Illinois Right to Life Committee
MARCH 2007
March, 2007 Pro-Life News (see articles below): 03/30/07 Postpartum depression or post-abortion trauma? 03/23/07 Who is being deceptive? 03/16/07 Is a “safe” abortion possible? 03/09/07 Not exactly as advertised 03/02/07 Terrorists in lab coats
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, March 30, 2007 Postpartum depression or post-abortion trauma? One of the frequent criticisms of the Pro-Life position on abortion is expressed as either “the need to keep government out of the bedroom” or to “keep the decision between the woman and her doctor.” Of course, no one seems to be concerned about the underlying logic problems created by invoking these arguments, given that very few abortions occur in the bedroom and most woman never see the doctor before he begins the abortion. Like clockwork, when another threat to “abortion rights” pops up, NARAL Pro-Choice America is there to condemn such
government interference. South Carolina is
considering making the viewing of an ultrasound of the unborn child mandatory prior to an
abortion. Some people would consider such a
step as a means to achieve informed consent. On
the other hand, NARAL President Nancy Keenan said, “The women of South Carolina are
fully capable of asking their doctor for information they need to make private, personal
medical decisions. Politicians don't belong
in the examining room.” Of course, pro-abortion politicians are just as good at bringing up these same arguments. Should we then assume that pro-abortion politicians are committed at all costs to preventing government interference when it comes to the doctor/patient relationship? Apparently, that commitment only applies to
abortion. For example, the Illinois Senate is
considering a bill called the Postpartum Mood Disorders Prevention Act (SB 15). That bill outlines in great detail specific steps
that doctors are to take to assess their postpartum patients for signs of postpartum mood
disorders. Even the evaluation questionnaire
to be used is specified in the bill. Doctors
would also be required to provide education about postpartum mood disorders to their
prenatal patients. Abortion advocates want to blame recent tragedies where mothers killed one or more of their children on postpartum depression. Bills such as SB 15 put the focus on postpartum depression as the source of such violent behavior. But is that focus justified? Maybe an investigation is needed into whether the mothers who killed their children had an abortion in their past. According to a study published in the Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology in March 2007, a history of abortion is associated with more frequent acts of physical aggression toward subsequent children. Might these violent, irrational acts be related to post-abortion trauma rather than postpartum depression? Oh, I forgot, the existence of post-abortion trauma is considered medically inaccurate. Since it does not exist, we must look somewhere else, so postpartum depression seems like a possibility. Wow, I’m glad I don’t wear the blinders of politically correct thinking! In fact, I see another connection. The mantra of abortion advocates to protect the doctor/patient relationship from government interference is being ignored here to protect abortion from potential negative publicity. I guess there is consistency, after all – protect abortion at all costs. That is much more important than preventing government interference in the doctor/patient relationship.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, March 23, 2007 Claims by abortion supporters have returned that pregnancy care centers are deceiving and intimidating women so they will not get abortions. What are these claimed deceptions? They tell women that abortion may adversely affect their ability to have future children, may have serious psychological impacts, and could make them more prone to breast cancer. Of course, since all these conditions are true, pregnancy care centers are not really being deceptive. However, since abortion supporters claim these conditions are not true, they are really doing the deceiving. How about the revelations from the notorious New Jersey abortion mill that I discussed
in my previous newsline? The health
department found serious unsterile conditions for
a place that conducts surgical procedures. Unfortunately,
Metropolitan Medical Associates passed a second attempt follow-up inspection and will be
allowed to reopen. Their attorney, Frank
Capece, tried to assure New Jersey residents that the abortion center is now safe. "Any patient who goes to the clinic can now
go with a high degree of confidence that the facility meets an exceptionally high standard
for patient care. We passed the most rigorous
state inspection possible," he said. Isn’t
that reassuring? Why did it take a rigorous
state inspection to get them to perform medical procedures in a sterile manner? How long will it be before they return to business
