Thursday, July 07, 2005

NOW is the time to care about women!

The NOW website is posting four pictures of women, with this caveat:
"These are the faces of women who died because they could not obtain safe and legal abortions." The women in question are Rosie Jimenez, Clara Duvall, Pauline Roberson Shirley, and Becky Bell.

First of all, one of the four didn't even have an abortion. Becky Bell died of the same strain of pneumonia that killed Muppets creator Jim Henson. She just happened to have had a miscarriage beforehand, hence the word "abortion" (the medical term for miscarriage) on her autopsy report. Blaming Becky's death of "lack of access to safe and legal abortion" is a hoax, pure and simple. It's the sale of the Brooklyn Bridge or swampland in Florida. And NOW needs to have their feet held to the fire for dredging her up out of the grave to fit their own political agenda. What about teens who die from safe-n-legal abortions? Don't they count? If we look only at teens who were able to arrange secret abortions, we're looking at Dawn Ravenelle, age 13; Erica Kae Richardson, age 16; Sandra Kaiser, age 14; Sophie McCoy, age 17; and Tamia Russell, age 15. And those are just the cases where I was able to verify that the abortion had been sought without parental involvement. Other underage girls who lost their lives to safe-n-legal abortion include: Deanna Bell, age 13; Teresa Causey, age 17; Patricia Chacon, age 16; Sharon Davis, age 17; Laniece Dorsey, age 17; Gwendolyn Drummer, age 15; Maureen Espinoza, age 16; Cristella Forte, age 16; Glenna Jean Fox, age 17; Jammie Garcia, age 14; Wilma Harris, age 17; Barbara Hoppert, age 16; Deborah Lozinski, age 17; Rita McDowell, age 16; Natalie Meyers, age 16; Denise Montoya, age 15; Beverly Moore, age 17; Loretta Morton, age 16; Kathy Murphy, age 17; Germain Newman, age 14; Sara Niebel, age 15; Katrina Poole, age 16; "April" Roe, age 17; "Julie" Roe, age 14; "Roxanne" Roe, age 17; Sharonda Rowe, age 17; F.S., age 16; Deloris Smith, age 15; Jennifer Suddeth, age 17; Latachie Veal, age 17; and Cheryl Vosseler, age 17. Here are girls who died from real abortions that actually took place, but NOW doesn't care about them. It's more politically profitable to stand on the body of poor Becky Bell, who didn't even have an abortion in the first place.

Rosie Jiminez did die from complications of an illegal abortion, but only after she'd developed the habit of resorting on federally-funded abortions. When her doctor blandly pointed out that the taxpayers weren't going to pony up for any more elective abortions, there was a Planned Parenthood in town that charged for abortions on a sliding scale -- the access was there. But the doctor didn't refer her there. He left her hanging, for whatever reason. So yeah, Rosie died from an illegal abortion. A midwife who'd been running a criminal abortion business long before federal funding was cut off performed the fatal abortion. Rosie was killed, in short, by a prochoicer who was exploiting women's fears. But the blame goes not to the doctor who abandoned his patient, the Planned Parenthood that didn't do any effective outreach, or the criminal abortionist. No, it gets blamed on people who had wearied of subsidizing repeat elective abortions for women who were using them as a form of birth control. Excuse me, but shouldn't we blame the person who actually took the instruments in hand and killed her?

If the information on NOW's web site is correct, Pauline Roberson Shirley died in 1940 of hemorrhage after an illegal abortion. I'd like to know why NOW is so upset about Pauline's death, but not about the deaths of other Arizona women:
DaNette Pergusson, who died of an embolism in 1992, Lisa Bardsley, who died in 1995, or Lou Ann Herron, who bled to death in 1998. Oh, that's right! You can't use those deaths to frighten people into supporting abortion advocacy organizations!

And Clara Duvall? She died in 1929! (Assuming you can trust the info on NOW's site. After all, they claim that Becky Bell died of a self-induced abortion. They could be just as wrong about Clara Duvall when they claim that she attempted a home abortion.) Come on, NOW! I have a lot of illegal abortion deaths far more recent than that! And guess what? They all die at the hands of prochoicers!

What other movement gets away with killing people, then blaming the deaths on people who say that it's wrong to do the killing?

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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