They said it.
Philosopher Peter Singer, who supports killing disabled infants on the grounds that they are not yet “people.”
“During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse….only a rump of hardcore, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct.”
Peter Singer “The Sanctity of Life” Foreign Policy Aug 30, 2005
Share on FacebookThe first pro-abortion reformers were men. It was pro-choice men that originally lobbied for abortion to be legalized. Kristin Luker, historian said:
“The reaction of state legislators of the 1960s, when asked what role women had played in securing passage of the Beilenson bill [which legalized abortion in California before Roe V Wade], could best be epitomized as a blank stare. All of them could name individual women who had been active in the reform group California Committee on Therapeutic Abortion (CCTA), but none of them believed that women as a constituency were central to the issue.”
Kristin Luker Abortion in the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) 93 [emphasis in original]
Share on FacebookAmy Hagstrom Miller, head of group of Texas abortion clinics, Whole Woman’s Health:
” Sixty-five percent of the women we serve have one or more children. They’ve all seen an ultrasound before and yet we force them to watch another as if they don’t know what’s growing inside of them. They know, and they are committed…”
Valerie Tarico “Meet the Texas Abortion Provider Who Refuses to Cave in to Anti-Choice Extremists” AlterNet March 3, 2016
Share on FacebookIn an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Jonathan M Berkowitz advocates using the egg cells in the ovaries of female aborted babies to help infertile couples have children. He wants to develop embryos that are from the eggs of aborted babies and the sperm of donors. In this way, an aborted baby would be the biological mother of the child.
Berkowitz writes:
“Fetal egg children will be similar in many ways to children who are adopted… Successful child development is dependent more upon the quality of parenting than the genealogical ties a child has with her parents. Given the considerations, concerns over the possible psychological ramifications of the FEC are probably exaggerated… Better this child know his special circumstances at an early age…
There is no medical evidence which suggests that fetal ovaries or eggs are inferior to the eggs present in a healthy adult female… It is irrelevant who the genetic or biological mother of a child is. In the case of adopted children, who are analogous to potential FEC, there is ample evidence in the literature that adoption in and of itself is not detrimental… Given the success of adoption and the similarities of adopted children to FEC, one can reasonably conclude that concerns of psychological harm resulting from a child knowing his mother was an aborted fetus are overestimated…
Much of the resistance to FOT stems from the procedure’s novelty. Throughout the 20th century many of our ideas as to what is possible and hence normal have been shattered. Think of the computer user, in 1980; his 64 KB monster sitting mightily on the desk, confronted by the 33 MHz, 200 MB laptop. Remember the uproar in 1978 with the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby.” It will not be hard to envision that once established, FOT and FEC … will gain… a well-deserved measure of respectability.”
Jonathan M Berkowitz “Mummy Was a Fetus: Motherhood and Fetal Ovarian Transplantation” Journal of Medical Ethics 21:298 – 304, October 1995
Share on FacebookFetal tissue research is not a new thing in the 21st century. Fetal organs have been used for experiments even before abortion became legal. In 1973 the State of Connecticut submitted a written interview to the Supreme Court as evidence in an abortion-related case. Dr. Baker (a pseudonym) was asked about medical events at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center.
Q: Was there a case where some type of surgical procedure was performed on a baby after induced abortion?
A: I did not actually observe the operation itself.
Q: Can you tell us anything about it, to the extent that you know?
A: A baby was aborted by hysterotomy. Then it was taken to another room with a medical student.
Q: Did you first observe the baby being taken out of the mother?
A: Yes.
Q: What, if anything, happened then that you observed?
A: It was taken out of the room. Then this medical student followed it.
Q: Do you know why it was taken out of the room?
A: Well, they wanted to get something out of it.
Q: How did you know they were trying to get something out of it?
A: That’s what they said. I just overheard it. They were going to get some kind of abdominal organ, I think it was the liver. I was not very sure.
Q: You overheard from whom, a nurse?
A: From a doctor.
Q: Was this the doctor that was presumably going to take this liver or whatever it was?
A: Yes, and the obstetrician that was performing the operation.
Q: When it was taken out of the room, did it have any movements?
A: It had some movements.
Q: Doctor, prior to the infant leaving the room, did it do anything noteworthy? Any noteworthy bodily functions?
A: Some form of movements of the arm.
Q: Was there any excretions at all?
A: Excretions, urine, yes.
Q: Tell us about that. Can you give us the details?
A: Well I would say when they picked this fetus up by the feet I could see that he urinated, he was a male infant.
Q: It was urinating?
A: Yes
Q: You’re sure of that?
A: Yes.
Q: What, if anything, did they do with the baby afterwards that you observed? They took it out of the room?
A: They just took it out of the room immediately.
Q: Then what, if anything, happened that you observed?
A: Nothing else. It was taken out of the room and I didn’t see it.
Q: Did a medical student accompany it out of the room?
