themselves. There are also what are the more gruesome "home abortions", such as Laura France doing herself in with an air compressor.

Is abortion right or wrong?: Wrong. Next question?

Saline abortions: An overview.

18-week fetus: What they're like and how they're done in.

Abortion videos: Here is a collection, including videos that show how they're done.

Does Magee Women's Hospital abort babies?: They certainly did in 1989, when they killed Marla Anne Cardamone. If they're still doing abortions (which is likely, since they have a prenatal diagnostics program), they're not plugging this aspect of their practice on their web site. Does anybody know for sure?

Bad smell after abortion: Can be a sign of bowel damage or infection. See a doctor immediately.

Progress of a sort

A new organization called The New Agenda has been launched. The goal, as far as I can see, is to unite women on other issues without getting hung up on abortion. But the way they put it in their FAQ made me laugh:

What about choice?

We welcome men and women of all beliefs regarding reproductive rights.

For real? That’s novel. Why?

Choice is an issue that’s been used to divide women from one another and take away our power. The New Agenda is about working together on the issues we have in common. For that reason, we take no official position on choice and don’t plan to make it part of our platform.

Now, I'm all for women setting aside the issue of abortion in order to achieve common goals politically. But it's also amusing that the founders of The New Agenda can't make themselves actually say "abortion". They have to dance around with "choice" and "reproductive rights". And the word "choice" standing all by itself is enough to establish that what you're talking about is abortion.

Ah, but it's about "being able to chose abortion". Yeah -- out of a plethora of choices open to pregnant women including the basics marrying the baby's father, staying single, breaking up with the baby's father, making a closed adoption plan, making an open adoption plan, planning a home birth, choosing a midwife or a physician, using perinatal hospice, planning a c-section to give an anencephalic baby a better chance to be born alive, trying an experimental treatment, et cetera.

Choice. God willing one day it won't just mean abortion any more.

1970: Indiana teen dies from New York abortion

"Amanda" was 19 years old when she traveled from Indiana to New York for a safe, legal abortion in 1970. She was 12 weeks pregnant.

The doctor performed the abortion on September 3. He was unable to remove any of the fetus or placenta. For some reason, he did not suspect a problem. He discharged Amanda and she returned home. Upon her return home, she suffered from pain, nausea, and vomiting, so she sought care from a physician in her community. She was admitted to the hospital with a perforated uterus.

Her doctor performed a lapartotomy, and found that the fetus was still inside Amanda's perforated uterus. The abortion was completed and the hole in her uterus was repaired.

After the surgery, Amanda had a series of complications beginning with difficulty breathing. On September 10, doctors performed a hysterectomy. Amanda continued to be treated in the hospital, but despite all their efforts she died on September 22.

I believe that Dr. Paul Jarrett was one of the doctors who tried to save her life. His story is here:

A few months into my residency, I came face to face with the issue of abortion for the first time. An 18-year-old Indiana University coed came into Coleman Hospital with lower abdominal pain. She related to me that she had been to New York City earlier that day to have a legal abortion performed at a clinic there. She had gotten on a plane at 8am at Indianapolis International Airport and flown to New York. She was taken to a legitimate clinic by a cab driver. She had believed she was two and a half months pregnant, but after the doctor had unsuccessfully attempted to abort the pregnancy, he told her she wasn't really pregnant after all and sent her home. She returned to Indiana on the 4pm flight as planned.

When she returned home in terrible pain, she realized she was in trouble and for the first time, told her mother what had happened to her. Her mother contacted her own gynecologist, who in turn referred the patient to Coleman Hospital to be evaluated by the resident on call--me.

Even though I was still wet behind the ears, I know that this pale, frightened little girl was still 10 weeks pregnant and her blood count was only half of what it should be. The private, attending doctor came in and took the patient to surgery immediately that night, where he repaired the hole that had been torn in the back of her uterus, which had caused her massive internal hemorrhage.

Over the course of the next few days, infection set in which did not respond to antibiotics, and we made the painful decision to perform a hysterectomy. Tragically, the shock from the infection severely damaged her lungs and her course was steadily downhill. As I helplessly watched, she slipped into unconsciousness and a few days later she died.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Searches: videos and more

Abortion videos: I have an excellent collection here.

dr patel oklahoma abortion: Not a real savory character. What I have on him is here.

Abortion songs: I've collected those I can find with music videos here.

unplanned unwanted pregnancy: Not necessarily an unwanted baby. In fact, ambivalence is normal in early pregnancy. It's typically self-limiting. I've collected some stories here. There's also a book, Surprise Child, that shows you the process through which women's initial shock, dismay, and distress turned to joy.

How is abortion performed?: Here are links to the answers.

Searches: Mostly quacks

misdiagnoset ectopic ruptured pregnancy lawsuit settlement: These women died because their abortionists failed to diagnose that they actually had ectopic pregnancies. In theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die, because the abortionist is supposed to verify that the embryo is in the uterus before he tries to scrape, suction, or poison it. Too often, they fail to notice that the woman has an ectopic pregnancy. When she starts showing signs of rupture, the symptoms are attributed to the abortion, because the woman and her caregivers assume she can't possibly be pregnant. Thus, fatal results.

Harvey Karman: Beloved of abortion supporters because he invented a flexible suction cannula that made early abortions faster and easier. People who care more about women than about abortion, however, aren't necessarily as enamored of him. Harvey killed Joyce Johnson in 1955 by trying to do an abortion on her with a nutcracker in a motel room. He created "super coils" -- plastic springs to insert in the uterus to cause the expulsion of second-trimester fetuses. He was even invited to Bangladesh at the behest of the government and the International Planned Parenthood Federation to experiment on rape victims with his "super coils". And he was given a bus load of minority women to experiment on in Philadelphia, with predictable results. Yeah, that Harvey. He had limitless chutzpah and limitless enthusiasm for abortion, so the injured women -- and poor Joyce Johnson -- don't really count against him, do they?

Examples of abortions: Fatal ones are here. And there's a search box to allow you to find more.

How to do a self-induced abortion: I don't recommend it.

Steve Brigam: Connsummate quack.

1930: Fatal Chicago abortion

On September 21, 1930, 20-year-old Matilda Kleinschmidt underwent a criminal abortion. The coroner ascertained that it had been performed on September 9, in the office of Dr. J. Murney Nicholson. On September 22, Nicholson was held by the coroner for murder. John C. Ross was held as an accessory. Nicholson was indicted for felony murder in Matilda's death.

How common was it for a woman to find a doctor to perform her abortion prior to legalization?
It was by far the most common arrangement.
It was as common as any other arrangement. About a third of women found doctors, a third found nurses or other professionals, and about a third relying on amateurs or their own hands.
It was unusual. Fewer than one woman in ten found a doctor to perform her abortion.
It was almost unheard-of.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Eastern State Penitentary cell door

I've been in Philly for the week, doing touristy things. I discovered Eastern State Penitentiary, the coolest tourist thing I've ever seen. It has art, it has history, it has sociology, it has architecture.



The site itself is a stabilized ruin:



Aside from the haunting ruins themselves, there is embedded art. My favorite is the Ghost Cats. They commemorate the feral cats that took over the place after it was abandoned in 1971, and Dan the Cat Man, who fed and looked after them. The Humane Society caught them, spayed and neutered them, and turned them back loose, so over the years they died out. Likewise, the Ghost Cats are slowly being removed so that they, too, will vanish.



I couldn't resist -- I became a member, and went back nearly every day.

The Korean Martyrs

Saints of the Day: The Korean Martyrs

Had the shoe been on the other foot...

Could you imagine the media outcry had this arson fire been in an abortion facility instead of one that offers women real hope and help?

There'd already be a dozen quotes from abortion activists blaming prolifers and demanding that we all be rounded up and put in re-education camps. There would have been hand-wringing, moaning, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, along with speculation and finger-pointing and cries that we need more "protection" for those who do the dirty work of pulling fetuses apart.

But it was a CPC. A place that cuts into the business of abortion facilities. That makes the fire a non-story.

Mona Charon on abortion extremism

Who is the abortion extremist?

The denial goes very deep. Any number of e-mailers expressed their contemptuous certainty that "born alive" infants were an invention of pro-life activists. ....

