Here is an article from the Washington Post trying to make a case for why abortion and late term abortion is okay. The author makes an effort to pull at your heart strings while ignoring what occurs when you extrapolate his logic out a few degrees.
New Attention on Late-Term Abortions
Doctors Who Perform Procedures Provide Little Data but Underscore Reasoning
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 5, 2009
When Susan Fitzgerald went in for a routine ultrasound near the end of her pregnancy, she was expecting good news. Instead, she was stunned to learn that the fetus had a rare condition that left his bones so brittle he would live less than a day. [should we kill the child because he/she is diagnosed with brittle bones?]
“It was unbelievable,” Fitzgerald said. “You think by the third trimester you’re home free. It was devastating.”
Desperate to end the pregnancy [so you were only willing to give birth to a "normal" child], she flew from her home in New England to Wichita [something gravely wrong that someone would fly, literally, half way across the country to kill their baby], where George Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country willing to perform an abortion so late in a pregnancy.
“It was very difficult, but I knew it was the most humane ["humane"? as though her child was a dog] thing I could do for my baby,” Fitzgerald said. “It was absolutely the right thing to do. [heaven help us] I’m just so grateful that Dr. Tiller was there for me.”
Her story is one of dozens that have surfaced [keep surfacing these stories because it shows just how evil abortion is, that a child would be killed because of a perceived "defect"] in the past week during candlelight vigils, at memorials and on blog postings since the shooting death of Tiller. An antiabortion activist has been charged in his slaying.
Tiller’s death has focused attention on abortions late in pregnancy. While it is clear that they account for a tiny fraction [3.23% in KS if records are correct] of the 1.2 million U.S. abortions each year, much about the procedures is unclear, including exactly how many are done, by whom and under what circumstances. The government does not collect detailed data, and doctors who perform them publish little information.
“This is an area that we just don’t know much about,” said Stanley K. Henshaw, a senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group that has the best available data. “The information just isn’t available.” [because abortionists want Americans to think Roe v Wade is a 1st trimester issue]
More than 88 percent of abortions are done in the first trimester, and most doctors will not perform them beyond 22 or 24 weeks because of moral qualms, social stigma, legal concerns, inadequate training or lack of experience. Barely 1 percent of procedures are done after 21 weeks. At 37 weeks, a baby is generally considered full-term.
But 2001 data from 15 states and New York City indicate that perhaps as many as 2,400 abortions were performed after 24 weeks in the United States that year, Henshaw said, most of them probably in the 25th or 26th week.
A survey of 1,819 providers found that at the time, 18 clinics and 12 hospitals performed abortions at 26 weeks. Because the overall number of abortion providers has dropped since 2001, the number offering procedures that late has probably fallen, too, and the number performing abortions even further along in the pregnancy is probably much smaller, Henshaw said.
‘Targeted for Violence’
“We know it’s a very small handful,” said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, the largest group of abortion providers, who would not be more specific. “Given the fact that these people are targeted for violence, I don’t necessarily want to name other providers that we know are providing necessary reproductive [how is abortion reproductive?] health care in these circumstances.”
Abortion rights activists argue that late-term procedures are performed only when absolutely necessary — often when devastating abnormalities [who is the judge in this case? why not give them up for adoption, there are families who would love to have baby regardless of abnormalities] in the fetus or life-threatening problems in the woman are discovered. [in those cases deliver the baby and let the cards fall where they may, let God enter the equation, after all it is His creation, we are just co-creators]
“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.[Life is always a good choice] They needed [needed is a matter of opinion] to terminate their pregnancies to protect their own health, and he provided [at what price?] both the emotional and physical care for women in that situation.”
Abortion opponents condemn the procedures, regardless of the circumstances.