A: The medical student went out.
Q: Then what, if anything, occurred?….
A: The lady doctor proceeded to open the abdomen of the fetus.
Q: You did not see this yourself?
A: No.
Q: This is based on what type of information, if any?
A: On what the medical student told me.
Q: Can you describe how the medical student appeared when he returned?
A: He was sort of pale, he said he felt sort of sick in his stomach. That’s why he left the room and went back to the operating room where I was.
Q: Do you recall what, if anything, the medical student said?
A: He just said that he couldn’t stand it.
Q: Did he show any fear at the sight of blood prior to this incident?
A: No.
Curt Young The Least of These: What Everyone Should Know about Abortion (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1984) 103-104
Share on FacebookFrom an article in a medical journal:
“One young nurse…showed how she rocked a fetus in her arms, an aborted fetus which she said had been warm and breathing, one which she would formerly have put in an incubator, but now was supposed to go into formaldehyde.”
John F. McDermottt and Walter F Char “Abortion Repeal in Hawaii, An Unexpected Crisis in Patient Care” American Journal of Orthropsychiatry 41 no. 4, July 1971
Share on FacebookA questionnaire asked women the reasons they aborted. Women could choose more than one. The breakdown was:
*****
I’m concerned about how a baby would change my life 76%
I can’t afford a baby right now 68%
I have problems with my relationship 51%
I want to avoid single parenthood 51%
I don’t want others to know I was having premarital sex 31%
I’m not ready for the responsibility 31%
I’m not mature enough to have a baby 30%
I have all the children I want 26%
My husband or boyfriend wants me to abort 23%
The baby has a possible health problem 13%
My health is not good enough to have a baby 7%
My parents want me to abort 7%
I am a victim of rape or incest 1%
****
This is from an Alan Guttmacher Institute survey of 1,900 women in 38 states who were waiting for abortions. These women filled out a form asking them why they were obtaining abortions. This survey is described in Aida Torres and Jacqueline Darroch Forrest. “Why Do Women Have Abortions?” Alan Guttmacher Institute Family Planning Perspectives, July/August 1988, pages 169 to 176.
Share on FacebookOne woman who had an abortion writes:
“I wasn’t going to let a broken condom be the reason my entire life would change….
I live in Washington state, where abortion services are very accessible. I made an appointment with Planned Parenthood and went in that next week. Because I was so early I was able to do the medical abortion on my own at home.
The amazing nurse was so helpful and could see how scared I was. She did the ultrasound (required to see how far along I was), and she kept the volume on mute and I didn’t have to see the ultrasound at all.”
Casey Gueren “Here’s What It’s Really Like To Have An Abortion” Buzzfeed January 21, 2017
Because the volume was on mute, this woman did not have to hear her baby’s heartbeat.
Share on FacebookLate-term abortionist Lisa Harris writes:
“There is violence in abortion, especially in second trimester procedures. Certain moments make this particularly apparent, as another story from my own experience shows. As a third-year resident I spent many days in our hospital abortion clinic. The last patient I saw one day was 23 weeks pregnant. I performed an uncomplicated D&E procedure. Dutifully, I went through the task of reassembling the fetal parts in the metal tray. It is an odd ritual that abortion providers perform – required as a clinical safety measure to ensure that nothing is left behind in the uterus to cause a complication – but it also permits us in an odd way to pay respect to the fetus (feelings of awe are not uncommon when looking at miniature fingers and fingernails, heart, intestines, kidneys, adrenal glands), even as we simultaneously have complete disregard for it.
Then I rushed upstairs to take overnight call on labour and delivery. The first patient that came in was prematurely delivering at 23–24 weeks. As her exact gestational age was in question, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team resuscitated the premature newborn and brought it to the NICU. Later, along with the distraught parents, I watched the neonate on the ventilator. I thought to myself how bizarre it was that I could have legally dismembered this fetus-now-newborn if it were inside its mother’s uterus – but that the same kind of violence against it now would be illegal, and unspeakable. Yes, I understand that the vital difference between the fetus I aborted that day in clinic, and the one in the NICU was, crucially, its location inside or outside of the woman’s body, and most importantly, her hopes and wishes for that fetus/baby. But this knowledge does not change the reality that there is always violence involved in a second trimester abortion, which becomes acutely apparent at certain moments, like this one. I must add, however, that I consider declining a woman’s request for abortion also to be an act of unspeakable violence.”
Lisa H Harris “Second Trimester Abortion Provision: Breaking the Silence and Changing the Discourse” Reproductive Health Matters 02 Sep 2008, Pages 74-81
Share on FacebookAbortionist Dr. Pratima Gupta wrote:
“When I was first hired I felt like I had a scarlet letter, a big A on my face, the A being for Abortion Provider, not for Adulteress.”
JO ABI “Dr. Gupta is pregnant. She’s also an abortion provider.” Mama Mia March 11, 2017
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