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I call BS

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There are a lot of problems with this article again, after the Tiller murder. But let me just draw attention to one of those problem areas and that’s Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation dryly claiming these late term abortions on wanted babies are done for the health of the mother:

What made Dr. Tiller unusual was that he specialized in seeing women who found out late in very wanted pregnancies that they were carrying fetuses with anomalies that were incompatible with life,” Saporta said. “For them, there was really no good choice. They needed to terminate their pregnancies to protect their own health, and he provided both the emotional and physical care for women in that situation.”

And what makes Vicki Saporta so “unusual” is that as a pretend advocate for women’s rights–she should be well aware of the body of literature suggesting without a doubt that where wanted babies are killed, their moms suffer afterwards as a result. If the American Psychological Association actually reports this as a finding–and there’s not much that makes abortion “look bad” that they will report, trust me–then we know it is true.

Get ready for an increase in depressed women

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In a field of research with very very little consensus, it is clear that when a child is wanted–and the mother aborts–depression results.

This article shocks me. And I don’t shock easily. (I think I stopped shocking so easily way back in my Masters with my focus on Holocaust studies. I just needed to learn the material and get my degree. Excellent professors encouraged it, by the way; they didn’t want emotionally-outraged students in the classroom, so we learned to discuss the Holocaust in dispassionate terms.)

I am shocked by news that abortion clinics see women with wanted children who are aborting because they can’t afford it–and no one goes off to raise funds to help them keep the baby.

And this article reports how raising money for the abortion is supposedly deemed compassionate.

What a twisted world.

‘This was a desired pregnancy — she’d been getting prenatal care — but they re-evaluated expenses and decided not to continue,’ said Dr. Pratima Gupta. ‘When I was doing the options counselling, she interrupted me, crying, and said, ‘Dr. Gupta, I just walked here for an hour. I’m sure of my decision.'”

Other doctors are hearing similarly wrenching tales. For many Americans, the recession is affecting their most intimate decisions about sex and family planning. Doctors and clinics are reporting that many women are choosing abortions and men are having vasectomies because they cannot afford a child.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois clinics performed an all-time high number of abortions in January, many of them motivated by the women’s economic worries, said CEO Steve Trombley, who declined to give exact numbers. Abortions at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis-area clinics were up nearly 7% in the second half of 2008 from a year earlier.

No one ever thought of adoption, either. Many, but not everyone, are feeling the pinch. And I’m quite sure we have the funds to help out here. This is the result of a pro-abortion status quo, that the Vicki Saportas of this world get busy raising abortion funds with my tax dollars (she’s American, but you get my point) instead of raising money for other avenues that don’t involve the death of the child and the subsequent depression of the mother. Well done.

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Tanya adds: I sincerely don’t understand. I know a woman who, a few years ago, ended a wanted pregnancy due to some financial issues. Two months later, when she normally would have been well into her second trimester, the family’s financial problems resolved themselves. Since then, she’s been trying to get pregnant again.

A few months back, I had a dentist’s appointment that I had to cancel because some expensive doohickey went on the car. No biggie. I just rescheduled.

Pregnancy is not a dentist’s appointment.

She dislikes stupid people

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In the privacy of my own thoughts, I’ve found similar sentiments. (Heavens to Betsy, I’ve never actually said any of this out loud!) Read one woman’s perfect rant regarding Vicki Saporta’s article.

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Brigitte adds: Blimey, she don’t mince words, eh? Some points are a bit hysterical and perhaps less thoroughly informed than she believes, but hey. I’m usually on the side of logic and common sense, however clumsily expressed. One thing I like is her reason for not being totally anti-abortion: Because back in the day, when she had pregnancy scares, she considered it as a way out of a potential tight spot.

Back in the day, had I found myself pregnant, I might have considered it, too. Or maybe not. I just don’t know. I never had to face that terrible “choice” because I was lucky, not because I was good. I’m awfully glad to have been lucky, because now I realize how much I would regret having had an abortion. That realization is what makes me try to change this ridiculous pro-abortion culture in which we live.

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Andrea enjoyed that rant: I am of the uptight variety who thinks that if you can’t express yourself without using expletives, you probably shouldn’t express yourself. But I thoroughly enjoyed that rant, and laughed out loud in many places. Especially this:

WTF? What is based on “a significant amount of legal research”? Her assumption that Bill C-484 will lead to abuse of women’s rights? What is she, psychic?

Vicki Saporta Psychic Services: Deciding just when and how much you need to think. Just one of the many services she offers, thinking is her top priority. So you can put your feet up, and agree.   

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Tanya, excited: Oh! Are we pointing out favorite passages? Mine is definitely:

Hello?? Is there ANYONE in the world that doesn’t support a woman’s right to carry a pregnancy to term?This is a non-point. This is the stupidest thing she says. Before I go on, I just want to state, with complete clarity, that I fully support Saporta’s right to have two arms and two legs. Look how wonderful and liberal I am

 

Planned Parenthood south of the border…

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Planned Parenthood appears to be getting a run for their money. Again. Which is fine, as it has been established this “charity” has plenty. Recent accusations highlight racism, and of course, there is the ongoing problem of abortions for minors where the possibility of actually just concealing rape is high.