“They’re homicide,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “It’s the taking of an innocent human life.” [Amen]
Under Kansas law, an abortion can be performed after a fetus is viable only if the doctor performing the procedure and an independent physician agree [a law that Dr. Tiller manipulated, there was never truly an independent physician] that the woman’s life is at risk or that continuing the pregnancy would cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
Many are performed in cases such as Fitzgerald’s, where a major abnormality in the fetus is discovered late,[why should this become a death sentence for the child?] Saporta and others said. [If Fitzgerald develops an abnormality no one thinks it would then be appropriate for her to be killed, although our society is headed in that direction]
“The latest patient was a case where the fetus had no brain at all, would never take a breath on its own.[Shouldn't we allow God into the equation? There are miracles that happen every day. I'm not suggesting one would occur in this case but we are not God. Also we are not working with all the facts here, did the baby have a beating heart? how can that heart be beating without a brain. I'm no medical expert but this statement suggests subjectivity is at play.] That was probably just a few weeks before delivery,” said LeRoy Carhart, a Bellevue, Neb., doctor who worked with Tiller, in an interview this week. “Her doctor knew the problem all along but just never told her.” [The author is trying to take very specific examples and apply them across a large spectrum of late term abortions]
In other cases, late-term abortions are performed for women who develop a life-threatening condition related to the pregnancy or need to terminate it for cancer treatment. But the procedures are sometimes done in other circumstances, including cases when the woman suffers serious emotional problems. [as if an abortion is going to help her emotional problems any]
“There was a woman who tried to commit suicide three times. She was pregnant because she had been raped. She said every time she felt the baby move, it was the rape all over again. She could not live with that,” [the woman needs therapy not an abortion] said Carhart, who estimated that 400 procedures a year were performed beyond 24 weeks at Tiller’s clinic. [the State of Kansas says 323 happen at 22 weeks or more, could it be there are more?]
Carhart and another physician said they are also willing to perform late-term procedures for some incest victims, especially very young girls for whom the pregnancy could pose physical and emotional risks. [again an abortion will not help the situation, the child who was created has done nothing wrong]
“If someone calls me up, and she’s 32 weeks pregnant and knew she was pregnant for six months and says, ‘I want an abortion, because I just broke up with my boyfriend,’ I won’t do that,” said Warren M. Hern, a Boulder, Colo., doctor who is one of the very few physicians who perform the procedures and are willing to speak publicly. “But a 13-year-old teenybopper clutching a pink teddy bear who has been raped by her stepfather — I’ll do that.” [again an abortion will not help the situation, why does Mr. Hern get to determine which child should live and which child should die. Is Mr. Hern their creator? In the 1st example the child is unwanted per the mother, in the 2nd case the question is never asked yet Mr. Hern is okay with bring a child into the world that is unwanted, the exact thing that abortion was going to resolve, there is no sound abortion logic, its all subjective.]
First Comes Counseling
Hern and Carhart said their patients must first undergo intensive counseling and evaluation.
“Many of these women are truly desperate.[Then help the women, but don't kill the baby] Many have a desired pregnancy that is terribly complicated by a lethal fetal anomaly. The baby is totally impaired, may die in delivery or after terrible struggle and pain. There is no justification for forcing the woman to carry this baby to term,” Hern said. [should we all be relived that Mr. Hern seems to know when and when not to abort a child?]
While most of the late-term procedures involve physical health problems, neither Hern nor Carhart would specify what proportion falls into those categories. [because they don't want you to know, they don't keep records because if they did it would undermine their occupation]
“The antiabortion people take any facts and use them as a bludgeon,” [a fact can't be used as a bludgeon unless there is a serious wrong taking place and the fact is true, why is Mr. Hern scared of the facts] Hern said.
Newman disputed the contention that the procedures are commonly performed to save a woman’s life, and condemned doing them for genetic defects or in cases or rape or incest. [Amen, again]
“Performing these for fetal anomaly — that’s the same as going into a hospital and killing everyone in the hospital with a handicap,” Newman said. “In the case of incest, prosecute the father. Don’t punish the child for the crime of the father.”
Fitzgerald wondered what happened to couples who might have flown to Wichita that day to see Tiller. [I pray they go home and have their baby]
“I think of all the poor couples, knowing they made this heartbreaking choice,” Fitzgerald said. “What did they do?” [Choose Life]
Trinity Sunday made me think of another trinity that has recently influenced our lives. For the past decade Americans have become increasingly addicted to their cell phones, email, and the internet. In the last few years technology has merged all three of these items sucking vampires into a single device, the Blackberry.
I thought I’d bring to light some of the numbers (lives) of Kansas Abortions just for 2008.
Love More
It’s been almost a week since I’ve post. I haven’t had much time to write. The one thing that has been a reoccurring topic to me this week in life and in prayer is “Love” and more specifically to love more in all that I do. I know I’ve written a lot about abortion a lot lately. But I really can’t say that I’ve written about it with love in my heart. I’ve mainly written out of frustration as a way to vent those frustrations.
In order to change hearts and minds we must love more. All or actions must be done out of love. When we do things with love that is when we can change hearts and minds. Frustration and venting will just cause more frustration and venting.
Lord Jesus help us to love more in all that we do.