Guide to Informed Choices
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abortionist Robert Crist, who lives in Kansas but flies in to do abortions, has, according to the Kansas City Star, ―a history of malpractice suits.‖ After her abortion Latachie ―suffered severe bleeding‖ but was sent home anyway. At 6:30 pm she was dead. What had happened in the meantime? An attorney for the family said that she was bleeding profusely but was sent home without medical supervision. The hospital administrator who reported her death commented that "That seems like negligence that is almost criminal." After she stopped breathing her family called 911. When she was taken to a local hospital she was pronounced dead. Staff at the hospital were concerned, because they had seen another case from the same clinic just three months earlier, where the girl also
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died. 837
(Source: Kansas City Star, Houston Chronicle, RealChoice)
1990 Christina Goesswein, age 19 Christina was close to 23 weeks pregnant when she walked into one of the many clinics run by Moshe Hachamovitch, a 62-year-old abortionist, who is now directly responsible for two deaths and indirectly responsible for four more. Requiring a three-day abortion she already had dilators inserted twice and was returning for her actual abortion. Yet she
was returning under unusual
circumstances. It was the middle of the night. Her boyfriend had called the clinic a couple of times earlier in the evening, reporting symptoms of cramping and possible fever. They instructed him to give her pain medication. The boyfriend called a third time when she began bleeding and vomiting. This time, the clinic took notice, but instead of arranging for her to perhaps be seen at a local hospital where more advanced technology was available, the abortionist and an employee met Christine at the clinic somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m. in the morning. After the abortion was performed Christina continued to
deteriorate and
an ambulance was summoned. She was pronounced dead at 6.10 a.m. Cause of death? An embolism of amniotic fluid — basically when foreign matter (including fluid surrounding the baby) somehow gets into the bloodstream and can cause a fatal blockage. For foreign matter to enter in the first place the uterine veins had to be exposed, such as by scraping off the placenta during the abortion. 838
The Arizona
Republic, RealChoice)
Why did I choose these stories? There are countless stories of women dying in the 70s or 80s, but I wanted to include a sample of some more recent stories. Ultimately, it doesn‘t matter how rare abortion deaths are if you‘re the one affected.
Maybe you‘re thinking, well, they died, but they could have died in childbirth. Turn to Reason #31 to read why abortion is not safer than childbirth.
Abortionist so sickly he dies the day of his patient‘s funeral ―A 15-year-old died after an abortion that was performed by a doctor so ill that he himself died the day of her funeral… At the time of the abortion, Coleman, who had emphysema, needed supplemental oxygen… Employees were concerned about his ability to operate given his health problems.‖ 839
— Arizona Republic, 1999
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deaths are there? umbers don‘t mean very much without a personal story behind them. Now that we‘ve looked at the stories, let‘s look at the numbers — or at least discuss them. How many women die from abortions? I know you‘d like a figure, and so would I, but the truth is that we just don‘t have that information. Of course there are different estimates — depending on who you ask. A pro- choice site says deaths are less than 1 in 100,000 abortions. 840 That would be under 500 since abortion was legalized. Then there are government sources like the Food and Drug Administration. According to the Washington Times , the FDA says there are no more than six abortion deaths a year. 841
records their ―Abortion Surveillance‖ 2001- 2002 report says that 15 women died of complications from legal abortions. 842
That doesn‘t add up. Besides, the CDCs reporting areas are incomplete by their own admission. Even worse, reporting is all voluntary! How many clinics do you seriously think will be calling up the CDC and asking that their little incident be put on the lists? Exactly. An article in the New York Times explains how abortion reporting may also be voluntary: ―Since reporting drug side effects is voluntary in the United States, it is possible that more women have died and that their deaths have gone unreported because doctors, medical examiners and coroners are not obligated to forward such reports to the F.D.A. Doctors and local officials also may not associate a death with a pill-based abortion, especially if the death occurs weeks later.‖ 843
American women die from legal abortions every year. One reason is that an abortion death may not always be listed as such. According to an unnamed federal health official quoted in the Washington Times , "There have always been problems identifying deaths
secondary to
abortions. 844
Another reason it‘s hard to agree on a number is that everyone has a different figure. The pro-life American Rights Coalition, a group that is pursuing malpractice suits against abortionists, has yet another number. They believe the figure is more like 200 to 300 abortion-related deaths yearly and ―thousands‖ of injuries. 845
If you consider how many abortion deaths there have been already — that we know of — it‘s not totally inconceivable. If you want to follow up on these deaths or read of others I highly recommend some N
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sources in my footnotes 846
Ultimately, the question is not whether women die from abortion, but how many die. The only way pro-choice and pro-life figures are going to be able to come together on this will be when we have better records, because right now, we don‘t have that.