.... "Mrs. Stanek testified about another aborted baby who was thought to have had spina bifida, but was delivered with an intact spine. On another occasion, an aborted baby was left to die on the counter of the Utility Room wrapped in a disposable towel." The committee report also quoted Shelly Lowe, a lab technician at Bethesda North Medical Center in Cincinnati. A young woman who had undergone just the first cervix-opening phase of a partial-birth abortion gave birth in the emergency room. The doctor placed the 22-week-old baby in a specimen dish to be taken to the lab. According to the report, when Ms. Lowe "saw the baby girl in the dish she was stunned when she saw the girl gasping for air. 'I don't think I can do that,' Ms. Lowe reportedly said. 'This baby is alive.'" Lowe asked permission to hold the baby until she died. ....

I've received a number of letters .... This one caught my eye: "I am a pediatrician. .... In one instance I was called to pronounce a baby dead who had been born an hour earlier after a failed abortion. We were not called to resuscitate the baby immediately after the delivery as the intent was abortion. … I write to attest that babies are sometimes born alive after abortion and then put aside to die."

....

Barack Obama is a charming and intelligent man. But there is no other way to interpret his position on BAIPA than this: A woman who chooses an abortion is entitled to a dead child no matter what. That is an abortion extremist.

Argh, matey!

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

1987: Teen dies in California abortion mill

Eighteen-year-old Michelle Thames suffered a seizure during her safe and legal abortion at Her Medical Clinic on September 19, 1987. She died later that day. Her family filed suit, claiming that Her Medical Clinic staff had made inadequate attempts to resuscitate Michelle.

Michelle wasn't the only young woman to die at the notorious Her Medical Clinic, run by abortionist Leo Kenneally. Liliana Cortez died there September 20, 1986. Donna Heim died there August 12, 1986. And Maria Soto died there after being injected with drugs and left unattended on September 9, 1985.

The battle over Kenneally's medical license turned political after it was suspended by the medical board over the appalling conditions at Her Medical Clinic. Former state medical board executive director Dixon Arnett's said that Leo F. Kenneally's case was "the most egregious I have seen, bar none." But a judge restored Kenneally's license on the grounds that he was doing a public service "providing abortions" in an "underserved area."

The investigation of patient deaths wasn't the first time Kenneally got in trouble. His license had been suspended in 1979 for Medi-Cal theft, and previously in 1975 for records-keeping violations.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1971: Where was the deadly abortion performed.

Cassandra Bleavins, a 20-year-old clerk, died shortly after midnight on September 19, 1971, at LA County/USC Medical Center. She had been taken there just the day before, comatose after an abortion.

The abortion had been performed on September 2, 1971. Cassandra had bled heavily afterward, and the abortionist had tied off a portion of her cervix to control the bleeding, then sent her home.

On September 15, Cassandra returned to the place where her abortion had been done, reporting heavy bleeding. She was given a follow-up D&C and again sent home. She returned again on September 17, still bleeding heavily, and went into convulsions during treatment. Cassandra slipped into a coma. The next day, she was brought to LA County/UCLA Medical Center, where she died.

The coroner discovered a 1.25 inch sutured laceration in Cassandra's uterus, additional sutures to her uterine artery, and uterine hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Cassandra had bled to death due to the lacerations and D&C.

Where had Cassandra undergone the abortion that took her life?
At the apartment of a woman who ran an underground abortion service. The abortionist was the leader of the group, a social activist who had learned to do abortions from an elderly doctor who was looking for somebody to replace him.
At a veterinary clinic.
At a doctor's office. The doctor was arrested after Cassandra's death.
At a county-owned hospital. The abortion was perfectly legal, and the doctor faced no charges in Cassandra's death.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Mind-blowing dolphin video

Read about it at Snopes.

Search: Foul smell after abortion

If you or somebody you love is experiencing this problem, it's time for immediate medical care.

There are two causes for foul smell after an abortion.

1. Bowel injury. Such as Moris Helen Herron.

2. Infection. This was the case with Janet Foster, or Jammie Garcia.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortion Videos

For some reason, a search for "abortion videos" still only brings you to the post about the Spanish abortion videos, instead of to this post, with a plethora of videos to choose from.

I'll recap and add a few:

There is the Spanish abortion video with English subtitles. It's pretty graphic, including footage of a teenage patient expelling her dead baby, which the undercover investigator shows us.

Every place I know of in the US has the woman go alone into the bathroom and expel the dead baby in the toilet. Other than that, the process seems pretty much the same, right down to rubber-stamping the paperwork if the state has a requirement that there be some pretext of a health reason.



To purchase videos or DVDs of former abortion workers' testimonies, visit Meet the Abortion Providers.

Priests for Life has videos about how abortions are performed; you can see them here. These videos aren't particularly graphic; Father Pavone uses fetal models to demonstrate, with real abortion instruments, how fetuses of these ages are destroyed.

Suction abortion:



D&E (second trimester abortion):



Here is how D&X, intact D&E, Partial Birth Abortion, The Procedure Formerly Known as Prince, or whatever they're calling it now, is done:



He says it can be done "at any point in pregnancy" but I think he was trying to impress that it can be done even up until term; nobody's going to try this at less than 20 weeks, because the fetus is too fragile for the most part. You'll just end up doing a standard dismemberment abortion.

Martin Haskell, who popularized the procedure, said that often the baby "helps" -- his term, not mine -- the baby "helps" by wrapping her little arms and legs around the abortionist's hand, making it easier to hold her steady while jamming the blunt, curved Metzenbaum scissors into the base of her little skull.

Since the federal PBA ban was passed, abortionists who wanted an intact baby to show the parents started injecting digoxin -- the same drug used in lethal injections and considered "cruel" and "painful" when put into the veins of an anesthetized murderer -- directly into the baby's heart to kill it. This does carry with it a risk of infection and of getting the digoxin into the mother's blood stream, but I guess they've decided a riskier abortion is still better than a live baby.

You can view and read about a panel discussion about Carhart vs Gonzales, the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban" case.



There's a BBC programme about abortion that is staggering in its honesty. It includes graphic footage which the BBC got from a prolife source, but they got an abortion doctor to verify the accuracy of the footage.

What I find amazing is that in spite of presenting what abortion really is, showing very vividly what it really does to very real fetuses, the narrator speaks as if this hideous destruction is somehow really necessary. It's just an assumption that's never explained and never explored, despite decades of evidence that women will, if given support, get past the idea that abortion is necessary and will adjust well to pregnancy and motherhood -- even in cases where they'd actually undergone an abortion, but the abortion failed.



How about equal time? Here's a video for the abortion advocacy side, full of so many lies and distortions it boggles the mind.

Follow along with an old Frontline program about abortion. It follows two teenage abortion patients, and also shows some women who rejected abortion and were helped by a local prolife physician and his wife.

I also gathered a collection of music videos about abortion.

Here is an assessment of the records of George Tiller's late term abortions and the "health" justifications therefor. I have a more in-depth examination of the entire series of videos here. It all boils down to Tiller and his friend rubber-stamping all abortions as "necessary" in order to meet the letter of the law.



Here's a video of what the prolifers found in the dumpster behind Hodari's abortion mill:



A story of a young woman's experience at Hope Clinic for Women:



A nasty abortion clinic in New Jersey closes after they nearly kill a young woman:



Famous abortion video, "The Silent Scream", shows an ultrasound of what happens to the fetus during an actual abortion:



And here is a video showing the results of one safe, legal abortion:



Gianna Jessen on Sean Hannity:



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Where the press could be going with the Gianna Jessen ads

Dear Members of the Press:

Have you seen the new ads by abortion survivor Gianna Jessen?



They provide a perfect opportunity to do a bit of a background check on the abortionist who signed her birth certificate: Edward "Fast Eddie" Allred. He's been dubbed "Fast Eddie" because he claims credit for inventing the assembly-line abortion. A supporter said Allred "did for abortions what Ray Kroc did for hamburgers."

Allred runs the largest chain of for-profit abortion mills in the world, Family Planning Associates Medical Group. I know of a dozen abortion patients who have died at Allred's facilities. In a deposition for the Deanna Bell case, Allred admitted that he has never done a preventability assessment after a patient death to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.

