Two events in the past 24 hours have once again got me thinking about our social and moral schizophrenia. We rightly exhibit moral outrage at certain despicable crimes under certain circumstances, but seem to simply yawn and make excuses for the same crimes when done under other circumstances.
Consider this headline just released hours ago in the news media: “Life for microwave baby killer”. The news item begins this way: “A mother who murdered her one-month-old daughter by burning her to death in a microwave oven has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.”
The BBC story continues, “China Arnold, 28, was spared the death penalty when the jury in Dayton, Ohio failed to reach a consensus. Prosecutors said Arnold, who maintains she is innocent, killed her daughter in 2005 after a fight with her boyfriend. Judge Mary Wiseman said the crime was ‘shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilised society’. ‘No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity,’ Judge Wiseman said, rejecting a plea by Arnold’s lawyers for a sentence that allowed the possibility of parole after 25 years in prison.”
It is of course an absolutely shocking and horrendous story. So many questions arise: How could a mother do such a thing? How degenerate are we becoming as a society that something like this could take place? How many more babies will suffer in this manner?
Sure, this is hopefully a one-off. It happens very rarely. Thankfully we as a society could never condone such a thing. She certainly got the punishment she deserves. But there is one problem here. The second event which I experienced just yesterday requires that this story be seen in a very different light.
I refer to my time at the Victorian Parliament just 24 hours ago, where I heard Gianna Jessen from America give a powerful talk about her own life. You see, Gianna is an abortion survivor. She is not supposed to be here. Her 17-year-old mother wanted her dead. The abortionist wanted her dead. So in 1977 she was subject to a saline abortion procedure, which until recently was a quite common method of killing babies. Yet the abortion did not succeed, and Gianna today travels the world, speaking up for defenceless unborn babies.
Let me explain a bit about what a saline (salt poisoning) abortion is. This type of abortion is usually done in second and early third trimesters. A hypertonic saline solution is injected into the amniotic sac. This burns and poisons the baby for many hours. The baby breathes and swallows this solution which results in dehydration, convulsions and brain haemorrhage. Afterwards a dead baby is expelled by natural labour. This method is less popular now because: a) a baby can be accidentally born (eg., Gianna), and b) the mother can receive an accidental injection of the solution into her blood vessel, leading to harm.
Saline abortion victims are sometimes referred to as “candy apple” babies. That is because “the corrosive effect of the salt solution often burns and strips away the outer layer of the baby’s skin. This exposes the raw, red, glazed-looking subcutaneous layer of tissue. The baby’s head sometimes looks like a candy apple. Some have also likened this method to the effect of napalm on innocent war victims. This technique was originally developed in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.”
Gianna, who had been in her mother’s womb for seven and a half months, spent 18 hours in the solution. She describes it this way: “It burns the baby inside and out. The mom is to deliver a dead baby within 24 hours. I did not die that day. I was delivered alive in a Los Angeles County abortion clinic in a room full of teenage girls who had already had the saline injections and were feeling their children die inside of them.” Fortunately a concerned nurse took pity on her, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Gianna tells the story this way: “The abortionist wasn’t on duty when I came into the world. Had he been there, he would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation or leaving me there to die, which was considered perfectly legal up until 5 August 2002 in the United States. Now, a child who has survived an abortion must receive proper medical care. The abortionist had to sign my birth certificate. He had to acknowledge a life that just hours before he was trying to end.
“The only person even remotely concerned about my well-being was the nurse. She called an ambulance and had me transferred to a hospital. I was placed in an incubator weighing two pounds. They didn’t expect me to live. After several months they decided that I had a tremendous will to live. I was placed in the foster care system and at 17 months was diagnosed with cerebral palsy due to lack of oxygen while I was being burnt alive for 18 hours in my mother’s womb. I was 32 pounds, couldn’t move and they said that I would just be a vegetable for the rest of my life.”
Although she has cerebral palsy because of the abortion, she is a dynamic, vibrant, funny, intelligent and passionate young woman who travels the world speaking on behalf of the unborn. Her very moving talk yesterday to 160 religious leaders and politicians was a message every person on planet earth needs to hear.
The truth is, all abortions are horrible. Saline abortions are certainly horrific, but so are the many other common methods of baby killing. Let me describe a few more: In a Dilation and Curettage (D&C) abortion, a curette (a sharp loop-shaped steel knife) is used to scrape the walls of the uterus and dismember the baby. Body parts are then reassembled to check for completeness.
In a suction curettage (also called a vacuum aspiration or suction abortion), the mother’s cervix is dilated and a suction curette (a hollow tube with a sharp tip) is inserted into the uterus, and the baby is torn apart and sucked out. Body parts are then reassembled.
In a Dilation and Extraction (D&X, or late-term, or partial-birth) abortion, the birth canal is dilated and the baby is turned around. The abortionist delivers the baby’s body feet first, leaving the head inside. Scissors are then inserted into the base of the skull of the live baby and spread to enlarge the hole. The brains are then sucked out with a suction catheter.
There you have some of the dirty trade secrets of the abortion industry. The abortionists who are getting quite rich from such practices do not want us to know that they are doing these sorts of things on small unborn babies. The mainstream media is also loathe to inform us about these truths.
Thus it is absolutely vital that people like Gianna Jessen tell their stories, and they get as much promotion and publicity as possible. I offer some more words from Gianna’s testimony: “I started speaking out about abortion when I was 14. . . . I believe that it’s important when something like this has happened to you to present the truth about not just abortion, but also about what a tremendous life you can possess through overcoming weakness. I don’t believe that killing is a right. I am completely against abortion in any circumstance.
“Every day I thank God for life. I do not consider myself a by-product of conception, a clump of tissue, or any other of the titles given to a child in the womb. I do not consider any person conceived to be any of those things. I have met other survivors of abortion. They are all thankful for life.
“Today, a baby is a baby when convenient. It is tissue or otherwise when the time is not right. A baby is a baby when miscarriage takes place at two, three, four months. A baby is called a tissue or clumps of cells when an abortion takes place at two, three, four months. Why is that? I see no difference.
“I believe that I am living proof that abortion is the killing of a human being. My biological mother felt that she was entitled to a choice [31] years ago that she thought would only affect her. And yet I bear the mark of her choice every day of my life with my cerebral palsy. Although I don’t hold it against her, I think it’s important for people to think about that before they make their decision.”
There are many video clips of Gianna and her remarkable story. Just go to Google images, for example, and type in the phrase “Gianna Jessen”. Please play some of these clips, and share them with your friends. These videos need to be spread far and wide.
We are all rightly horrified at a mother seeking to burn to death her own one-month-old baby in a microwave. But why are we not all equally appalled at a mother seeking to burn her own unborn baby to death in a saline solution, or to cut it to pieces or to suck out its brains?
Enough is enough. The truth about abortion must be told. Every one of us has a moral obligation to tell as many people as possible these truths. If we remain silent, the blood of 100,000 dead babies in Australia each year, and 50 million dead babies globally each year remains on our hands.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7605472.stm
http://www.abortiontv.com/Glitch/AbortionSurvivors.htm
[1578 words]