While there is often a lot of bad news concerning abortion, there are some occasional good news stories. Two encouraging events are worth recounting here. The first involves a leader in the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood who has left that organisation and is now fully pro-life.
Abby Johnson was the director of the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Bryan/College Station, Texas. She had worked there for eight years, but recently had a change of heart. So what caused the turnaround? She watched an ultrasound of a baby being killed in an abortion.
In an interview she said she could no longer go on with her work: “I just thought I can’t do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that’s it.”
As one media account states, “She said she began to feel uncomfortable with Planned Parenthood’s business philosophy after the organization, suffering from the economic downturn, told her to try to bring more abortions in the door. ‘The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,’ said Johnson.
“Johnson resigned on October 6th, near the beginning of Bryan’s sixth annual 40 Days for Life campaign, and she has since joined up with the nearby Coalition for Life to begin praying near her old workplace. Coalition for Life is the local group that began 40 Days for Life, the national prayer and fasting campaign that was ongoing at the time of Johnson’s resignation.”
She was not the only one to leave the abortion business: “Johnson is one of eight abortion industry workers who left their jobs during the fifth coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign that concluded yesterday in 212 cities. She was the highest-ranking of the eight. Others who quit their clinic jobs included nurses, office staffers and security personnel.”
David Bereit, the national director of 40 Days for Life, was justifiably exuberant: “From that first campaign in 2004, we’ve prayed for Abby – and for all abortion workers – that they would come to see what abortion really is, and that they would leave the deadly business. In this case, those prayers have been answered. We are so proud of Abby’s courage to leave the abortion industry and publicly announce her reasons for leaving.”
The second good news item involves a new documentary which has been produced giving a powerful pro-life message as it highlights the sordid and greed-driven world of the abortion industry. It also involves the story of another key abortionist who has quit the business and is now an active pro-life campaigner.
Carol Everett had been a proud owner of five abortion mills in Texas, and she claims to have personally been involved in the death of 35,000 unborn babies. But she has now fully renounced her past life, and has written up her incredible story in an invaluable book: The Scarlet Lady (Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991).
I have reviewed this must-read book here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/1992/06/19/a-review-of-the-scarlet-lady-by-carol-everett/
Let me offer two paragraphs from that review: “Abortion was definitely big business for Everett. She had ads in the Yellow Pages of five southern states, each with a toll-free number. Ads in newspapers offered coupons with 10 per cent discounts. Setting up clinics near high schools was an effective tactic. She even planned to set up a clinic by a mall so customers could go shopping while waiting for their abortion. Says Everett: ‘Greed – the love of money and the things I could have with it – blinded me. [I was] an abortionist who used whatever means available to get a woman to have an abortion for the sake of money’.
“This insatiable lust for money resulted in abortions being performed on women who were not even pregnant! Indeed, the temptation was to get every woman who came into the clinic to have an abortion. Says Everett: ‘Do you think an abortionist who works on a straight commission is going to tell a woman who has signed her consent form and has already paid in full that she is not pregnant?’”
The book was later reissued with a new, and most appropriate, title, Blood Money. That is the title of the new documentary which has been produced. It is a powerful expose of the abortion industry, and how the making of money – not concern for women – is the overriding motivation and consideration.
The film’s director, David K. Kyle, said at first he just wanted to do a general documentary on the evils of abortion, but as he “travelled around the country last September doing all these interviews with various pro-life leaders and women who had had abortions, the money part just kept coming up.”
“People are making millions upon millions of dollars off the murdering of innocent babies,” he said. People need to hear the truth about abortion he insists: “Abortion has consequences to it. It’s sold as a quick fix when you’re in trouble. You can go and have an abortion and the problem goes away. Well, we know from countless women that the problem does not go away. Women have long term consequences that they are going to have to deal with for years and years.”
A number of women were interviewed for the documentary, including Everett. Her claims are still shocking to hear, even though she has been sharing her story now for several decades. “We would give them [young girls] a low-dose birth control pill they would get pregnant on or a defective condom. Our goal was 3-5 abortions for every girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.”
Evidently the film has yet to have a distributor, so it has not yet been released. But a gripping trailer of the film can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaTywSDmls&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efacebook%2Ecom%2Fhome%2Ephp&feature=player_embedded
It is hoped that this film will soon be available and widely shown. It is a very much needed look at a bloody and disreputable industry. The various testimonies, stories, and interviews make for a powerful message, a message that needs to get out into the wider community.
These two recent activities are part of a slow but steady turning of the tide in the abortion wars. They are the result of long, hard and patient work – as well as much prayer and intercession. Let us all redouble our efforts, and help make this turnaround become an unstoppable pro-life avalanche.
38 Replies to “Some Good News on the Abortion Front”
I’ve read two disturbing things today (despite agreeing that the above is very good news indeed!), one of which you quoted in your article: “Our goal was 3-5 abortions for every girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.”
I can’t imagine any kind of upstanding, socially conscious and responsible organisation has that as a stated goal, whether publicly or not. That’s just hideous to the extreme.
The other disturbing item was this report I just read from Lifenews.com about an executive who tweeted during a management meeting that she was having a miscarriage and then stated “Thank goodness, because there’s a ****-up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin”.
This woman has had two abortions previously … so for Planned Parenthood to have goals like the above means that they really do have a market to meet that goal.