In spite of all this, Allred's FPA remains a member in good standing of the National Abortion Federation -- a group that promises "safe" abortionists with "highest standards". Sort of an Underwriters Laboratory for abortion. Or a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

This could really be big, because even prochoicers are outraged when they find out what kinds of quacks NAF refers women to with bland assurances of safety. Remember that guy back in 1992 who ripped the arm off a 32-week baby during a botched abortion attempt? (And now we're back to born-alive infants! See? It comes full circle!) HE was a NAF member!

You have a responsibility to the public that ought not to be left to bloggers. Get out the truth about live births from abortions, about Obama's stand (ignorance or evil?), about Fast Eddie, and about the National Abortion Federation's tolerance of quackery.

Great new Down syndrome resource

Down Syndrome Brochure provides information, plus a beautiful 4-color brochure in both English:



and Spanish:



The site also includes a reminder that there are currently over 200 families waiting to adopt a child with Down syndrome. Feeling overwhelmed with the prospect of meeting the special needs of a child with DS need not put a woman on the abortion table. She can place her child in a home that is ready to welcome him or her with open arms, fully prepared for all the special joys and challenges associated with DS.

HT: Causa Nostrae Laetitiae

This is also a good time to remind you that Band of Angels puts out beautiful Celebrate! packages for parents who have just been told their child, born or in the womb, has Down syndrome. You can choose from three different packets at different prices.

Band of Angels also produces a beautiful coffee table book, Common Threads, available in hard or soft cover. (I recommend the hard cover! This book is too beautiful to go for anything but the very best!) If you run any sort of a business that has a waiting room, leaving this book for customers to explore will go a long way toward reducing the misconceptions and prejudice.

Put the Gianna Jessen ad on YOUR web site

Two different ads, along with the code to embed them, are available at BornAliveTruth.org.

1993: Abortion causes fatal pulmonary embolism

Thirty-six-year-old Kathy McKnight underwent a safe and legal abortion on September 17, 1993. Early the next morning, Kathy had trouble breathing. She was taken to University Memorial Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kathy died in the emergency room. Her autopsy revealed that she died of a pulmonary embolism -- something that didn't belong in her bloodstream getting carried into her lungs.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1958: Mystery death from induced abortion

On September 18, 1958, Georgia Lee Cody was found dead in her Norman, Oklahoma home by one of her four children. An autopsy confirmed that an induced abortion had caused her death. Her ex-husband, James Paul Morion, was arrested for questioning. Witnesses said they had seen him at Georgia's home the night before her death.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Greta interviews First Dude

Todd Palin, Alaska's "First Dude" Sits down for his first interview with Greta Van Susteren to discuss his home and family life in Alaska as the Husband of Governor Sarah Palin, he discusses his Iron Dog Championship Snowmachine Racing and other leisure and work activities including being a Pilot, Hunter of Caribou and Moose, His love of flying as a Pilot, and So Much More. Part 1 of Day 1

HT: Catholic Fire

Just for fun

Deliberately bad writing.

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2008 Results -- The task: The worst opening sentence to the worst imaginary book imaginable.

Runner-Up
"Die, commie pigs!" grunted Sergeant "Rocky" Steele through his cigar stub as he machine-gunned the North Korean farm animals. (Dave Ranson, Calgary, Alberta)

Winner: Children's Literature: Joanne watched her fellow passengers - a wizened man reading about alchemy; an oversized bearded man-child; a haunted, bespectacled young man with a scar; and a gaggle of private school children who chatted ceaselessly about Latin and flying around the hockey pitch and the two-faced teacher who they thought was a witch - there was a story here, she decided. (Tim Ellis, Haslemere, U.K.)

Runner-Up: Dorothy had reasons to be nervous: a young girl alone in a strange land, traveling with three weird, insecure males badly in need of psychiatric help; she tucked her feet under her skirt to keep the night's chill (and lewd stares) away and made sure one more time that the gun was secured in her yet-to-develop bosom. (Domingo Pestano, Alto Prado, Caracas, Venezuela)

Romance, Dishonorable Mentions: He was a dark and stormy knight, and this excited Gwendolyn, but admittedly not as much as last night when he was Antonio Banderas in drag, or the night before that when he was a French Legionnaire who blindfolded her and fed her pommes frites from his kepi. (Leslie Muir, Atlanta, GA)

Carmen's romance with Broderick had thus far been like a train ride, not the kind that slowly leaves the station, builds momentum, and then races across the countryside at breathtaking speed, but rather the one that spends all day moving freight cars around at the local steel mill. (Bruce Portzer, Seattle, WA)

Appalling puns, Dishonorable Mentions - Jan Svenson, having changed his fortune in the annual "Scandinavian King of the Beach" in Santa Cruz with a bottle of black hair coloring and thus standing out in a sea of fair-haired rivals to win the coveted title, realized the ironic truth of the old adage "That in the kingdom of the blonde, the one dyed man is king." (Matthew Chambers, Parsons, WV)

Dimwitted and flushed, Sgt. John Head was frustrated by his constipated attempts to arrest the so-called "Bathroom Burglar" until, while wiping his brow, he realized that each victim had been robbed in a men's room, thereby focusing his attention on the janitor, whose cleaning habits clearly established a commodus operandi. (Jay Dardenne, Baton Rouge, LA)

Winner: Western - Nobody knew just who the steely-eyed stranger was, where he came from, where he was headed, or what his intentions were while he was in Dodge City; but he wasn't an hombre you'd want to stick your tongue out at or flip off, and any man who tried to tickle him would be asking for a long stay in a pine box, if you know what I mean. (David McKenzie, Federal Way, WA)

Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mentions - She had the kind of body that made a man want to have sex with her. (Barry J. Drucker, Bentonville, AR)

There are certain people in the world who emanate an aura of well being -- they radiate sunshine, light up a room, bring out the best in others, and fill your half empty glass to overflowing - yes it was these very people thought Karl, as he sharpened his mirror-finished guthook knife, who were top of his list. (Jason Garbett, London, U.K.)

The day started out as uneventfully as any other, and continued thus to midday and from there it was nothing at all to ease into an evening of numbing, undiluted monotony that survived unmarred by even the least act of momentary peculiarity-in fact, let's skip that day altogether and start with the day after. (Jon Starr, Rumford, ME)

Earthy ochre and russet hues in the lifeless leaves which rustle under his feet, and spiral down from the majestic trees above, signal that October has now arrived, but of course he knew this already because he has a calendar above his breakfast bar in the kitchen. (Roz Black, Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland)

It was a dark and stormy night, except when the lightning flashed, because then it wasn't dark; it sort of turned the windows into a giant disco ball for a moment, but eventually the thunder and lightning stopped and it settled down to a steady light rain, so then it really was dark, but it would probably be a stretch to call it stormy. (Laura Loomis, Pittsburg, CA)

Like almost every other post-Hegelian neo-hipster angst monkey at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Rene flatly rejected the labels society placed upon him. (Bob Salsbury, Spokane Valley, WA)

Gripping his terrified victim by her sensual slender neck with his foul piercing talons like a lawnspiker, Igor the Terrible bellowed, "How do you want to die? over the coals? with a plastic bag over your head? with your blond hair seeped in red blood? in agony? today? tomorrow? -- hurry up, please, my fingers are getting sore." (Edward Vincent Tennant, Edgemead, Cape Town, South Africa)

2003: Home abortion fatal for California teen

Holly Patterson, age 18, died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a safe and legal medical abortion. Holly had gotten the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.

Rather than follow the recommended protocols for chemical abortions, Planned Parenthood followed the more popular American approach of giving Holly the mifepristone at the facility, then giving her misoprostol to self-administer at home.

Holly had experienced severe cramping and pain, and went to the emergency room. She was examined, given pain medication, and discharged.

At her boyfriends insistence, she returned to the emergency room on September 17, but by then her condition had deteriorated and efforts to save her were futile.

Monty Patterson, Holly's father, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."

Three other women were identified as having died of infection deaths after RU-486 deaths in the Los Angeles area: Chanelle Bryant, Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran. Chanelle got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood, and Oriane and Vivian got theirs from National Abortion Federation members.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Three more reasons to vote for McCain

Three Facts About John McCain's Extreme Position on Choice

I'll re-post them, with comments:

1. John McCain is running on the Republican platform, which would ban all abortions - even in cases of rape and incest.

That is the Republican platform. Though what McCain has specifically promised is to nominate Supreme Court justices who don't invent new "rights" -- like the "right" to abortion -- out of "emanations from a penumbra". If it ain't in the Constitution, it ain't in the Constitution, and either learn to adjust or change the Constitution.

