Abortion law in Belgium

Authors Karen Celis and Gily Coene describe abortion in Belgium:

“In 1990, after a long and salient political struggle, Belgium adopted a law that partially legalized abortion…

Compared to other European countries, Belgium was particularly late to legalize abortion, and it cannot claim to have established the most generous legalization of abortion.…

The 1990 abortion law permits abortions within the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy when it causes a “state of distress” for the pregnant woman…

The law, however, does not define this state of distress and leaves the appreciation of this condition up to the woman who is considering ending her pregnancy.

The law furthermore stipulates compulsory counseling on alternatives to abortion, a six-day waiting period (“period of reflection”), and a “unity of place” of the first counseling and the operation.

After 12 weeks, abortion is only allowed in cases where the pregnancy poses a serious health risk to the woman or in cases where the foetus suffers from a serious and incurable disease. In such situations, the attending doctor – after seeking a second opinion from a colleague – decides whether at least one of these conditions is fulfilled and whether the termination of a pregnancy is legal.”

Karen Celis and Gily Coene “Still a Woman’s Right? Feminist and Other Discourses in Belgium’s Abortion Struggles” Sylvia De Zordo, Joanna Mishtal and Lorena Anton, eds. A Fragmented Landscape: Abortion Governance and Protest Logics in Europe (New York: Berghahn, 2017)
123, 126

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Margaret Sanger: The “most urgent problem” is how to limit the “defective” from reproducing

From Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood:

“The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective. Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon American society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism.”

Margaret Sanger Pivot of Civilization (New York: Maxwell Reprint Company, 1969 [originally published by Sanger in 1922]) 25

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Pro-abortion group: we are concerned about “choice”, not whether the choice is right

The pro-abortion group the Association for the Study of Abortion sent out a memo in 1972 where they came up with the term “pro-choice” to describe their movement. The memo said:

“A woman’s conscience may well tell her abortion is wrong, but she may choose (and must have the right to choose) to have one anyway for compelling practical reasons…

What we are concerned with is, to repeat, the woman’s right to choose – not with her right (or anyone else’s right) to make a judgment about whether that choice is morally illicit.”

Memorandum of the Association for the Study of Abortion, Jimmye Kimmey “Right to Choose Memorandum,” December 1972

in Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, eds. Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling (New York: Kaplan Publishing, 2010)

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16-year-old boy becomes suicidal after abortion

In an article about post-abortion trauma in men, reporter Corrine Barraclough writes about one case:

“One counsellor was contacted by police regarding a 16-year-old boy. They saved him from suicide “by two seconds.”

Julie Cook, national director of ­Abortion Grief Australia, comments on the case:

“He had been doing well at school but following his girlfriend’s abortion and their subsequent breakup, his grades fell. He dropped out of school and became homeless. Sadly, he also told the counsellor of a friend’s suicide because of abortion too.”

CORRINE BARRACLOUGH “Corrine Barraclough: Piecing together the pain of loss for men after abortion” The Daily Telegraph June 3, 2017

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Abortionist assaults his wife, does abortion on her against her will

Abortionist Theodor Lehrer was arrested after he handcuffed his wife and forced an abortion on her that she didn’t want. Researcher Kevin Sherlock describes the case:

“Police arrested him in April 1988 for handcuffing his wife, dragging her into a bathroom, and aborting the child she was carrying.

Police said Lehrer, 52, who operated an abortion facility in Fort Lauderdale, became angry one day because his 37-year-old wife, who was 11 weeks pregnant, refused his sexual advances. He handcuffed her as she lay in bed, police said, took her into a bathroom, and performed an abortion on her without anesthesia.

The woman was so unnerved by it that she contacted us,” a police officer said… She reportedly told police that Lehrer told her if she didn’t stay still, he would inject her with something to calm her down…

Lehrer’s wife divorced him in September 1988, then she underwent chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease. She was too ill to testify against him when his case came up for trial in June 1989, so Broward County prosecutors dropped all charges against Lehrer.”

Sources: Associated Press 4/29/88; Miami Herald 6/20/89

Kevin Sherlock The Scarlet Survey (Akron, Ohio, Brennyman Books, 1997) 25

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Former abortionist: few doctors can do abortions for long

Former abortionist Kathi Aultman said:

“Few doctors can do abortions for very long. Although women seeking abortions are told that the pregnancy is just a blob of tissue, the abortionist knows exactly what he or she is doing because they must count the body parts.

Eventually, the truth sinks in. It is especially difficult for ob/gyns because they are normally concerned about the welfare of both their patients, but in abortion, they are killing one of them.”

Donna Grisham Journeys of Choice (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., 2021) 114

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Legal Abortion Death: Cora Mae Lewis, 23 (Pneumonia due to aspiration while under anesthesia)

Researcher Keven Sherlock tells the story of Cora Mae Lewis, who died due to complications of a legal abortion:

“[Cora Mae Lewis, a] 23-year-old black woman died December 3, 1983, a month after she underwent an abortion at Inglewood Women’s Hospital. Complaining of fever, chills, and chest pains after the November 4, 1983 abortion, Cora went to a hospital November 11.