And that is what is most disturbing.
Like you, Bill, I look forward to the release of Blood Money when it eventually does get distributed. I’m sure it will assist many people to reconsider their pro-choice stance.
Mathew Hamilton, Victoria
Interesting news about the fruit coming from the 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer and fasting to end abortion. It just reinforces to me the fact that in the West at least, abortion exists with the permission of the church. Imagine that if from the time of the very beginning of the effective legalisation of abortion, the whole church rather than just a tiny minority had risen up against abortion with both prayer and action. Abortion would have never become the problem it is today.
Ewan McDonald.
It’s lovely to read a ‘good report’. There was also good news on the homosexual ‘marriage’ front, in the USA.
Yes and pro-abortion candidates in New Jersey and Virginia were defeated as well, so more good news.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Reading about how devious these people are is quite frightening. I didn’t realize the lengths they would go to get abortions. How does one perform an abortion on a woman that isn’t pregnant? Why would a woman who is not pregnant consent to such a thing? Do they drug them? I don’t understand.
However, if young women were trained to wait until marriage for intercourse, they wouldn’t have to deal with these wolves at all and I must say that it is always a joy to hear of people who come out of this industry and become pro-life. They are usually the most powerful champions of the pro-life movement because they’ve been on the front lines on the other side.
Victoria Demona
Thanks Victoria
It is quite easy to deceive someone into thinking they are pregnant, and then make them go through an expensive procedure. As long as the abortionists are making money, they are willing to resort to any underhanded tactics.
In this case it is a piece of cake. Take a scared 15-year-old girl who has been sexually active and is worried that she might be pregnant. She goes to the local abortion mill, and the baby-killers there simply inform her that yes, she is pregnant, and they will quickly and efficiently fix up the little ‘problem’.
A scared young teen who is unlikely to confide with close friends, family or loved ones will simply take what she hears from the abortionists, and go along with their suggestions. You can read all about this in Everett’s book.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Bill for this good news. God Bless those that stand up against the atrocity and, with God’s help, are able to win people over to the pro-life side. I wonder how many more people are going to be able to exist who in the future will be thankful for such an event?
Keith Jarrett
Yes, “a powerful expose of the abortion industry”. Well done Bill.
Stan Fishley
Ewan has written that “abortion existed with the permission of the “Church”- which Church? The Catholic Church has always been and is pro-life. I don’t think people should be loose with words, such as using a general term “The Church”. Perhaps he is referring to some “Church” which could hold its gatherings in a telephone box.
Frank Bellet, Petrie Qld
Thanks Frank
Given that Ewan is a Protestant he would specifically have Protestant churches in mind. And he is quite right – the majority of Protestant churches have not bothered to speak out on the abortion issue. Fortunately some evangelical churches are starting to come around, slowly catching up to all the great pro-life work the Catholic Church has long been involved in.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks guys
To further affirm what David K. Kyle said in the above article, a recent New Zealand study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, says that abortion puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression. This is “but the latest in a long line of scientific reports that reach the same conclusion”. See more here: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/3478712060.html
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thank you for mentioning Everett’s book. Just ordered it. Defectors from the abortion mills should be sought out and encouraged to speak up. The thinking public must be shown the seedy reality of the abortion industry. The noble idea of a right is being trashed by unhinged Western cultures using rights-talk as a rationalisation for selfishness and perversion. You would probably get better moral advice from an old lady reading tea leaves than you would from Western secular humanism.
John Snowden
Hello Bill
Thank you for all your work, it is a great boost to Christians who sometimes feel overwhelmed by the evil that surrounds us. My question is regarding the money issue of abortion. Is money the main reason behind abortions here in Australia? I thought that abortions were funded by the government, as they are in Canada. If they are, then what is the motive behind the clinics here in Australia? Is it to have enough abortions to stay relevant for gov’t funding? Do we see the same sort of drive for numbers as in America? I guess my concern is that if this book is pointing to the business side of it, and that isn’t applicable to Australia, then it may be dismissed as irrelevant here. Looking forward to your response.
God Bless
Adriana Lewis
Bill what puts ‘puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression’ is people protesting outside abortion clinics and people attacking them without knowing the story behind choice. I do indeed agree with you on the abortion issue, whilst you may attack – I am a buddhist and believe abortion to be murder yet I really do not think this is the right way to go about highlighting the issues surrounding abortion.
Aaron Wyllie
Thanks Adriana
I admit that I know a tad more about the American scene, since that is where I hail from. So I am not claiming to be an authority on all the details of the Australian situation, but I can offer some general remarks. Others are welcome to add to the discussion with further relevant details about specifics on funding arrangements.
Abortion is still big business here. Abortionists are making plenty of money, even though government subsidies are involved. Thus when you say governments here are funding abortions, what we are really talking about is Medicare funding for elective surgery – abortion. This is a government subsidy of both what the woman pays and what the doctors offer. I believe it does not greatly affect the high rates an abortionist can charge, and profit from. And when I last checked, late-term abortionists here were collecting $3,000 per customer.
And we may never know the real amount of abortions that take place, because presumably many here would also be performed on a cash basis – and therefore not reported to the government. But I welcome any more specific information that may come from other Australian pro-lifers.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Aaron
While it is nice to hear that you believe abortion to be wrong, the rest of your remark is simply foolish. You appear to be making things up as you go along, expecting us to accept them as true. Sorry, but this adds nothing to the debate – just more misinformation.