What does this mean for fans of abortion? That it'd go back to the states. Would this mean scores of coathanger-impaled women littering the emergency rooms of America? Hardly.

This is the same scare tactic the abortion lobby brings up every four years. Yawn.

2. John McCain voted to criminalize doctors who support women in their reproductive choices, even when a woman's health is at risk.

McCain has, not my knowledge, never voted to criminalize doctors.

What they're implying here is that McCain would make it a crime for doctors to do certain things. Which he no doubt would like to do. But it's already illegal for doctors to do certain things, like have sex with underage patients, commit fraud, etc. None of these laws "criminalize doctors". So enough with the overblown rhetoric already.

And enough with calling abortion "support[ing] women in their reproductive choices". Abortion is a choice made after the woman has already reproduced. (Get out your old biology textbooks if they're still laying around the house. Gamete meets gamete, make zygote. Reproduction has taken place.) They need to be honest and say that what they're talking about is prohibiting doctors from helping women impose death on their own offspring. That's not the same as interfering with any reproductive choice. Reproductive choices would include having sex, abstaining from sex, using an artificial contraceptive, not using an artificial contraceptive, using fertility awareness methods to increase or decrease the odds of conception, getting your tubes tied, having infertility treatments, choosing c-section or vaginal childbirth, choosing home birth or hospital birth, etc. A plethora of reproductive choices all untouched by any laws regarding the one choice abortion advocates focus on.

Then let's touch the specter of the woman's health being at risk. In what way would restricting abortion prevent doctors from doing what's in women's best health interests? Another cheap ploy. Having abortion readily available is nice for lazy doctors -- they don't have to help women with health problems during pregnancy. They can just refer them for an abortion and not be bothered. I'm not clear on how this helps women with health problems during pregnancy. Abortion isn't medical care for sick women. It's a way to avoid providing health care.

3. Since 1983, John McCain has voted 125 times against women's reproductive health choices.

Translated into English: Since 1983, John McCain has voted 125 times against the abortion lobby's wishes.

This is only bad news if you're in the abortion business. But very few of us either work in abortion facilities or for organizations that rely on the abortion agenda.

So, thank you, JohnMcCainRecord.com, for giving people who care about women and children three more reasons to vote McCain, and three more reasons to not trust you any further than we could spit a rat.

People wishing Gianna Jessen was dead

Anybody with a conscience will be sickened by the comments at Obama's abortion record under fire in latest independent ad. People are looking at this young woman, left with cerebral palsy after surviving an attempt to kill her in an abortion, and all they can say is how they are for the CHOICE to have Gianna killed.

They are saying flat out that Gianna should be dead.

What kind of freaking hateful monster can look at that girl and be angry that she's alive?

And they don't have the sense to be ashamed of how filled with hate they are.

This isn't some fetus hidden away in the womb. This is a young woman. And the supposedly pro-women people HATE her and want her to be dead.

THIS is "the face of Pro Choice America". Hate. Hate for anybody who stands in the way of them getting the dead fetus they personally want.



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Hey, Obama!

This one's gotta go in my sidebar. Thanx, Mama

"Nobody is Pro Abortion." Revisited Again.

HT: Right Wing News

The Curse

When tests made it clear that Palin’s pregnancy, which happened around the age of 43, had chromosomal abnormalities, she did not do the rational and even humane thing: return to nothing that which was still a no-thing.

Bigotry is alive and well. So much for "tolerance" and "diversity". There is only tolerance for the diversity that doesn't make the elitists uncomfortable.

A Tale of Two Fetuses

One of those fetuses who survived an abortion attempt speaks out on Obama:



That's gotta be as scary for Barak Obama as it was for Pat Schroeder: a fetus with attitude.

But Gianna was lucky. A nurse recognized her as a baby, not just a fetus ex-utero, and sent her to the NICU.

It is in the case of Ximenia Renearts that we more clearly see Obama's attitude in action. Ximenia's mother underwent an abortion, thought her fetus was dead, then showed up at a hospital in pain. The staff at the hospital elected to respect her choice, to refrain from further burdening her. They stuck the fetus in a bedpan. They left the fetus, cold and alone, in a closet. It wasn't until another hospital employee mistook the fetus for a baby that care was sought.

Ximenia's adoptive parents sued on her behalf, arguing that since she'd been born alive, she was a baby and entitled to care.

BC Minister of Health, Michelle Stewart, was dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected".

This is the stand Obama took. That providing care for babies like Ximenia was too much of a burden on the mother's choice.

If you're okay with that -- if you think that the wrongdoing was by the people who provided Ximenia with care, not by the ones who left her in a bedpan to die -- then by all means, vote for Barak Obama.

As for Ximenia herself, she is too profoundly disabled to speak out. About anything. Which is lucky for Obama. One less fetus with attitude to challenge his assertion that the proper thing to do with them is stick them in a closet and wait for them to die.

1994: "Feisty" patient crashes and dies after abortion

Alerte Desanges had been informed that her fetus was deformed, so she went for a safe, legal abortion at Choices Women's Medical Center in Queens on September 16, 1994. She was 36 years old and 19 weeks pregnant.

The abortion was performed by David Gluck. Staff said that after her abortion, Alerte was "feisty, telling nurses she wanted to go home. Then all of a sudden, she coded, she went into cardiac arrest."

Should Gluck and his staff have been concerned that Alerte was "feisty" and "telling nurses she wanted to go home"?
No. This is usually a sign of a healthy patient who just wants to get on with her life.
Yes. This is a sign that the patient is going into shock.

Her blood pressure fell. Staff attempted to revive her, then transported her to a hospital. Her death was tentatively attributed to amniotic fluid embolism by staff.

Desanges' 66-year-old mother, who speaks only French, was described as throwing her hands in the air and sobbing, "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't go back to Haiti." Desanges supported her mother and three daughters working as a caretaker for an elderly woman, and had just bought a small house in Brooklyn.

Had Gluck been in any trouble before Alerte's death? There might be more than one correct answer.
Yes. He had a history of selling controlled substances to support his gambling addiction.
Yes. He had performed a fatal abortion on another patient in 1988.
Yes. He had overseen a slipshod and dangerous clinic where a patient died.
No. Alerte's death was his first run-in with the medical board.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1941: Blind abortionist kills patient

One of the few cases I've found in which a criminal abortionist wasn't a doctor is also one of the strangest cases I've found. The abortionist, Sarah Howe, age 57, had been blind since she was three years old. Howe was charged with abortion and with manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Helen Clark. Helen died September 16, 1941. Howe was convicted of abortion, but was found not guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

How common was it for a woman to end up with an amateur abortionist, like Sarah Howe, who had no medical training, before legalization?
It was very common. Most women relied on themselves, friends or family, or rank amateurs like Sarah Howe.
About half of women seeking criminal abortions ended up in the care of amateurs with no medical training.
A little under 20% of women seeking abortionists found somebody with no medical training.
Less than 10%.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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"Nobody is pro-abortion" redux

Down Syndrome Families Brought Into Sharp Focus

Many parents also talk about how the phone never rings with invitations for a play date for their children or an offer to help carpool. Sometimes, they find themselves answering people who suggest that their child should never have been born.

That happened to Tia Marsili, 49, of Vienna while driving from her hometown in western Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach with her sister. The trip lasted six hours and was not without some fussing from Marsili's daughters, Sheridan and Skye. Both girls have Down syndrome. Sheridan's condition had come as a surprise after birth, but Marsili knew from prenatal testing that Skye would have Down syndrome.

"My sister looked at me and said, 'Why didn't you abort her?' " Marsili recalled. "I said, 'What? Because we love her, and she's my baby, and we love her!' 'But you knew,' my sister said. . . . It was pretty shocking. Even people that close to me."