A staffer diagnosed her as suffering from pneumonia; she underwent surgery a couple of times. Cora last underwent lung surgery in the early morning of December 3, 1983; she died later that day. A doctor at the hospital pronounced her dead at 6:25 PM; he did not list the cause of death.

According to her autopsy report, Cora died of pneumonia and a lung abscess. The report listed cervicitis (inflammation of the cervix) and chronic endometritis (inflammation of the uterine lining – she was suffering from gonorrhea at the time of her abortion) as contributing causes of her death.

The examiner noted her cervix was damaged and her uterus was covered with yellowish discharge. The report said Cora underwent “a D&C under general anesthesia at Inglewood Women’s Hospital.”

Cora’s family, in a lawsuit against Inglewood Women’s Hospital, noted Morton Barke, Stephen Pine, and/or Bruce Schiffman performed the abortion on Cora. They accused the trio of handling Cora so negligently that she aspirated (inhaled her own vomit and/or mucus) and developed a lung infection as a result.

A doctor who reviewed Cora’s records said Cora, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was given general anesthesia for the abortion. He said staffers involved with Cora’s abortion failed to intubate her, which led her to aspirate, and the aspiration caused the lung infection that led to her death.

He also said Inglewood Women’s Hospital staffers were substandard for refusing to let her stay in their “recovery room” for more than seven minutes.

Cora’s family’s lawyer also testified he checked on the credentials of Yvonne Sias, the Inglewood Women’s Hospital staffer who gave Cora an anesthetic before the abortion.

He said Sias did not become a certified nurse anesthetist until nine months after she put Cora under. He accused people connected with Inglewood Women’s Hospital of deceit when they implied she was licensed at the time of Cora’s abortion.”

Los Angeles County coroner Case No. 83 – 15079 and Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. SWC73020

Kevin Sherlock The Scarlet Survey (Akron, Ohio, Brennyman Books, 1997)  104 – 105

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Poll shows support for pro-life laws

A Gallup poll in July 2011 gather the following statistics:

⦁ 26% of respondents believed abortion should be legal under any circumstances; 51% believed abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances, and 20% believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

⦁ 87% favored a law requiring doctors to inform women about possible risks of abortion before performing the procedure, whereas 11% opposed such a law.

⦁ 50% favored a law requiring that a woman seeking an abortion be shown an ultrasound image of her fetus at least 24 hours before the procedure, whereas 46% opposed such a law.

⦁ 71% favored a law requiring parental consent for a minor to get an abortion, whereas 27% opposed such a law.

⦁ 69% favored a law requiring a 24 hour waiting period to get an abortion, whereas 28% opposed such a law.

⦁ 57% opposed a law prohibiting health clinics that provide abortion services from receiving any federal funds, whereas 40% favored such a law.

⦁ 47% of those polled consider themselves pro-choice, and 47% consider themselves pro-life.

Teresa LeGault 2020 Sentiments of an American Woman: The History and Future of Women and Abortion (100X Publishing, 2020) 124 – 125

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Only 14% of OB/GYNs do abortions

“A nationwide study found that although 97% of OB-Gyns had encountered a patient seeking abortion at some point in their practice, just 14% do abortions.”

The study cited was Stulberg, Debra B., et al. “Abortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician–Gynecologists.” Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 118, no. 3, Sept. 2011, p. 609, doi:10.1097/aog.0b013e31822ad973

KATIE GLENN, J.D ““At-Home Abortion” is a Poison Pill” in Catherine Glenn Foster, Steven H. Aden, ed. UNSAFE: America’s Abortion Industry Endangers Women (Americans United for Life, 2021)

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Woman attempts suicide twice after her abortion

Jessica Echeverry, testifying before the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee on December 3, 2020 about a bill dealing with the disposal of aborted babies:

“At 18 years old, I had an abortion. In order to survive and carry on with my life, I buried it deep down inside, not realizing that there would be a time that I would have to face the reality of that decision.

No matter how deep I buried it, I still struggled. I became depressed, and I attempted suicide twice.

What I did not realize was that the abortion decision I had made, and that I convinced myself I was okay with, had actually become the foundation for all of my unhealthy decisions and relationships afterwards…

I had to face the pain and the truth of my abortion, and allow myself to grieve and process my loss…Allowing myself to grieve the loss of my unborn child opened new levels of healing, and created in me a desire to have had my child properly buried.

It was during this time that I began to ask myself what had happened to my child. Who knows if I would have chosen then a burial or cremation, but I can tell you that it is hauntingly true that part of the abortion experience is the knowledge that there will come a time — no matter how deep you bury it — there will come a time to face it.

And in my healing I realized that there comes a time in the post-abortive healing process where a grieving mother wishes she had been given the option to choose what happens with her baby’s remains.

I wish I was given at least that choice, so that in my painful memories of my abortion I could look back and say [that] even in my pain and ignorance at that time, at least I made the decision to act with dignity…

Do you know what truly separates us from animals? We bury our dead. I respectfully ask you [legislators], as dignified persons, to bury our dead.”

Anne Marie Williams “Post-abortive mother shares a unique perspective on fetal remains law with Ohio lawmakers” Live Action News December 9, 2020

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