clinics discourage women from seeking outside help
You have to wonder….is this for their sake or for yours?
for emergencies and we make every reasonable effort to return your call within 30 minutes. F OR AN EMERGENCY CALL … W
E PREFER YOU CALL US FIRST BECAUSE WE HAVE YOUR MEDICAL INFORMATION .‖ 847
—Trinity Valley Women‘s Center ―However, if you go into an emergency room somewhere or another doctor's office, you may get put into a situation that costs thousands of dollars for no good reason… So if after the abortion you think you are having a problem, you call.‖ 848
―It is essential that you call the clinic with any problems or concerns. D O NOT
go to a hospital before calling us.‖ 849
Another
clinic describes ―what constitutes an emergency‖ such as heavy bleeding and high temperature — but instead of telling the woman to go to an emergency room if she has those conditions, they tell her to call the clinic, wait for a response and if they haven‘t called you back in 45 minutes (and you‘re not dead or passed out) try them again. 850
As we read in the stories earlier, some abortion clinics were not very helpful when women called with serious complications. There have also been stories of abortion clinics using cars instead of ambulances to transport patients to hospital — thus creating less press excitement but a possibly fatal delay in treatment.
Reason #63 ―Death is a very unusual but still possible, and
permanent complication‖
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Reason #64 Abortion is not real medicine
Medicine heals but abortion kills Call it Choice or call it Murder — You certainly can‘t call it medicine — Of the 3000+ abortions performed in America every day, virtually every one is done for non-medical reasons on perfectly healthy babies and perfectly healthy women. —Pro-life Action Cards, Life Dynamics
ver since the beginning of time, the role of doctors has been to keep communities healthy and to save the lives of those who come to them. Medicine is considered an honorable career, one selflessly dedicated to the healing of humanity. Back in the ancient times there were creeds that enshrined this nobility and set the standard for quality in medicine. The most well known of these creeds is the Hippocratic Oath. It was named after the ―father of medicine,‖ a Greek physician named Hippocrates. Hippocrates' oath was not only taken by ancient Greeks, but has been taken through the centuries and was given in some form by our own doctors until not too many years ago. After abortion was legalized the oath was watered down, further altered and all references to abortion removed (cont).
Real Medicine vs. Abortion Medicine: Abortion: Performed for medical reasons, occasionally for vanity
Performed for social convenience and rarely for medical reasons
Services remove diseased, cancerous, burnt, fatty or gangrene tissue only Services remove healthy human tissue (a baby actually) Parental consent required for surgery on minors
Parental consent not required for surgery on minors (state laws vary but some states operate without parents knowledge) Minimal advertising of services
Frequent advertising used to gain prospective clients Woman often pays afterwards or at a later date.
Clinics usually require cash or other upfront payment and rarely accept personal checks. Payment is high on the agenda. E
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Yes, this oath mentioned abortion — and it forbid it! One translation reads in part, ―I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.‖ 851
Medicine has always been about the art of restoring health and normal function physically and mentally. Abortion is none of that — it‘s impossible it ever could, since pregnancy is not a disease. In fact the deed frequently causes
physical and mental harm — physical to the growing child and frequently mental and sometimes physical harm to the mother. Abortion is a mockery of the true purpose of medicine.
Abortionists know they are not practicing real medicine t seems that even abortionists know their practice is questionable medicine.