HT: JJ

1971: Deadly abortionist two months off his estimate

Eighteen-year-old Janet Foster underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Richard Neal at Valley Doctors' Hospital in North Hollywood, California on September 11, 1971. Janet's abortion had been a "therapeutic" abortion approved by the hospital committee, as was required at the time. Neal reported that he'd estimated the pregnancy at 12-weeks and performed what he thought was an uneventful suction abortion.

Janet's brother-in-law reported that she was very weak and sleepy when he picked her up at the hospital. After returning home, Janet suffered abdominal pain and called Neal on September 14. He told her he'd see her the next day. Janet felt ill, so she went to bed early. In the early morning hours, Janet went into convulsions.

Her brother-in-law and paramedics attempted to revive her, to no avail;
Janet was pronounced dead at 3:55 am. The autopsy found that in Janet's uterus was a "macerated, lacerated and purulent male fetus of about 19 weeks gestation. This fetus measures 14.5 cm. in crown-rump length, shows lacerations in the shoulder area, evisceration of the bowel through an abdominal laceration, and destruction of the skull and facila structures." Janet's uterus also contained "approximately 20 cc. of red-brown purulent and foul-smelling liquid with similar odor and color to an exudate on the endometrial surface." Janet's death attrubuted to septicemia due to "incomplete abortion, therapeutic, septic."

An LA County grand jury indicted Neal on a felony manslaughter charge
in Janet's death. The 1976 trial ended with a hung jury.

Janet isn't the only woman who ended up having an abortion far later in the pregnancy than she intended. Read about more here.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Two deaths, a year apart, in Chicago

On September 15, 1925, Mary Williams, a 25-year-old Black woman, died at Chicago's County Hospital from an abortion performed on her that day at an undisclosed location. The person responsible for Mary's death was never identified.

On September 15, 1926, 23-year-old Mary Bailek died at Chicago's Lutheran Deaconnes Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed at her home that day. Rozalia Ossowska, alias Olszewski, was arrested for the death on October 7. Her profession is not given. On March 15, 1927, she was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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1992: Philadelphia woman dead from safe, legal abortion

Rhonda Rollinson underwent a safe, legal abortion by Dr. Jay I. Levin at Malcom Polis's Philadelphia Women's Center September 3, 1992. The abortion attempt was unsuccessful. Rhonda was then sent home, with instructions to return on September 12 to try again.

Rhonda experienced such severe pain, dizziness, fever, and discharge that on September 10 she sought emergency care at a hospital. She was suffering "severe non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema consistent with adult respiratory distress syndrome."

Doctors did a laparoscopy, dilation and evacuation, abdominal hysterectomy, and splenectomy, to no avail. Rhonda died on September 14. The autopsy revealed a perforation from her vagina into the uterine cavity, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, pulmonary infarctions, and dysplastic kidney.

The suit filed by Rhonda's survivors also charged the facility and Polis with hiring Levin despite his lack of competence, failure to properly supervise his work, violation of applicable laws and regulations, lack of informed consent, failure to give proper post-operative instructions, and failure "to respond to the requests of [Rhonda] and her family for post-operative medical advice."

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Two criminal anniversaries.

On September 14, 1925, 19-year-old Elizabeth Welter died in the Chicago office of Dr. Lucy Hagenow from complications of an abortion performed that day. Lawrence Vail or Vaily was identified by the coroner as responsible for the pregnancy, and the coroner recommended his arrest. The coroner also recommended the arrest of Dr. Hagenow. However, because Vail refused to give a statement, police were unable to gather enough evidence to arrest her. There were a number of deaths in Chicago attributed to either a Lucy Hagenow or a Louise Hagenow. I believe these to be the same woman. The deaths include: Lottie Lowy, Bridget Masterson, Nina H. Pierce, Mary Moorehead, Jean Cohen, Marie Hicht, and Lola Madison.

On September 14, 1928, 20-year-old Stella Wallenberg died from a criminal abortion performed in Chicago. Loretta Rybicki, identified as a "massaguer", was held by the coroner for murder by abortion. Dr. Nicholas Kalinowski was held as an accessory. Rybicki was indicted for felony murder on November 15.

Who was the more typical criminal abortionist, Dr. Hagenow, or Loretta Rybicki?
Hagenow. Most criminal abortions were done by doctors.
Rybicki. Most criminal abortions were done by amateurs.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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Fun! Church sign generator!

Here's the results of my efforts. The slogan is one Magda Denes reported seeing on the wall in an office in an abortion hospital -- far, of course, from where patients might see it.


It's here.

Searches: Quacks, etc.

Garcon "Gary" Romalis: Canadian abortionist who laments the plight of the pre-legalization aborting woman, but lacks even awareness of, much less compassion for, women who suffer and die from the safe-n-legal kind.

Alberto Hodari: seedy abortionist and National Abortion Federation member who worked at Woman Care Clinic and Detroit Memorial Hospital. He is believed to have performed the fatal abortions on Tamia Russell and Chivon Williams. Despite -- or prehaps because of -- all this, Medical Students for Choice think he's the bee's knees. Though I think they could pick a better role model, myself.

"woman vegetative state after abortion": Christi Stile remains in a vegetative state after going into a coma during an abortion in Colorado. Other women were left comatose or otherwise permanently incapacitated.

Home abortions: takes various forms, such as the herbal teas embraced by some women as natural and safe and gentle. These safe and natural abortions are how Kris Humphrey and Penny Roe ended up killing themselves. There are also what are the more stereotypical "home abortions", such as Laura France doing herself in with an air compressor, or "Daisy", who despite being well-educated and experienced in legal abortion, let her boyfriend ream her out with a plastic tube. "Home abortion" is also the new name given to chemical abortions, like the ones that killed "Wanda", Holly Patterson (pictured), Chanelle Bryant, "Cherish", "Tara", Oriane Shevin, Vivian Tran, and Brenda Vise. I think that somebody came up with the idea of calling them "home abortions" instead of "chemical abortions" or even "medical abortions" to try to make them seem "natural", sort of a variation of homeschooling or home birth. Ya know, wholesome and earthmom-ish, like quilting or canning or making your own soap. Are you buying into this?

"does a 19 week fetus sleep?": Yes. And (see these adorable ultrasounds) yawning is observed as early as 12 weeks. (Yawning and sleeping are neurologically associated.)

"if you need abortion in atlanta": First let's get out of the way one thing: There is no such thing as a need for abortion. The ambivalence and fear that send so many women off to the abortion table are actually normal and typically self-limiting, which is something that, of course, the abortion lobby and abortion salespeople don't want you to know. Now let's move on to abortion specifically in Atlanta. Atlanta Surgicenter is the National Abortion Federation member where Catherine Pierce underwent her fatal abortion. It might be the same facility where Geneva Calton's fatal abortion was performed. Sara Niebel underwent her fatal abortion at Midtown Hospital in Atlanta. Midtown was a National Abortion Federation member facility that experienced numerous scandals pertaining to illegal late abortions and filthy, chaotic conditions. Jacqueline Reynolds died after an abortion at Grady Memorial in Atlanta. Arnetta Hardaway's fatal abortion was performed in Atlanta. Angela Scott and Deloris Smith were both fatally injured within the same hour at Atlanta Women's Pavillion. Demitrice Andrews underwent her fatal abortion somewhere in Atlanta. Allegra Roserberry's fatal abortion was performed at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.

Obama disses McCain's adaptive strategies

Obama has an ad out dissing McCain for not being able to send an email:



Now, some people are interpreting this purely as making fun of McCain for the injuries inflicted on him in the Hanoi Hilton, leaving him with impaired use of his arms and hands.

It could just as easily be interpreted as dissing McCain's choice of how to adapt to his disability.

For some people, adaptive equipment, and the Occupational Therapy required to use it, makes sense. For some, it doesn't. This is a choice people make based on their support network, their particular limitations and skills, and their personal preferences.

Some blind people choose to use guide dogs, others choose white canes. People with amputations make choices about prosthetics or other adaptive equipment. People with speech deficits may choose to use adaptive equipment or to undergo intensive speech therapy to help them to communicate better.

These are all decisions that people with disabilities make daily.

Dissing McCain's choice of how to deal with his injuries is just another sign of how Obama and his handlers don't understand the lives of ordinary people. They don't get that there is no "one size fits all" way to adapt to life with a disability.

