Until we each take an individual stand, and speak out to our friends, families, and co-workers about abortion, and are able to take the rejection, anger, and resentment that often accompanies voicing the truth, this evil will continue. I fear God and His judgment more than the anger of men.
I am engaged in an e-mail exchange with a dear friend, a former OB-GYN delivery nurse. She is pro-choice. But before you judge, let me share a paragraph she mailed yesterday:
ReplyDelete"we’ll never agree on abortion…..except I can say that I really don’t know ANYONE who thinks it is a good thing. More, that it is something that has always and will always be done….at least regulations take it out of the back rooms. And….NO 3rd trimester ones…..unless the mother is going to die…….and…..precious few 2nd semester unless extenuating circumstances. I respect your opinion…..and……if we didn’t have people like you pushing back….we wouldn’t have the necessary regs. We need to do more with education and birth control and family planning to PREVENT the unwanted pregnancies in the first place. I don’t know of anyone who thinks abortion is good birth control. I will definitely research the partial-birth abortions……having working in the labor and delivery unit ……I cannot imagine who in a hospital would throw a live baby away…….just could not be done by ANY doc or nurse I have ever known."
Our debate will continue.
Your friend sounds like a thoughtful person, however she doesn't really explain why abortion is not a good thing...somehow pro-choice people never seem to wrap their heads around the fact that humans are being murdered--helpless, innocent babies. "A person's a person no matter how small." No mention of the terrible suffering of post-abortion women, either. Thank you for continuing the debate with her. It sounds like there is hope even if she says she will never agree.
ReplyDeleteTB
TB- you are on target. This is very insightful, though, through the eyes of a "restricted-abortion" advocate. Does anybody know if partial birth abortions are still legal?
ReplyDeleteHere is some information from Priests for Life:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.priestsforlife.org/partialbirth.html
Late term abortions are being performed now. Here is a link. Be warned, it shows graphic photos of late-term abortions:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/photosassorted/
Here is info from the Vatican on partial birth abortions: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_20030331_partial-birth-abortion_en.html
Aren't these pictures dated before the proceedure was banned?
ReplyDeleteIt was banned by President Bush. But after looking at these pictures, how could it ever have been a legal medical proceedure? Who thought that this was OK? Was it Planned Parenthood who pushed for this?
ReplyDeleteSee the following. Planned Parenthood fought to repeal the ban on partial birth abortion, which, by the way, is a phrase they will not use. They have a much "cleaner" name for the proceedure, "dilation and extraction".
DeleteIn 2003, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 760, S. 3) was signed into law; the House passed it on October 2 with a vote of 281-142, the Senate passed it on October 21 with a vote of 64-34, and President George W. Bush signed it into law on November 5.
Beginning in early 2004, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Abortion Federation, and abortion doctors in Nebraska challenged the ban in federal district courts in the Northern District of California, Southern District of New York, and District of Nebraska. All three district courts ruled the ban unconstitutional that same year. Their respective federal courts of appeals—the Ninth Circuit, Second Circuit, and Eighth Circuit, respectively—affirmed these rulings on appeal.
The three cases were all appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and were consolidated into the case Gonzales v. Carhart. On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act by a decision of 5-4.[
Thanks for the info, anonymous. So, does it stand that third trimester abortions are still legal?
ReplyDeleteThe partial-birth abortion procedure is different than the other procedure for third trimester abortions?
3rd trimester abortions are still performed. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, only 31 states have enacted bans, New York State has NOT. Because the law does not include a precise medical definition of exactly what is banned, there is still a loophole for legal 3rd trimester abortions. Most will claim that they are only provided if the mother's physical health is in danger but they are also are performed for "mental health" reasons. Also, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, there are 400-700 late term abortions performed each year.
ReplyDeleteWe still have work to do.