Icy; conscienceless; remorselessly perverting his medical skills; defiling his ethical charge; and helping, nay, seducing, with his clinical calm, his oh-so-comforting professionalism, women into the act that comes closest to self-slaughter. 852
—description of an abortionist, by a former one, Bernard Nathanson
Relying on a relatively small group of doctors for abortions also leaves ''the impression that abortion is a dirty business and that it is somehow not an appropriate or legitimate medical procedure.'' 853
New York Times
Abortion has been considered a stigmatized operation by the medical profession for centuries. 854
—Abortion Practice, a training book for abortionists
―I ask your forgiveness,‖ he said at the time. "I don't want to be an outcast. I want to be among the medical community." 855
practicing abortionist Malachy DeHenre at his trial for the suspension of his license
"Am I killing? Yes, I am. I know that." 856
— Quoting practicing abortionist Curtis Boyd, during an interview with WFAA-TV of Dallas, TX
Quotable Quote ―Abortion is no more a medical issue because doctors do it than is capital punishment a matter of electrical engineering because an electric chair is used.‖ 857
—Bernard Nathanson, former abortionist
Reason #64 ―Abortion is a fake medical treatment‖ I
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Reason #65 Right or wrong? It‘s all in the words
How abortion terminology hides the truth I think there is a need for us to talk more about what it is we are doing, when we carry out or support abortion… We have been unwilling to talk to women about what it means to abort a baby. We don't ever talk about babies, we don't ever talk about what is being decided in abortion. We never talk about responsibility. The word 'choice' is the biggest euphemism. 858
f you don‘t get anything else in this whole book, you should understand this. The entire issue around abortion is word play. Here‘s one example. If the pregnancy is not wanted the abortionist may call the fetus a ‗conceptus‘ or ‗abortus,‘ yet if it‘s a wanted pregnancy the doctor is dealing with ―your baby.‖ 859
If the doctor is delivering a wanted baby by surgery it‘s a Caesarean but if the pregnancy is unwanted it‘s a hysterotomy. Are we saving women‘s lives or taking babies‘ lives? When a failed abortion delivered a live baby the abortionist proceeded to choke the baby. Witnesses had him put on trial for murder and yet, if he had done a ‗proper job‘ he would have killed that fetus, before removing him from his mother, and no one would feel any moral outrage. 860
One technique used today to avoid live births is a lethal dose of the heart drug Digitoxin. All this does is ensure no one has to deal with killing a potentially viable baby out in the open. Instead, he is killed just as surely but out of sight. Abortion clinics mislead you by referring to the whole procedure in vague and generic terms. Take ―termination.‖ It sounds mild, slightly sophisticated, non- messy and totally clinical. But it‘s nothing of the sort. Remember, words mean nothing. Hitler only wanted to empty the ghettos, and Feminist Women‘s Health Center only says the procedure will simply ―empty the uterus.‖ 861
baby killing? Pro-choicers tend to think in terms of terminate ―the pregnancy‖ as in as state or condition. This is fine, as long as you realize you couldn‘t have that state or condition without a growing baby. The graphic abortion pictures that most people hate clearly show that something has been aborted. Pro-lifers would say this is a child, not a pregnancy.
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Media bias ust for a moment stop and think about the different ways of labeling someone who is against abortion: pro-life, anti- choice, or anti-abortion. Likewise the other side could be described as anti-life, pro- choice, pro-abortion. In fact, since pro- lifers are anti-choicers, does that make pro- choicers anti-lifers? The
choice of
terminology clearly sets up the reader to favor one position. Which terminology does one major newspaper, the New York Daily News
take?
Writers must refrain from referring to ‗pro- life,‘ ―unborn child‖ or ―life of the mother‖ and must instead use ―abortion foes,‖ ‗fetus,‘ or ―life of the woman.‖ Similar guidelines apply to the Associated Press and from my own observations, many other news- papers. 862
How often have you seen pro-choicers portrayed as religious zealots, fanatical, violent, women-haters? Contrast that with how often you‘ve heard pro-lifers being shown the same way.
I‘ve seen multiple situations where a pro-life ad was banned and censored from being shown on TV or on Google for no reason other than that the owner did not approve of the message. 863 In one example, designed to go on air at the time of Obama‘s inauguration, the ad described the child‘s poor birth circumstances, but ended by showing hope for his future and revealing him as a future president, Obama. Yes, this ad was designed to show that every child has potential, yet it was banned by NBC and CBC.
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Or take when 225,000 people gathered for a March for Life at the capitol in 2008. I couldn‘t attend so was watching the newspapers. Hardly any blinked an eyelid. Yet it is these same media stations that give massive air time to anti-war rallies or any other protest — except against abortion. Given the size, you would have thought hundreds of thousands marching on Washington would be a news item for sure.
865 Those that did report on the event were more likely to comment that some local people were going to a protest or that there were protestors ‗on both sides‘ (a few protestors turned up to protest the marchers.) If a photo was lucky enough to be included, it was likely to be of a praying priest with a crucifix or perhaps a mother attached to her stroller, not young, vocal female pro-life college students or the humungous crowd that was there. Or maybe, they featured a photo of a person from ‗each side‘, you know, to be fair. Yüklə 4,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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