The numerous international studies on the mental, emotional and psychological harm experienced by women who have had an abortion – felt even many decades after their abortion – are quite clear on the issue. Such grief has nothing to do with protestors, as you recklessly claim. It is due to the reality of what a woman has done to her own child. We have decades of research on this. Indeed, whole books have been written on this. So you are simply speaking out of ignorance here – or deliberately seeking to mislead. So please spare us. Before you next make such wild remarks, why don’t you in fact try to become familiar with the actual research?
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
It is certainly true that the existence of Medicare funding does not remove the profit motive from abortion businesses.
In SA abortions are mainly performed at the PAC which is part of a public hospital. In all other states private abortion clinics are the main providers. These include Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood who presumably pay the abortionists well but use profits to subsidise their population control work in developing countries to get rid of as many yellow and brown and black babies as they can. Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger were open racists and eugenicists.
Many abortion clinics are cash only business – no cheques, no credit cards. An audit by the ATO could be interesting!
SA and WA require reporting of all abortions. In other states we have the Medicare figures and the hospital morbidity stats (abortion clinics are day hospitals). There is some evidence that abortions performed without a Medicare rebate in private clinics may not be reported but this is probably a relatively small percentage of the total.
Cheers
Richard Egan, Perth
Aaron what silly comments you make. The people outside the abortion clinics do not increase the risk of depression in post abortive women, what increases the risk is the volitional factor in an abortion. Even the the DSM V says that a trauma is more severe and longer lasting when the stressor (abortion) is by human design. The abortion is by human design. It is the intent and the outcome, therefore its understandable that that the abortion experience can induce the physical, emotional and spiritual pain (depression is internal pain) especially in those who are more vulnerable to emotional pain and who undergo this procedure.
Anne Lastman, counsellor
Hi Bill. Once again thanks for your tireless work.
Adriana – I (in my naievity) always thought abortionists did what they did out of compassion and feminist autonomy rather than money but I am no longer of that view. Yes, rebates are funded here through to and including second trimester. The rebate is for the patient only unless the doctor bulkbills – very unlikely I think – in which case Medicare pays the doctor. Thus this is a government rebate that covers part, but generally not all, of the doctor’s fee.
Aaron – Better to tell the truth about consequences of an action before the action is chosen! Many are grateful for such warnings – and the support given.
Lachlan Dunjey, WA
Thanks, Bill; we need good news, and bad news comes regularly enough, and not just on the abortion front. Aaron – I’m sorry to say, but I don’t hear much about Buddhists (or adherents of other religions) protesting about social evils, in either the way you mention, or any other way. At least the protesters you refer to are trying to do something to end real evil – what do you do?
John Thomas, UK
Aaron, given there are 100,000 abortions a year in Australia and a only handful of people outside a handful of abortuaries, it is illogical to claim “what puts puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression is people protesting outside abortion clinics and people attacking them without knowing the story behind choice.” Very few aborted women have come in contact with what you call “protesters” on their way to have their babies killed – more’s the pity. Because pro lifers “witnessing” outside abortuaries are there to offer a loving alternative to abortion. Just ask about their ‘ turnarounds’ – the babies who are saved by their presence – and the mothers saved from psychological, emotional and sometimes physical damage.
As long ago as 1972 in Thomas Hilgers’ book Abortion and Social Justice, Jewish Freudian psychiatrist/obstetrician Julius Fogel, who admitted to having executed hundreds of abortions, was quoted as observing: “I think every woman, whatever her age, her background or sexuality has a trauma at destroying a pregnancy. A level of humaness is touched. This is a part of her own life. She destroys a pregnancy. She is destroying herself. There is no way it can be innocuous. One is dealing with the life force. It is totally beside the point whether or not you think life is there. You cannot deny that something is being created and that this creation is physically happening.”
I think it would be wonderful Aaron if you were to go one morning and observe the witness of pro lifers outside abortuaries. Go about 0700 hours in the morning …without warning them… and see for yourself…as so many of their critics DO NOT …but keep insisting that it is pro lifers, not abortionists who cause post abortion distress! And you just never know Aaron, you may be responsible for saving a baby, peacefully… as is the way with Buddhists. It would be a wonderful experience. I have saved a baby or two in my working life as a nurse and believe me Aaron, it has made all the proverbial “blood, sweat and tears” of pro life activism worthwhile!
Denise M Cameron
Consider this analogy, Aaron. If you saw a woman dangling her child over the edge of a cliff, ready to throw it over, would you not do something to try and stop her, even intervene by doing something like grabbing the baby? Would you stand there and say it is her choice, that she has a good reason to do it, even though you might not do it to one of your children? Everyone was shocked when the man threw his daughter off the bridge in Melbourne recently, and yet I wonder how many of the same people would be as shocked if someone told them they were going to get an abortion. Women should not be allowed to choose to kill their children, unless her life (actual physical life, such as an ectopic pregnancy, etc.) is in danger. A woman isn’t allowed to choose to kill an abusive partner, who perhaps deserves it, so why should it be okay to kill a child? Oh yeah, that’s right, it isn’t a child yet. Oh the hypocrisy and sickening justification.