Again, to repeat my point: Abortion clinics (read: our sanitizated houses for the business of killing) are depressing and abortion has depressing outcomes. We ought at least to be very aware of that, and subsequently very wary of those who present terminology like “abortion care.”

And on the flip side, again, to repeat: Pro-lifers ought to be very aware of caring for the messy lives of those who seek abortion. A woman never arrives at the abortion clinic after a series of perfect and well thought out decisions.

Morgentaler symposium summary

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Sorry about the delay on this. Here are my thoughts about the Morgentaler and the law conference I attended on Friday last week.

Toronto-January 25, 2008: Henry Morgentaler is a frail old man, who walks with some difficulty and needs help on stairs. He sat at the front of a lecture hall at the University of Toronto’s prestigious law school – some 200 students, doctors, activists and lay people in the audience. The average age was probably mid to late 20s, though there were also a fair number of grey heads in the crowd.

Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation opened the event, with the dean of the University of Toronto’s law school, Mayo Moran, looking on. Saporta lauded the efforts of Morgentaler (and gave him a hug) but remained concerned about further anti-choice action, and limits on access.

And access became the most common thread of discussion for many of the speakers: Abortion should be “available, accessible and acceptable” (Joanna Erdman’s phrase, UofT faculty of law). After Saporta, Colleen Flood, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy introduced Morgentaler.

And so a standing ovation later, the man himself rose to speak. Morgentaler’s voice was weak; the words predictable. He is proud of his efforts. “I believe the world is a kinder, gentler place because women have the right to make choices,” he said. His work

marks a milestone in the emancipation of women…  

After he was done, another standing ovation – pro-choicers herald the presence of Morgentaler as if it was 1950 and Elvis Presley were in the building – it’s all weak knees and breathy excitement merely to be near him.

The morning was devoted largely to… you guessed it – access. Lorraine Weinrib, faculty of law at the University of Toronto, mused about how doctors are protected from performing or referring for abortions. “How did it come to be about protection for doctors, not women,” she asked. She also spoke about how the Morgentaler decision was the first time that she heard the sentiment expressed publicly that

women have lives, women have jobs, women have aspirations that are more important than an unwanted pregnancy.

Shelley Gavigan of Osgoode Hall Law School appeared nervous throughout her talk and acknowledged at the end that perhaps pro-choicers would be wise to acknowledge the “dominant ideology” of the unborn child:

If you must acknowledge the discourse of the unborn child,” she said, “if we must reinsert the vernacular of the unborn into the discourse, [then the] pregnant woman and the unborn child speak with one voice and that voice is hers.

Dawn Fowler of the NAF emphasized how few late-term abortions happen in Canada for social reasons. But then a particularly enthusiastic pro-abortion conferee from Holland stood up to ask this:

Sometimes women need abortions after 24 weeks, even for social reasons, and so why doesn’t Canada offer this?

Fowler replied that this lack of access is “physician driven.”

Garson Romalis, abortion provider in BC, spoke of his own work as saving women’s lives with some particularly distressing examples of a woman with six feet of bowel outside her body, who he was able to save, another jaundiced with infection, but she died. He spoke of how unique his specialty is because women are so completely grateful. “It is only my work where women say not only ‘thank you,’ but also ‘thank you for what you do.'”

And there were also interesting offline discussions: A very young woman from Canadians for Choice explained how, in spite of good access to clinics in the Toronto area, many women still self-abort. “You can find out how on the internet,” she said. Her concern? That there is still stigma attached to abortion, so women won’t come in to the clinic. I asked her how she hoped to combat the stigma – a genuine question, which was met with confusion. She reverted back to… access. “Some women just can’t get to a clinic,” she said, “What if you live in Scarborough [a suburb of Toronto] and can’t afford the bus ticket to Toronto?”

I was not able to stay and listen to the last session, which included Heather Mallick, journalist and Carolyn Bennett, Member of Parliament. But simply seeing Mallick up close reminded me that the person behind written vitriol might be fun – Mallick made a joke in the sunny lunchroom that she would stand in one of the rays and get a tan. It reminded me of a quote from Margaret Thatcher:

It pays to know the enemy – not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend.

And all the old-guard feminists rolled their eyes and said “turn her, turn her into a friend… are you saying women can’t be perfectly good enemies?”

I remain convinced that most pro-choice young women are more open to a pro-life message than we currently hope. The empty rhetoric at the conference, the neutral tones of the discussion, the complete and total failure to acknowledge the difficulty of having an abortion and in many cases, the deep and lasting pain for women – it all makes me more convinced of this than I ever was before.

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Brigitte adds: Excuse me for rolling my eyes all the way to my shoulder blades, but really. Worrying about the price of a bus ticket from Scarborough to Toronto when between 4 and 5 MILLION Canadians have no access to a family physician is more than a little déplacé. It’s almost obscene.

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