as usual? Of course, beyond the deception that they provide safe abortions, the other deception, even flying in the face of modern ultrasound, is the claim that “it is just a blob of tissue, not a baby.” They still tell young girls this lie even when they are using ultrasound to help speed up the abortion. The good news is that in some states, this deception is being addressed by law. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour just signed a law offering women seeking an abortion the chance to view an ultrasound and hear the heartbeat of their unborn child. Mississippi becomes the eighth state (along with Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin) to enact such a law, while three other states (Idaho, South Carolina and Georgia) are currently considering similar bills. The South Carolina bill is unique in that it requires abortion centers to show women pictures of their unborn child. Studies show 80% of women considering abortion choose life after receiving counseling that includes seeing an ultrasound image of their child. Unfortunately, in other states threatening rather than protective actions toward unborn life are being considered. In Oregon, a bill has been introduced that would mandate investigations of pregnancy care centers. Of course, the justification is that false claim of deception mentioned earlier. If abortion supporters have any success in Oregon, you can be sure they will try for similar measures in other states, including Illinois. There are also rumblings in the U.S. Congress to create some type of legislative assault on pregnancy care centers. Penny Pullen has suggested that women who have had positive experiences at pregnancy care centers should write their U.S. Representative and Senators to let them know about these benefits. The evidence is overwhelming that abortion providers are the source of deception, not pregnancy care centers. However, since neither abortionists nor their supporters play fair, extra effort is needed to ensure that the truth prevails in the near term.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, March 16, 2007 Is a “safe” abortion possible? Promoters of abortion claim that illegal “back-alley” abortions are unsafe, but legal abortions are safe. They have used this argument since at least the 1960s when NARAL founders, including Dr. Bernard Nathanson, invented the statistic that 5,000 to 10,000 women were dying annually in the United States from illegal abortions. Later, after Dr. Nathanson learned the truth from ultrasound images and converted to become a strong defender of life, he revealed that the NARAL founders knew the statistic was blatantly false, but they were amazed that the media ran with it and turned a lie into the perceived truth. The inconvenient truth is that 39 women died from illegal abortion in 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the USA. Abortion promoters still use this same lie when promoting abortion “rights” in nations that still have laws making abortion illegal, including a few European nations, many South American nations, and African nations. They use “how-to-lie-with-statistics” math to generate claims of overwhelming numbers of illegal abortions and then make claims about the number of women who are dying from these illegal abortions. They even claim that legal abortion is safer than childbirth by manipulating statistics to ignore the more dangerous late term abortions and by disconnecting themselves from complications that ultimately lead to death under hospital care needed because of botched abortions that are never recorded as such. Of course, abortion supporters will never admit that abortion can have serious psychological complications as well. These may lead to more deaths or injuries because of drug and alcohol abuse, suicide attempts, and other destructive behaviors. Ironically, some pro-abortion women have founded a group called Exhale that offers a post-abortion telephone hotline and has begun offering sympathy cards to send to post-abortive women. The most telling evidence showing that no abortion is ever safe comes from health
department actions against legal abortion providers.
Most recently, New Jersey health officials closed the Metropolitan Medical Associates abortion center. That center does 10,000 abortions annually,
including 1,500 partial birth abortions. It
was closed after a botched abortion recently put a woman into a month-long coma. Health inspectors found dirt and debris throughout
the abortion facility, open packages of items that were supposed to remain sterilized
before their use, and other problems. Their
report described forceps encrusted in "brownish blood-like residues" and rusty
crochet hooks used in abortions. They also
discovered dark red "dirt and debris" a quarter-inch thick under an exam table. That sounds like a very sterile place to conduct surgical procedures! And this situation seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. News about adverse findings against abortion providers by health officials appear on a regular basis. I just recently compiled a list of 10 other incidents over just the last eight months. However, the nature and extent of the violations at Metropolitan Medical Associates is shocking in its severity. If abortionists claim to be medical professionals, how can they be so blatant in their lack of care for their patients? What other medical procedures are conducted under such adverse conditions? What would be discovered if abortionists faced the same regulations as other medical facilities? Where is the protection of women? Where is the outrage from National Organization of Women? March 10th was labelled Appreciation for Abortion Providers Day. Appreciate them for what? Certainly not for providing safe abortions!