Adriana Lewis
Aaron,
Your claim that sidewalk anti-abortion protesters contribute significantly to the age old emotional vulnerability of females is quaint but physiologically uninformed and generically inaccurate. Most females have never been near an abortuary, but are only too familiar with severe emotional and mood fluctuations which appear to characterize and populate the “female universe”.
Depression is one of the commonest of all disorders, and is known to be at least three times commoner in females, as are most other mood disorders. The differences between the sexes are numerous, and the factors which account for them, and their detailed descriptions, are an increasing subject research in both biomedical science and contemporary neuroscience. Part of the difference relates to the high density receptors for estrogen and testosterone not only on neurons and the glial or glue cells within the brain, but also on all the cells of the blood, platelets and endothelium, and even apparently unrelated cells such as fibroblasts. Both adrenal corticoids and gonadal steroidal hormones are known to be stimulated by both fluctuations in their control hormones (ACTH and LH respectively) which occur throughout the day (“nyctohemeral”), and spike fluctuations occurring every few hours (“ultraradian”).
The Bible’s teaching on this age old subject is that “In Christ” there is neither male nor female for all are one. When one considers the enormous gender differences between the two sides of the warring factions across the gender divide this is an enormous statement. Personally I have many female friends, but have no doubt that whilst “In Jesus there is peace, but in the world there is conflict.” It would seem that there will be no other reconciliation of this age old feud outside of the peace and reconciliation which is found in the One God gave the world as the ultimate reconciler, the propitiation for our sins, the One who lives both today and forever. Which is more than I can say for Gautama.
Stuart Reece
Aaron, We do not attack women outside the abortion mills in Melbourne, we are there solely to offer help and support! After working for the past five years outside the abortion mills I can tell you that more than 80% of mothers are coerced and ultimately forced into aborting their precious babies! Most of these women are suffering from anxiety and depression before they even arrive. No woman wants to have an abortion, it is a disgusting and degrading procedure! When asked, the mother’s always know the due date of their baby. No matter what the circumstances are we know that these mothers will always grieve and experience great sorrow on that day, the day that their baby was due to be born. No abortion will escape this reality. We the people outside the abortion mills are not protestors, we are there to inform and offer assistance. We offer whatever it takes to save the baby and the baby’s beautiful mother! We have witnessed seven babies born this year who would not have survived without our support and love. Even the abortionist’s tell us that on a daily basis two to three mothers will not show for their appointments solely because they have witnessed our prayerful presence outside the abortion facility when they arrive. This they said was the ultimate sign that they were looking for! Praise God!
Jane Byrne
Thanks Jane
Well said. Keep up the great work – you are doing a terrific job.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
It is indeed a good development for the Pro-Life Movement in the US. But what is the situation in Australia? My recollection is that the public education systems in the ACT and NSW do little to include pro-life information in the sex-education curriculum. I remember years ago my daughter brought home her high school sex-ed subject book. It was so inclined towards having sex I burned it in our incinerator. Left-leaning ed systems do little to inform students about the other way to manage the sexual part of their lives – warning them of unhappy consequences should they get involved to early. And I believe this can be a serious and unforgiveable intrusion in to the lives of our young people at a vulnerable age. Nor are they provided with information to access this information away from their school.
Peter Rice
Towards the bottom Republican Bart Stupak an amendment to prevent abortion being covered by the House’s agreed version for Health Care. Note the response:
Abortion rights supporters said the amendment was the biggest setback to their cause in decades.
Stephen White
Peter, The Choices of Life, with CEO Bruce Coleman are going into as many schools who will accept this program in NSW, Vic, Tas, Qld and NT so far.
For year 6, the one hour session clearly explains how wonderfully and fearfully we are made and the value of the unborn child. Abortion is not mentioned at this level.
High students are presented with factual information on pregnancy development, the latest scientific information on abortion and to help young people make pro-life choices, especially the value of life of the preborn.
Dear Bill,
Another “downside” of abortion is that the preponderance of studies world wide (29 out of 38 since 1957) have shown a statistically significent increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had an induced abortion. October 26 was Pink Ribbon Day and much wasmade, and rightly so, of efforts to raise funds for research into treatment/cure and for the support of women diagnosedwith this dread disease. The Australian on the same day ran an article with the head “Breast cancer deaths on wane”. The two most important points which leap out at the reader though are that the number of women diagnosed has more than doubled over the past 25 years and that that number is projected to continue to increase with an estimated 15,409 cases in 2015! Support for the headline? – “The report (released recently by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre) found that more than 88% of women diagnosed in 2006 were expected to live for five or more years after their diagnoses.” Better than the 73% of those diagnosed between 1982 and 1987 but not to be compared to not developing breast cancer at all and being able to expect a normal life span. Prevention is better than cure and it was in this context that I put it to aConsultation Forum on a new National Women’s Health Policy, held in Melbourne on 27 October,that a priority should be the dissemination of this information to women so they can give fully informed consent to the abortion procedure should they choose to go ahead with it. I managed to get it up on the screen in the report back after discussions but it may get buried among all the other “priorities” when the most important ones are chosen for inclusion in the Policy. Due to the great interest in attending the Forum (I heard people seeking to register had to be refused as the available places were all taken) the date for written submissions has been extended to 20 November. Perhaps some of your “bloggers” could make submission. The more submissions on the point the more attention has to be paid to it. Ifanyone is so minded,the latest study showing the ABC link is Ozmen et al, published in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology, 8 April,2009, 7:37. Turkish researcher, Dr Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Instanbul Medical Facility and at the Magee-Women’s Hospital found a statistically significant 66% increased risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion. For information on where to send submissions the email address is National.Women’s.health.policy@health.gov.au and for a postal address go to http://www.health.gov.au/womenshealthpolicy
I hope this is acceptable as I have never “blogged” before.