McCain allows his wife, who has the manual skill, to be the one at the keyboard. That's the adaptive strategy he chose. And like many other people, McCain also tends to avoid email because of the security breach risks. So, for a combination of security, personal, and physical reasons, McCain chooses to leave the digital manipulation of digital technology to the people close to him. Is this not a valid choice? According to Obama, no.

PS: The reference to McCain "not understanding economics" is a deliberate out-of-context quote. McCain has made the following statements: "The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should." and "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." In other words, he was setting a goal to improve his understanding of a particular aspect of his skill set. He showed the capacity to assess his abilities and set goals to improve them. Unlike Obama, who simply needs to show up and the waters will recede and the earth will heal, much like at the end of "The Lion King" when Simba just stands on the rock and the rain starts falling and the gazelle return to the savanah. Note to Obama: It's just a movie! And a kids' movie at that. Real life doesn't work that way. You can't just stand on the White House lawn and expect the cosmos to fall into place around you. Which evidently he does.

PPS: I love what Scrapple Face did with it:

One year ago today: The call that no parent wants to get

One year ago today.

It was 7pm, we had just finished dinner and settled down to watch the evening news. My husband's cell phone rang with Laura's name on the ID. We always loved hearing from her. Laura was so full of life, your spirits were lifted just by talking to her. Except this time it wasn't her voice. There was guttural screaming and sobbing on the other end by a voice I did not immediately recognize. I heard the words "Laura", "Hospital" and the worst one, "Not Breathing," and then "abortion". My brain tilted, my heart sank, and life as I knew it ceased. It was Laura's friend Karen on the phone. She told me what happened, that Laura was having an abortion and something went terribly wrong. Karen was at the ER and the Doctor needed to talk to me. What Karen didn't know was that Laura had arrived at the ER already deceased. The EMT's found her this way at the abortion mill. The hospital was looking for next of kin to give the news to first, and Karen wasn't kin. "Laura's gone" the doctor told me. I wanted to hear "50-50 chance"...I would even accept "90-10 chance." But the word "chance" was not in the doctor's statement. All hope was gone, along with my daughter.

That call came on September 13, 2007 to Eileen and Tom Smith. Laura had died on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table.

The bewildered couple hadn't even known that their daughter was pregnant.

Karen and Laura had arrived at Women Health Center in the morning for preparatory steps to abort Laura's 13-week baby. The two young women were to return in the afternoon for the actual procedure. Laura wasn't supposed to drive, so Karen drove and the two ran errands. Because Laura wasn't supposed to eat, Karen fasted with her friend.

They returned to the facility at about 4 in the afternoon and waited. Laura was called in at about 5, back to where Dr. Rapin Osathanondh (O-SATH-an-on) and his instruments waited for her. Karen stepped out briefly, expecting her friend to be out of surgery in about fifteen minutes. Abortion was, after all, safe and legal. What could go wrong? But Laura didn't emerge from the bowels of the clinic. A worried Karen grew increasingly distressed.

"And then all of a sudden [an assistant] comes out and says she's not breathing. And I was like, what do you mean she's not breathing," Karen told the Cape Cod Times.

Fire department rescuers were dispatched to the clinic at 5:49 p.m., and found an unresponsive patient. They initiated CPR and took her to the hospital. Karen followed, but was not permitted to see her friend. She asked about Laura's condition. "It doesn't look good," she was told. Because next of kin hadn't been notified yet, the doctor couldn't tell Karen the truth: Laura was already dead on arrival. It was 6:22 p.m.

I met with the doctor who aborted my grandchild, and who saw my daughter take her last breath. He would only meet me in a public place, without my husband. We talked for an hour and a half. Based on that meeting I believe I know what happened to Laura. He denies doing anything that caused her death. When we were done talking about Laura, I prayed, and asked God if there was anything He would have me say to the doctor. This is what I said next.... "The blood of my daughter is on your hands; the blood of my grandchild is on your hands; the blood of every life you have ever taken is on your hands," and I went on from there. He was silent with his head hung low. When I was ready to leave, I asked him if he would think about my daughter, and consider not doing any more abortions—he said he would think about it. When I left there I was praying, and said to God, "Can You stop this man from doing abortions? Is this what You have in mind, that he might even stop doing them?" I was thinking too small. I thought if one girl changed her mind [about having an abortion], I could find some comfort. I then realized that the Lord had much bigger plans. I have never experienced in my life, such tragedy, nor such grace.

Eileen pulled out all the stops to find out what had gone wrong. "My daughter was 22, healthy, and alive when she walked into that clinic," OR quotes Eileen Smith. "She didn't even have a cold. There is no reason for her to be dead." Eileen found out that a Sheriff's Deputy from another county provided Osathanondh and his staff with CPR training after Laura's death, then backdated the session to a date prior to Laura's death, with the full knowledge that someone had recently died at the facility. Osathanondh and his staff had been not been certified in CPR at the time of Laura's fatal abortion. And none of his staff was qualified to assist with general anesthesia. The assistant in the room with him when Laura stopped breathing was not a anesthesiologist, a nurse, or even a trained medical assistant. She was the receptionist.

Eileen has filed a complaint in Bristol County against the deputy. Laura's family have also filed a lawsuit against Osathanondh in order to bring to light the truth about Laura's death.

It's particularly sad to me that Laura resorted to abortion despite being a Christian active in her local church. Her mother also reported that Laura was strongly opposed to abortion. Which goes to show that anybody can panic, and our churches need to be teaching young women how to get past the panic that too often leads to the abortion table.

OR reports that over 600 people attended Laura's funeral, and at least one young woman decided to reject abortion after learning of Laura's needless death. National Catholic Register reports that the young woman was being pressured by her parents to abort, and was about to capitulate when she learned of Laura's fate.

Meanwhile, Eileen Smith has become an activist, speaking at churches, getting the message out that merely being quietly and privately prolife isn't enough to protect families from the tragedy of abortion.

I know that God is going to bring good out of my daughter's death. What a horrible thing; for my daughter to be associated with abortion. But, if God's going to use it for good and for His glory, then so be it. We're going very public with a very shameful, private thing because I believe God wants to use it to save lives. I believe the truth will come out, and the light of God will shine on this. Laura's death has had tremendous impact around the country, and even into Canada, without the local news mentioning it. It just came out in the secular media this week -- 5 weeks after Laura's death. I now believe it is my calling to keep telling Laura's story to the Church, and the world. I naively believed that abortion was not a choice for a Christian girl. A Pastor had even apologized to me and the Lord, for not speaking about this from his pulpit. We both had false assumptions. This is a problem in the Church, and one that needs to be spoken about from the pulpits. We have to take the "A" word out of the closet, put it out in the open, and discuss it. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, we'll even become active against it. Please keep our family in your prayers, and please tell someone Laura's story.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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OMG! Zorg has a brother!

Mug shot courtesy of The Smoking Gun

Palin Allegation: The Divorce Dirt

Well, The Smoking Gun has the straight dope on this:

Was Sarah Palin named as the other woman in a messy divorce action? Well, since Richter's September 3 motion ... was denied yesterday, his divorce filings remain open to the public. And a TSG review of the 98-page file shows that the Palins are only mentioned in Richter's sealing request. According to the filing, Richter wanted the documents deemed confidential in a bid to cloak details about his home, workplace, and phone numbers because "reporters and news agencies" were using that information to contact him. Richter, a 39-year-old contractor, noted that he is "friends and land owners in a remote cabin" with the Palins and, as a result, journalists were intruding on the "cabin life and private life" of him and his 11-year-old son.

Creating your own reality: The Palin "divorce scandal"

The Smoking Gun has the straight dope on the allegation that Sarah Palin was "the other woman" in a messy divorce:

Was Sarah Palin named as the other woman in a messy divorce action? Well, since Richter's September 3 motion ... was denied ..., his divorce filings remain open to the public. And a TSG review of the 98-page file shows that the Palins are only mentioned in Richter's sealing request. According to the filing, Richter wanted the documents deemed confidential in a bid to cloak details about his home, workplace, and phone numbers because "reporters and news agencies" were using that information to contact him. Richter, a 39-year-old contractor, noted that he is "friends and land owners in a remote cabin" with the Palins and, as a result, journalists were intruding on the "cabin life and private life" of him and his 11-year-old son.