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, March 9, 2007 In my January 23rd newsline I indicated that Attorney General Lisa Madigan had taken the necessary action on January 19th to request that the Federal injunction preventing parental notice from taking effect be overturned. More recently thanks to Tom Brejcha, attorney for the Thomas More Society, I have learned that this request did not turn out to be what it appeared to be. Mr. Brejcha was able to obtain the transcript of the court hearing before Judge Coar where an attorney representing Lisa Madigan’s office was presenting the Attorney General’s case for overturning the injunction. You might be able to surmise that this request was not a straightforward one when Judge Coar stated, “It seems to me that the Attorney General is trying to have her cake and eat it too. Either the State of Illinois’ position is that the statute is constitutional now or it’s not.” It turns out that Madigan’s request for appointment of a special master to review implementation of the rules promulgated by the Illinois Supreme Court in each county was deemed problematic by Judge Coar. Because this request demonstrated that Madigan was not really ready to request removal of the injunction, Judge Coar denied the motion. Unfortunately, in plain language the action that Liasa Madigan took was a sham. She was given credit for attempting to enforce the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 that she did not deserve. She was in fact serving the interests of her pro-abortion supporters by ensuring that parental notice would remain dormant. It remains unclear when or if she will return to court to request the injunction be overturned. In a further reversal of the apparent good news shared on January 23rd, Judge Coar’s ruling in favor of the Choose Life specialty license plates has been appealed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan. This action could mean a substantial delay in the availability of the Choose Life plates. The Federal appellate court moves very slowly. It is still true that the result should now be when, not if.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, March 2, 2007 The barbarians are coming. The
terrorists are coming. No, I’m not
talking about Osama Bin Laden. I am referring
to the researchers who want to conduct experiments that kill embryonic human beings to
obtain their stem cells. Even beyond this
outrage, these researchers want to clone human embryos (it’s called somatic cell nuclear transfer) so they can kill these
cloned human beings to obtain their stem cells. States
are beginning to fall like dominos to this terrorist attack. First, there was New Jersey. Then came California, Missouri, Iowa, and now
Illinois. Did I miss any others? [Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin] In every case the
researchers, and the legislators who do their bidding, claim that they are actually
banning human cloning. In fact, since cloning
has already occurred when somatic cell
nuclear transfer takes place, what they have done is mandate that the clone must be
killed, for its stem cells or otherwise. The
“ban” makes it illegal to implant the cloned human being so that it might
develop, grow to term, and be born. The governor of Iowa just signed a law that repeals a real ban on human cloning and replaces it with a sham ban on cloning and a green light to kill embryonic humans for their stem cells. Not to be outdone by lowly Iowa, the Illinois Senate and House have passed almost identical bills that establish an institute to promote the killing of embryonic humans for their stem cells. Of course, implanting the cloned human would be illegal under these bills. If either the Illinois Senate or the House passes the other side’s bill, it will go to Governor Blagojevich for his signature. Since he has already bypassed the legislature the last two years to fund experiments that kill embryonic humans for their stem cells, there is no doubt the bill would become law if it reaches his desk. Can sanity be restored and this terrorist threat ended? In Illinois, there is still a battle over funding of this unethical experimentation that kills embryonic humans. Call your state representative and ask for a NO vote on HB 139. That bill would provide $25 million for this ineffective experimentation, reducing the focus on the both ethical and effective research and actual human treatments that are already being achieved using non-embryonic stem cells. Why should the taxpayers of Illinois pay for this unethical boondoggle? Private sector funding has dried up and moved to non-embryonic efforts in recognition that experimenting with the stem cells obtained by killing embryonic humans is going nowhere. Tell your Illinois representative and senator that you don’t want to get stuck with the tax bill for this ineffective and unethical experimentation that further cheapens human life by viewing it as a commodity.
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