Terri M. Kelleher
Thanks Terri
Seems pretty acceptable to me!
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
We really need to work on having our taxes not covering abortions in this country. What can we do, Bill?
Louise Le Mottee
Thanks Louise
At least two things come to mind.
If I can draw upon my hippy past here: Back in the late 60s we lefties had an aversion to what we perceived as the American “military-industrial complex” and the war in Vietnam. A common strategy of leftists was to withhold part of their taxes as an act of conscientious objection. That may be one way to proceed.
The other way is through targeting our politicians. For example, just yesterday in the US an amendment was passed to withhold public funding of abortion in Obama’s health care bill, which was also passed yesterday by the House of Reps. The fear is however that this amendment might be overturned in the Senate.
So there are at least two options – the personal and the political.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
They’re good ideas, thanks, Bill. I’m not sure how one can withhold taxes with PAYG schemes which most employers use. Any ideas?
Louise Le Mottee
Thanks again Louise
Good question. I guess we need a person who is up on tax law to see whether such a thing is even feasible or not.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Well, at the least, we can kick up a stink that our taxes are being used in this way, so I guess it’s back to our Reps we go.
My taxes. My choice.
Louise Le Mottee
Bill
We can work towards removing tax payer funds by supporting Senator Guy Barnett’s Medicare Disallowance Motion challenging the second trimester abortion rebate.
We can also give generous donations to pro-life groups with tax-deductible status. :o)
Michelle Macormic
Thank you Bill for posting this good news. I recently did some research on post abortion affects so this just brought more understanding for me and encouragement as to positive current news on this subject.
Andrea Cizej
I’ve read two disturbing things today (despite agreeing that the above is very good news indeed!), one of which you quoted in your article: “Our goal was 3-5 abortions for every girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.”
I can’t imagine any kind of upstanding, socially conscious and responsible organisation has that as a stated goal, whether publicly or not. That’s just hideous to the extreme.
The other disturbing item was this report I just read from Lifenews.com about an executive who tweeted during a management meeting that she was having a miscarriage and then stated “Thank goodness, because there’s a ****-up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin”.
This woman has had two abortions previously … so for Planned Parenthood to have goals like the above means that they really do have a market to meet that goal.
And that is what is most disturbing.
Like you, Bill, I look forward to the release of Blood Money when it eventually does get distributed. I’m sure it will assist many people to reconsider their pro-choice stance.
Mathew Hamilton, Victoria
Interesting news about the fruit coming from the 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer and fasting to end abortion. It just reinforces to me the fact that in the West at least, abortion exists with the permission of the church. Imagine that if from the time of the very beginning of the effective legalisation of abortion, the whole church rather than just a tiny minority had risen up against abortion with both prayer and action. Abortion would have never become the problem it is today.
Ewan McDonald.
It’s lovely to read a ‘good report’. There was also good news on the homosexual ‘marriage’ front, in the USA.
http://blog.echurchwebsites.org.uk/2009/11/04/5347-margin-maine-voters-repealed-measure-legalized-homosexual-marriage-state-words-press-stars-aligned-supporters-gay-marriage/
Stuart Mackay, UK
Thanks Stuart
Yes and pro-abortion candidates in New Jersey and Virginia were defeated as well, so more good news.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Reading about how devious these people are is quite frightening. I didn’t realize the lengths they would go to get abortions. How does one perform an abortion on a woman that isn’t pregnant? Why would a woman who is not pregnant consent to such a thing? Do they drug them? I don’t understand.
However, if young women were trained to wait until marriage for intercourse, they wouldn’t have to deal with these wolves at all and I must say that it is always a joy to hear of people who come out of this industry and become pro-life. They are usually the most powerful champions of the pro-life movement because they’ve been on the front lines on the other side.
Victoria Demona
Thanks Victoria
It is quite easy to deceive someone into thinking they are pregnant, and then make them go through an expensive procedure. As long as the abortionists are making money, they are willing to resort to any underhanded tactics.
In this case it is a piece of cake. Take a scared 15-year-old girl who has been sexually active and is worried that she might be pregnant. She goes to the local abortion mill, and the baby-killers there simply inform her that yes, she is pregnant, and they will quickly and efficiently fix up the little ‘problem’.
A scared young teen who is unlikely to confide with close friends, family or loved ones will simply take what she hears from the abortionists, and go along with their suggestions. You can read all about this in Everett’s book.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Bill for this good news. God Bless those that stand up against the atrocity and, with God’s help, are able to win people over to the pro-life side. I wonder how many more people are going to be able to exist who in the future will be thankful for such an event?
Keith Jarrett
Yes, “a powerful expose of the abortion industry”. Well done Bill.