So it turns out that the media created the entire thing by making the allegations then drawing false conclusions from one of their target's futile attempt to get a little privacy.

New link: Carrying to term

Carrying to Term with a Negative Prenatal Diagnosis

I've added it to the sidebar.

The Vultures

Snopes: Kevin Carter Photograph

If ... the most talented members of the advertising industry were tasked with creating an image to illustrate the concepts of poverty and famine, quite possibly none of them would come up with anything nearly as grippingly and devastatingly effective as this 1993 picture by South African freelance photographer Kevin Carter. His poignant photograph of an emaciated toddler who collapsed from hunger on her way to a feeding center in famine-ravaged Sudan while a vulture ominously loomed in the background was originally published in the New York Times ... and earned Carter the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in the Feature Photography category....

How did Carter get the shot?

Seeking relief from the sight of masses of people starving to death, he wandered into the open bush. He heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering and saw a tiny girl trying to make her way to the feeding center. As he crouched to photograph her, a vulture landed in view. Careful not to disturb the bird, he positioned himself for the best possible image. He would later say he waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It did not, and after he took his photographs, he chased the bird away and watched as the little girl resumed her struggle. Afterward he sat under a tree, lit a cigarette, talked to God and cried. "He was depressed afterward," Silva recalls. "He kept saying he wanted to hug his daughter."

It never occurred to Carter during those twenty minutes he spent there to comfort the child, to give her a sip of water, to take her to the feeding center, to alert anybody else to her plight. And Carter was attacked for that:

Though the photo helped draw enormous attention to the humanitarian crisis that was engulfing Sudan, it was criticized by others who felt that Carter should have helped the girl and was instead exploiting her suffering for his gain. The real vulture, they said in vitriolic hate mail, was Carter himself. Some photojournalists might have easily dismissed such criticism, but it hit Carter hard and fed his self-doubts.

On 27 July 1994, barely two months after having received his Pulitzer Prize, 33-year-old Kevin Carter could shoulder that burden no more and took his own life....

Granted, Carter had other problems in his life besides the horrors he saw in Sudan and any guilt he might have felt over his failure to at least comfort the dying child. But one can't help but think that it was a burden he didn't need. A burden he could have avoided had it only occurred to him to help the girl. But it didn't.

I'm not going to join in attacking Carter. I just want to point out a dynamic.

Carter had training as a photojournalist to stay out of the story, to just shoot the picture, and this no doubt contributed to his decision to sit there for twenty minutes watching a vulture wait for a child to die. And no doubt seeing so many other people he couldn't help just languish and die must have added a feeling of helplessness and futility to the "just shoot, don't intervene".

Training: "Don't intervene. Just get the picture."

Overexposure to death. Every day an endless vista of famine victims, dying one after the other.

Do we want to do to our fellow human beings whatever it is that happened to Kevin Carter, that allowed him to just sit there for 20 minutes, watching a whimpering child, waiting for a better shot of the vulture in the background?

Do we really want our health care professionals to get to where their natural urge to help a child becomes as deadened as Carter's became?

Training: "Don't intervene. Just get the picture." Or "Don't judge. It's her choice."

Overexposure to death. Every day an endless vista of famine victims, dying one after the other. Or every day an assembly-line of fetuses to be pulled out, piecemeal or whole, dead either way by your hand.

Until we deaden them to where they can put a live baby in a soiled utility room and wait for it to stop breathing. To where they can toss it in a bedpan. To where they think nothing of strangling a baby in front of multiple witnesses.

This is what abortion does to those who practice it. And what some abortion advocates choose to do to themselves.

Do we want to do to them what Kevin Carter's training and experiences did to him?

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Obama speaks well about experience

“I am a believer in knowing what you are doing when you apply for a job and I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now before having served one day on the Senate. Now there might be people who would be comfortable doing that, but, uh, I’m not one of those people.” -Barak Obama, 2004

Gosh, what suddenly made him change his mind?

2002: Misdiagnosis and carelessness lead to woman's death

Brenda Vise, a 38-year-old pharmaceutical representative, died on September 12, 2002, of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after what she believed would be a perfectly safe, legal abortion at Volunteer Women's Clinic in Tennessee. Her survivors filed suit against the facility, as well as Dr. Edgar "Ed" Perry (sometimes mistakenly identified as "Edward Perry") and Dr. Richard Manning.

The lawsuit filed by Brenda's survivors notes that "Volunteer Medical Clinic, Inc. ("VMC") was administratively dissolved by the Tennessee Secretary of State because of its failure to comply with applicable law. VMC has been administratively dissolved by the Tennessee Secretary of State since September 17, 1999."Despite having been shut down by the state, VMC continued to do business and to advertise in the yellow pages for abortions, including medical abortions.

Brenda had taken a home pregnancy test on September 5, and it was positive. The suit implies that she found VMC in the yellow pages, and made an appointment for Friday, September 7. VMC staff did a pregnancy test and did an ultrasound.

"Ms. Vise was advised that the ultrasound showed no fetus in the uterus. Clinic personnel explained that this was because the fetus was 'too small to be seen.' It was estimated that Ms. Vise was approximately six weeks pregnant. By such point in her pregnancy, a fetus in the uterus would have been easily seen with a proper ultrasound examination."

The lack of a visible fetus in the uterus should have clued the facility in to the fact that Brenda had an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency and is a contraindication to the administration of Mifeprex.

VMC gave Brenda a dose of Mifeprex. "Ms. Vise was advised by the Clinic that side effects of Mifeprex were mild and short-lived."

Brenda was then sent home from the facility with a dose of Cytotec that she was to self-administer to complete her abortion. She did not have a follow-up appointment scheduled for the recommended 2-3 days after the administration of Mifeprex.

The suit also mentions that "The Federal Government has never approved Cytotec for use in pregnant women and specifically has not approved it in pregnant women for the purpose of inducing an abortion, and in fact has warned against such use". It also noted, "In August, 2000, the manufacturer of Cytotec specifically issued a letter to healthcare providers that Cytotec was contraindicated in women who are pregnant and that Cytotec was not approved for the induction of labor or abortion, and in fact should not be used in an abortion. Ms. Vise was never advised of these facts."

"Ms. Vise was never advised of who [her qualified physicians] were and, in fact, Ms. Vise was specifically advised that she would have to return to Knoxville rather than consulting a local physician or hospital in the event of any complication."

Brenda called VMC to report problems upon returning home. In all of Brenda's repeated calls to VMC, she was assured that her symptoms were "normal and routine."

Brenda took the Cytotec as instructed roughly 48 hours after her initial dose of Mifeprex. She continued to experience pain and nausea, and called VMC. She was told to take some medications for her symptoms. VMC was told that Brenda had a sub-normal body temperature, that she was pale, and that she had significant pelvic pain. "Instead of advising Ms. Vise to immediately proceed to a doctor, the Clinic continually assured her that all of these were normal symptoms and that she was not to be concerned."

Brenda called VMC again on Monday, September 10, indicating her deteriorating condition. She was told that her symptoms were "to be expected," and was told to travel to VMC, in Knoxville, for a check-up at 3:30 p.m. "She was specifically directed not to go to a hospital in Chattanooga because, according to the Clinic, no hospital in Chattanooga would have knowledge about the drugs that had been administered."

Brenda's boyfriend tried to take her to Knoxville, "but was unable to do so" and called an ambulance, which rushed Brenda to a Chattanooga hospital.

"Ms. Vise was immediately admitted to the hospital in very critical condition. Exploratory surgery revealed that Ms. Vise had had an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy which had ruptured. Such rupture led to massive infection and a collapse of her vital systems."

"On September 12, 2001, the attending physician certified that Ms. Vise was terminal with no reasonable medical prospect of recovery and was in a coma and totally unresponsive. Ms. Vise died later that day."

Are women who choose abortion more or less likely to die from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy than women who choose to continue the pregnancy?
More likely.
Less likely.
Equally likely.

For more RU-486 deaths, see "Wanda", Holly Patterson, Chanelle Bryant, "Cherish", "Tara", Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1962: Doc's unsuccessful attempt to cover up socialite's abortion death

Dr. Mandel M. Friedman was charged with homicide in the September 11, 1962 death of Barbara C. Covington, age 35, a Florida socialite.