Stan Fishley
Ewan has written that “abortion existed with the permission of the “Church”- which Church? The Catholic Church has always been and is pro-life. I don’t think people should be loose with words, such as using a general term “The Church”. Perhaps he is referring to some “Church” which could hold its gatherings in a telephone box.
Frank Bellet, Petrie Qld
Thanks Frank
Given that Ewan is a Protestant he would specifically have Protestant churches in mind. And he is quite right – the majority of Protestant churches have not bothered to speak out on the abortion issue. Fortunately some evangelical churches are starting to come around, slowly catching up to all the great pro-life work the Catholic Church has long been involved in.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks guys
To further affirm what David K. Kyle said in the above article, a recent New Zealand study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, says that abortion puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression. This is “but the latest in a long line of scientific reports that reach the same conclusion”. See more here: http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/3478712060.html
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thank you for mentioning Everett’s book. Just ordered it. Defectors from the abortion mills should be sought out and encouraged to speak up. The thinking public must be shown the seedy reality of the abortion industry. The noble idea of a right is being trashed by unhinged Western cultures using rights-talk as a rationalisation for selfishness and perversion. You would probably get better moral advice from an old lady reading tea leaves than you would from Western secular humanism.
John Snowden
Hello Bill
Thank you for all your work, it is a great boost to Christians who sometimes feel overwhelmed by the evil that surrounds us. My question is regarding the money issue of abortion. Is money the main reason behind abortions here in Australia? I thought that abortions were funded by the government, as they are in Canada. If they are, then what is the motive behind the clinics here in Australia? Is it to have enough abortions to stay relevant for gov’t funding? Do we see the same sort of drive for numbers as in America? I guess my concern is that if this book is pointing to the business side of it, and that isn’t applicable to Australia, then it may be dismissed as irrelevant here. Looking forward to your response.
God Bless
Adriana Lewis
Bill what puts ‘puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression’ is people protesting outside abortion clinics and people attacking them without knowing the story behind choice. I do indeed agree with you on the abortion issue, whilst you may attack – I am a buddhist and believe abortion to be murder yet I really do not think this is the right way to go about highlighting the issues surrounding abortion.
Aaron Wyllie
Thanks Adriana
I admit that I know a tad more about the American scene, since that is where I hail from. So I am not claiming to be an authority on all the details of the Australian situation, but I can offer some general remarks. Others are welcome to add to the discussion with further relevant details about specifics on funding arrangements.
Abortion is still big business here. Abortionists are making plenty of money, even though government subsidies are involved. Thus when you say governments here are funding abortions, what we are really talking about is Medicare funding for elective surgery – abortion. This is a government subsidy of both what the woman pays and what the doctors offer. I believe it does not greatly affect the high rates an abortionist can charge, and profit from. And when I last checked, late-term abortionists here were collecting $3,000 per customer.
And we may never know the real amount of abortions that take place, because presumably many here would also be performed on a cash basis – and therefore not reported to the government. But I welcome any more specific information that may come from other Australian pro-lifers.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Aaron
While it is nice to hear that you believe abortion to be wrong, the rest of your remark is simply foolish. You appear to be making things up as you go along, expecting us to accept them as true. Sorry, but this adds nothing to the debate – just more misinformation.
The numerous international studies on the mental, emotional and psychological harm experienced by women who have had an abortion – felt even many decades after their abortion – are quite clear on the issue. Such grief has nothing to do with protestors, as you recklessly claim. It is due to the reality of what a woman has done to her own child. We have decades of research on this. Indeed, whole books have been written on this. So you are simply speaking out of ignorance here – or deliberately seeking to mislead. So please spare us. Before you next make such wild remarks, why don’t you in fact try to become familiar with the actual research?
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
It is certainly true that the existence of Medicare funding does not remove the profit motive from abortion businesses.
In SA abortions are mainly performed at the PAC which is part of a public hospital. In all other states private abortion clinics are the main providers. These include Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood who presumably pay the abortionists well but use profits to subsidise their population control work in developing countries to get rid of as many yellow and brown and black babies as they can. Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger were open racists and eugenicists.
Many abortion clinics are cash only business – no cheques, no credit cards. An audit by the ATO could be interesting!
SA and WA require reporting of all abortions. In other states we have the Medicare figures and the hospital morbidity stats (abortion clinics are day hospitals). There is some evidence that abortions performed without a Medicare rebate in private clinics may not be reported but this is probably a relatively small percentage of the total.
Cheers
Richard Egan, Perth
Aaron what silly comments you make. The people outside the abortion clinics do not increase the risk of depression in post abortive women, what increases the risk is the volitional factor in an abortion. Even the the DSM V says that a trauma is more severe and longer lasting when the stressor (abortion) is by human design. The abortion is by human design. It is the intent and the outcome, therefore its understandable that that the abortion experience can induce the physical, emotional and spiritual pain (depression is internal pain) especially in those who are more vulnerable to emotional pain and who undergo this procedure.
Anne Lastman, counsellor
Hi Bill. Once again thanks for your tireless work.
Adriana – I (in my naievity) always thought abortionists did what they did out of compassion and feminist autonomy rather than money but I am no longer of that view. Yes, rebates are funded here through to and including second trimester. The rebate is for the patient only unless the doctor bulkbills – very unlikely I think – in which case Medicare pays the doctor. Thus this is a government rebate that covers part, but generally not all, of the doctor’s fee.
Aaron – Better to tell the truth about consequences of an action before the action is chosen! Many are grateful for such warnings – and the support given.
Lachlan Dunjey, WA
Thanks, Bill; we need good news, and bad news comes regularly enough, and not just on the abortion front. Aaron – I’m sorry to say, but I don’t hear much about Buddhists (or adherents of other religions) protesting about social evils, in either the way you mention, or any other way. At least the protesters you refer to are trying to do something to end real evil – what do you do?
John Thomas, UK
Aaron, given there are 100,000 abortions a year in Australia and a only handful of people outside a handful of abortuaries, it is illogical to claim “what puts puts women at increased risk of anxiety and depression is people protesting outside abortion clinics and people attacking them without knowing the story behind choice.” Very few aborted women have come in contact with what you call “protesters” on their way to have their babies killed – more’s the pity. Because pro lifers “witnessing” outside abortuaries are there to offer a loving alternative to abortion. Just ask about their ‘ turnarounds’ – the babies who are saved by their presence – and the mothers saved from psychological, emotional and sometimes physical damage.
As long ago as 1972 in Thomas Hilgers’ book Abortion and Social Justice, Jewish Freudian psychiatrist/obstetrician Julius Fogel, who admitted to having executed hundreds of abortions, was quoted as observing: “I think every woman, whatever her age, her background or sexuality has a trauma at destroying a pregnancy. A level of humaness is touched. This is a part of her own life. She destroys a pregnancy. She is destroying herself. There is no way it can be innocuous. One is dealing with the life force. It is totally beside the point whether or not you think life is there. You cannot deny that something is being created and that this creation is physically happening.”
I think it would be wonderful Aaron if you were to go one morning and observe the witness of pro lifers outside abortuaries. Go about 0700 hours in the morning …without warning them… and see for yourself…as so many of their critics DO NOT …but keep insisting that it is pro lifers, not abortionists who cause post abortion distress! And you just never know Aaron, you may be responsible for saving a baby, peacefully… as is the way with Buddhists. It would be a wonderful experience. I have saved a baby or two in my working life as a nurse and believe me Aaron, it has made all the proverbial “blood, sweat and tears” of pro life activism worthwhile!
Denise M Cameron
Consider this analogy, Aaron. If you saw a woman dangling her child over the edge of a cliff, ready to throw it over, would you not do something to try and stop her, even intervene by doing something like grabbing the baby? Would you stand there and say it is her choice, that she has a good reason to do it, even though you might not do it to one of your children? Everyone was shocked when the man threw his daughter off the bridge in Melbourne recently, and yet I wonder how many of the same people would be as shocked if someone told them they were going to get an abortion. Women should not be allowed to choose to kill their children, unless her life (actual physical life, such as an ectopic pregnancy, etc.) is in danger. A woman isn’t allowed to choose to kill an abusive partner, who perhaps deserves it, so why should it be okay to kill a child? Oh yeah, that’s right, it isn’t a child yet. Oh the hypocrisy and sickening justification.
Adriana Lewis
Aaron,
Your claim that sidewalk anti-abortion protesters contribute significantly to the age old emotional vulnerability of females is quaint but physiologically uninformed and generically inaccurate. Most females have never been near an abortuary, but are only too familiar with severe emotional and mood fluctuations which appear to characterize and populate the “female universe”.
Depression is one of the commonest of all disorders, and is known to be at least three times commoner in females, as are most other mood disorders. The differences between the sexes are numerous, and the factors which account for them, and their detailed descriptions, are an increasing subject research in both biomedical science and contemporary neuroscience. Part of the difference relates to the high density receptors for estrogen and testosterone not only on neurons and the glial or glue cells within the brain, but also on all the cells of the blood, platelets and endothelium, and even apparently unrelated cells such as fibroblasts. Both adrenal corticoids and gonadal steroidal hormones are known to be stimulated by both fluctuations in their control hormones (ACTH and LH respectively) which occur throughout the day (“nyctohemeral”), and spike fluctuations occurring every few hours (“ultraradian”).
The Bible’s teaching on this age old subject is that “In Christ” there is neither male nor female for all are one. When one considers the enormous gender differences between the two sides of the warring factions across the gender divide this is an enormous statement. Personally I have many female friends, but have no doubt that whilst “In Jesus there is peace, but in the world there is conflict.” It would seem that there will be no other reconciliation of this age old feud outside of the peace and reconciliation which is found in the One God gave the world as the ultimate reconciler, the propitiation for our sins, the One who lives both today and forever. Which is more than I can say for Gautama.
Stuart Reece
Aaron, We do not attack women outside the abortion mills in Melbourne, we are there solely to offer help and support! After working for the past five years outside the abortion mills I can tell you that more than 80% of mothers are coerced and ultimately forced into aborting their precious babies! Most of these women are suffering from anxiety and depression before they even arrive. No woman wants to have an abortion, it is a disgusting and degrading procedure! When asked, the mother’s always know the due date of their baby. No matter what the circumstances are we know that these mothers will always grieve and experience great sorrow on that day, the day that their baby was due to be born. No abortion will escape this reality. We the people outside the abortion mills are not protestors, we are there to inform and offer assistance. We offer whatever it takes to save the baby and the baby’s beautiful mother! We have witnessed seven babies born this year who would not have survived without our support and love. Even the abortionist’s tell us that on a daily basis two to three mothers will not show for their appointments solely because they have witnessed our prayerful presence outside the abortion facility when they arrive. This they said was the ultimate sign that they were looking for! Praise God!