Friedman attributed Barbara's death to a heart attack and tried to get an undertaker to arrange a burial. The undertaker reported the case to authorities.

A 31-year-old advertising executive, Franklin Charles Beck, admitted to securing the $1000 abortion fee and driving Barbara to Friedman's office. Friedman was on bail for the death of Vivian Grant at the time of Barbara's death.

Barbara's abortion was typical in that it was performed by a doctor, as was the case with perhaps 90% of criminal abortions.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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McCain release footage unearthed in Sweden

Here it is at a Swedish site. Apparently a Swedish cameraman had left his camera behind with a Vietnamese photographer, asking him to film the release of POWs, and buried in all that footage was McCain, who of course was at the time just another brave, battered young man returning home.

When I was in Korea, one of the few English language TV channels I got was AFN -- American Forces Network, run by the DOD for servicemembers overseas. Instead of commercials, we got to watch military PSA's, including one reviewing the Code of Conduct that kept McCain and his fellow POW's sane and strong.

Could you imagine how quickly they'd have been broken had they not been taught that they were capable of maintaining their dignity and honor even in the darkest of circumstances?

I sent an email once to Ashli at The S.I.C.L.E. Cell about how our society, rather than build young women up to deal with challenges, bombards them from infancy with messages about how they can't cope with an unplanned pregnancy, about how they're just too weak, too incapable, how nobody could possibly be expected to bear up under the strain of having a baby when they hadn't planned to, or when their circumstances are tough, or when it turns out that the baby might be sick or have a disability.

Imagine how fast the abortion rate would fall if we spent time instead reminding young women that they are capable of courage and resourcefulness.

How long would McCain had lasted, how long would his fellow POW's have lasted, if the Code of Conduct has stated, "It's too hard to withstand ill-treatment if you are captured. Just betray your fellows. Spill your guts. Tell the enemy everything he wants to know. It's your life."

Sad: No new trial for West Memphis Three

Judge: No new trial for West Memphis killings

For why this blows chunks, see the WM3 Innocence web site.

I'm usually cynical about prison inmates claiming innocence, but in the cases of these guys and Darlie Routier, I'm convinced.

1976: Lingering death from Chicago-area abortion

Diane Smith, age 23, was one of the women mentioned in the Chicago Sun-Times expose, "The Abortion Profiteers."

According to the report, and her death certificate, Diane was admitted to Englewood Hospital in Chicago due to hemorrhaging. She told staff that she'd had a legal abortion in a Chicago-area clinic.

Diane was treated for a perforated uterus and sepsis, to no avail. Diane died on September 11, 1976.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Palin and the rape kits

The blogosphere is abuzz with the story that while Palin was Mayor, Wasilla supposedly billed rape victims for their rape kits -- the kit for, and process of, gathering forensic evidence of sexual assault. The story includes some pretty callous quotes from the Police Chief.

I'll insert an UPDATE here: The whole thing is abortion-lobby hysteria. Turns out that there was ONE rape in Wasilla during the time period between Palin becoming mayor and the state law going into effect (requiring local law enforcement to pick up the tab for rape kits). And that victim was not charged for her rape kit. Repeat: Neither Palin herself, not the town of Wasilla on her behalf, nor anybody else on behalf of the city or mayor of Wasilla or its police department, billed any rape victim for a rape kit. Which hasn't kept the abortion lobby from perpetuating the lie. Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Now to resume the original post:

The gut response is to simply say, "Yeah, what else are you going to go off half-cocked with? This one will get debunked along with all the others." In part, that's the gut response simply because the story is so outrageous that it sounds like satire.

A lot of the bloggers also comment on the high rape rate in Alaska, implying that Palin is somehow responsible, but we can just blow that idiocy off as coming from the same people who'd blame Governor Palin for the weather in Alaska if they could find a way to do it.

That leaves us with the facts:

1. Wasilla did have a policy of charging rape victims (or their insurance companies) for rape kits.

2. The police chief, a Palin appointee, opposed the state law that required police departments to pick up the tab for the rape kits.

It leaves me with questions and concerns:

1. When did the policy of doing this start? Had it been in place since the town first got its police force? Was it initiated under Palin? Timeline, please!

2. The goal seemed to be getting the insurance company, rather than the police, to pay for the cost of the rape kit. Which I don't approve of. I'm a Libertarian, a fan of keeping government as small as possible, but one of the few legitimate tasks of government is to investigate crimes and enforce the laws. It's not the job of the insurance companies.

3. Doing the math, there must have either been a LOT of rapes in Wasilla every year, or a LOT of women claiming rape for some reason. (The latter seems unlikely. What would the motive be?) What's up with that? Was this typical of Alaska towns?

4. Were the women actually made to pay, or was the policy there to have the expense of the rape kits on the books in a way that Wasilla could then get reimbursement from another government entity with deeper pockets? (When I ran with a volunteer ambulance company, we billed EVERYBODY and/or their insurance company for ambulance runs, though we knew a lot of the uninsured wouldn't pay. We never went after them for the money, but we needed to have the bills on the books to make the budget work. I don't understand the arcane details of how it all worked, but I'm pointing it out to show that this sort of thing is done, billing people you have no intention of wresting the money out of, because you have to do it to get the money from someplace else.)

It's late and I'm too tired to go into this in any more detail.

Between a woman and her web-cam

Dakota Voice reports that Planned Parenthood plans to do RU-486 abortions by having the "prescribing" doctor do consults via web-cam, thus moving abortion from "first contact when he shoves the speculum in" to not having any actual physical contact at all.

Paradoxically, this might actually lead to women getting more of a consult, since the web-cam thing would require the doctor to actually speak to her, or at least to say more than scolding them not to squirm and to keep quiet lest the frighten the other patients.

This might even force abortionists to read the chart, something not all Planned Parenthood physicians do.

"Alicia", age 28, filed suit after going to Planned Parenthood February 25, 1992, for birth control pills. Aguilar, who speaks only Spanish, was led to a procedure room by a Spanish-speaking employee who had her disrobe, put her in stirrups, inserted a speculum, and left the room. Planned Parenthood's abortionist, Marc Jerome, entered the room and immediately initiated a vacuum abortion procedure. Alicia screamed for him to stop, but Jerome "ignored the obvious pain and terror" of the patient, and continued with the procedure. It turns out that Jerome had gone into wrong room and failed to correctly identify which patient he was about to operate on. Alicia, her attorney said, "suffers continuous flashbacks and crying episodes," particularly due to her strong religious opposition to abortion. Planned Parenthood successfully blocked Alicia's attempt to file suit anonymously, on the fairly self-serving grounds that her suit "does not involve an abortion, or a woman's right to privacy when choosing to obtain an abortion. The female plaintiff in this case was not pregnant...did not seek and did not obtain an abortion." (Legal Times 5-24-93)

So talking to a doctor at a Planned Parenthood before the actual abortion would be a step in the right direction.

1975: A lingering death after a safe, legal abortion

Thirty-one-year-old Mitsue Mohar died at LA County/USC Medical Center on September 10, 1975. The events that led her to an eary grave began when she went to Pacolma Lutheran Hospital in Los Angeles County for a safe and legal abortion on August 5.

Dr. Baca performed the D&C abortion under general anesthesia. After the abortion, Mitsue went into convulsions. She remained 16 days at Pacolma Lutheran without regaining consciousness.

On August 21, she was transferred to LA County/USC Medical Center, where she died on September 10 without ever regaining consciousness.

The autopsy found that she had suffered hypoxic encephalopathy (brain damage due to lack of oxygen) due to cardiac arrest during the abortion, and had developed pneumonia which eventually killed her.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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They seriously don't get it

Palin Energizing Women From All Walks of Life

It starts out with somebody who is probably fairly typical of conservative women:

Susie Baron is a Republican, a mother of two and a home-schooler. She voted for Mike Huckabee in the Ohio primary, but now -- because of Sarah Palin -- she thinks she is part of something much bigger.

"I wouldn't even call it a Palin movement, I'd call it a sleeping giant that has been awakened," Baron, 56, said at a rally here Tuesday. She described its members as a silent majority of women in Middle America who "are raising our families, who work if we have to, but love our country and our families first."

"And until now, we haven't had anyone to identify with," Baron said, adding that traditional feminist groups such as the National Orga