Jane Byrne
Thanks Jane
Well said. Keep up the great work – you are doing a terrific job.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
It is indeed a good development for the Pro-Life Movement in the US. But what is the situation in Australia? My recollection is that the public education systems in the ACT and NSW do little to include pro-life information in the sex-education curriculum. I remember years ago my daughter brought home her high school sex-ed subject book. It was so inclined towards having sex I burned it in our incinerator. Left-leaning ed systems do little to inform students about the other way to manage the sexual part of their lives – warning them of unhappy consequences should they get involved to early. And I believe this can be a serious and unforgiveable intrusion in to the lives of our young people at a vulnerable age. Nor are they provided with information to access this information away from their school.
Peter Rice
More good news!!!
Abortion business announces its own ‘termination’
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115239
Donna Opie
Good news from the US House vote for Healthcare Reform:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8348941.stm
Towards the bottom Republican Bart Stupak an amendment to prevent abortion being covered by the House’s agreed version for Health Care. Note the response:
Abortion rights supporters said the amendment was the biggest setback to their cause in decades.
Stephen White
Peter, The Choices of Life, with CEO Bruce Coleman are going into as many schools who will accept this program in NSW, Vic, Tas, Qld and NT so far.
For year 6, the one hour session clearly explains how wonderfully and fearfully we are made and the value of the unborn child. Abortion is not mentioned at this level.
High students are presented with factual information on pregnancy development, the latest scientific information on abortion and to help young people make pro-life choices, especially the value of life of the preborn.
Please support this program http://www.choicesoflife.com.au
Judith Bond
Dear Bill,
Another “downside” of abortion is that the preponderance of studies world wide (29 out of 38 since 1957) have shown a statistically significent increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had an induced abortion. October 26 was Pink Ribbon Day and much wasmade, and rightly so, of efforts to raise funds for research into treatment/cure and for the support of women diagnosedwith this dread disease. The Australian on the same day ran an article with the head “Breast cancer deaths on wane”. The two most important points which leap out at the reader though are that the number of women diagnosed has more than doubled over the past 25 years and that that number is projected to continue to increase with an estimated 15,409 cases in 2015! Support for the headline? – “The report (released recently by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre) found that more than 88% of women diagnosed in 2006 were expected to live for five or more years after their diagnoses.” Better than the 73% of those diagnosed between 1982 and 1987 but not to be compared to not developing breast cancer at all and being able to expect a normal life span. Prevention is better than cure and it was in this context that I put it to aConsultation Forum on a new National Women’s Health Policy, held in Melbourne on 27 October,that a priority should be the dissemination of this information to women so they can give fully informed consent to the abortion procedure should they choose to go ahead with it. I managed to get it up on the screen in the report back after discussions but it may get buried among all the other “priorities” when the most important ones are chosen for inclusion in the Policy. Due to the great interest in attending the Forum (I heard people seeking to register had to be refused as the available places were all taken) the date for written submissions has been extended to 20 November. Perhaps some of your “bloggers” could make submission. The more submissions on the point the more attention has to be paid to it. Ifanyone is so minded,the latest study showing the ABC link is Ozmen et al, published in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology, 8 April,2009, 7:37. Turkish researcher, Dr Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Instanbul Medical Facility and at the Magee-Women’s Hospital found a statistically significant 66% increased risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion. For information on where to send submissions the email address is National.Women’s.health.policy@health.gov.au and for a postal address go to http://www.health.gov.au/womenshealthpolicy
I hope this is acceptable as I have never “blogged” before.
Terri M. Kelleher
Thanks Terri
Seems pretty acceptable to me!
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
We really need to work on having our taxes not covering abortions in this country. What can we do, Bill?
Louise Le Mottee
Thanks Louise
At least two things come to mind.
If I can draw upon my hippy past here: Back in the late 60s we lefties had an aversion to what we perceived as the American “military-industrial complex” and the war in Vietnam. A common strategy of leftists was to withhold part of their taxes as an act of conscientious objection. That may be one way to proceed.
The other way is through targeting our politicians. For example, just yesterday in the US an amendment was passed to withhold public funding of abortion in Obama’s health care bill, which was also passed yesterday by the House of Reps. The fear is however that this amendment might be overturned in the Senate.
So there are at least two options – the personal and the political.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
They’re good ideas, thanks, Bill. I’m not sure how one can withhold taxes with PAYG schemes which most employers use. Any ideas?
Louise Le Mottee
Thanks again Louise
Good question. I guess we need a person who is up on tax law to see whether such a thing is even feasible or not.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Well, at the least, we can kick up a stink that our taxes are being used in this way, so I guess it’s back to our Reps we go.
My taxes. My choice.
Louise Le Mottee
Bill
We can work towards removing tax payer funds by supporting Senator Guy Barnett’s Medicare Disallowance Motion challenging the second trimester abortion rebate.
We can also give generous donations to pro-life groups with tax-deductible status. :o)
Michelle Macormic
Thank you Bill for posting this good news. I recently did some research on post abortion affects so this just brought more understanding for me and encouragement as to positive current news on this subject.
Andrea Cizej