Take any controversial social and moral issue and you will find plenty of news items reflecting a wide array of ethical perspectives. You will get positive and negative news, encouraging and discouraging. This is certainly the case with abortion, with all sorts of vignettes being reported.
Here I will look at all three: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Since it is nice to finish on a positive note, let me begin with the bad and ugly. An example of the ugliness and repulsiveness of abortion is found in this story from the UK. The headline alone is appalling: “I aborted my five babies because timing wasn’t right – now I’m nearly 50 it’s too late to have kids”.
At least she spills the beans here. There was no threat to her health or anything like that; this businesswoman just couldn’t be bothered having children because they would have interfered with her career, her schedule and her lifestyle – so she killed them instead. She speaks to her first abortion this way:
“I was 15 when I became pregnant to my first boyfriend, Wayne, 16, in October 1978. I was so naive. I barely realised what had happened when we had unprotected sex in a back alley after youth club. Sex education at my all-girls grammar school consisted of just one lesson.
“I didn’t even consider I might get pregnant and when I did I was devastated, not least because I knew how disappointed my parents would be. Wayne was so dismissive when I told him, I knew I’d made a huge mistake trusting him. I was a child myself and although I wanted to be a mum one day, this was not the time. Thankfully, my GP took charge and arranged an NHS abortion.”
Four more were killed after that. She has regrets, but not about killing her own children: “Eventually, in October 2002, I returned to the UK, where I threw myself into my career. Now on the cusp of 40, I was resigned to being alone. But life hadn’t quite done with me and at 41, in November 2004, I met my current partner Graham. Divorced with two grown-up children, he could light up a room with his smile and make me laugh until I cried.
“Quite simply, he was the man I’d been searching for. But in a bitter twist, Graham, then a motorcycle courier, had already had a vasectomy. The irony isn’t lost on me and while I wish I’d met Graham, 52, when I was younger, he is the love of my life and accepts my past without judgement. I’ve learned you have to live with the choices you make. While I am embarrassed that I’ve had three husbands, I’m not ashamed of the abortions.”
Breaking: Before I move onto the bad, let me mention a second example of ugly which just came in – and this is real ugly: “MSNBC host Melissa Harris Perry wore tampon earrings during a weekend broadcast, telling viewers they were made especially for her to wear to demonstrate her opposition to the ban on late-term abortions in Texas that Governor Rick Perry signed this week. ‘My producer Lorena made for me, last week, some tampon earrings,’ she said.”
Class – all class. You can see a pic of her and her “earrings” in the link below. What a perverse and diabolical bunch these pro-deathers are.
But on to the bad. Consider a Christian college in America that gets bent out of shape when a student wants to show what abortion is really all about. Here is how one story about Biola College student Diana Jimenez begins:
“Biola for the past four years has been the home of nursing student Diana Jimenez. She always considered herself pro-life, but after watching a video of an actual abortion earlier this year, she realized its horror and decided to do something about it.
“Last spring, with her graduation and the end of the school year approaching, Jimenez worried that some Biola students could be aborting babies over the summer. She partnered with the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) to set up a display on May 8 that included brochures, information on crisis pregnancy centers, and posters displaying enlarged photos of hands, feet, bodies, and faces of babies aborted in the first trimester.
“Biola officials asked her to take it down, saying she didn’t get the school’s approval. Jimenez then met with Matthew Hooper, Biola’s associate dean of students: He said Biola approves of her message but she could not show such graphic imagery in an open area of campus.
“Jimenez felt her schoolmates needed to see the photos: On May 17 she carried a sign to the center of campus and held it up. Campus security told her to leave and threatened to arrest her and keep her from graduating: Jimenez captured some of that on video. Later, when Jimenez tried to get letters of recommendation from her professors, she found Biola nursing director Susan Elliott had told the nursing faculty not to write them for her. The bans on both signs and recommendations soon attracted attention around the country.
“Biola’s response to Jimenez is the latest instance of Christian colleges forbidding students from erecting graphic abortion displays. CBR head Gregg Cunningham says his group has shown the images at hundreds of secular public colleges–free speech laws allow that–but not at private Christian colleges. Cunningham argues that graphic images are crucial in teaching students what abortion is.”
So you can take a stand for the unborn at secular universities, but Christian colleges want everything hushed up. But this is getting to be more and more the case with so-called Christian colleges and seminaries. Many of them are slowly but surely caving in to political correctness and the agendas of the radical left. Consider the case of nearby Fuller Theological Seminary, which is now allowing homosexual groups on campus!
I can’t wait till they allow adultery pride groups on campus, or fornication awareness groups, or ‘liars and proud of it’ groups, or ‘dare to be different – support stealing’ groups, or ‘we’re here and we’re polyamorous’ groups. This list is endless, now that Fuller thinks it is just fine to allow sin to be seen as just another “student group”.
But back to abortion, and on to the good story to finish things off here. This comes from Pennsylvania, where yet another pro-abortion worker has bit the dust. Jewels Green is now on the side of the angels, and her story is a real encouragement.
She had an abortion as a 17-year-old, and it was all downhill from there: “I attempted suicide three times after my abortion and finally ended up in an adolescent psychiatric ward of a community hospital for a month to recover. I was coerced into having an abortion and thought that by becoming a counselor at an abortion clinic, I could help others like me really talk out their feelings on the issue, truly explore their options, and help them make an honest, informed decision–or help them leave an abusive situation.
“I worked at an abortion clinic for five years (from age 18 to 23)—not the same one where I had my abortion. I started out on the phone, then at the front desk checking in patients and accepting payments, then I learned medical assisting and helped in the laboratory, took vital signs in the recovery room, and did ‘dishes’ in the autoclave area. (I’ll come back to this). Then, after two years working at the clinic and starting college as a psychology major, I was trained as a counselor.
“The ‘counseling’ experience was not what I had hoped. Nearly every pregnant woman coming to an abortion clinic for ‘options counseling’ had already made up her mind, but just wanted to check out the facility and have her questions answered and perhaps her fears allayed. And most of the women coming in felt they had no other choice. A few were truly ambivalent.
“This is where the pro-choice movement and clinics fail. Sure, we had a little notebook with the names and numbers of two local adoption agencies, but we were never trained or taught how the adoption process works so we could explain it to women. We had the phone number of the local WIC office, public assistance, etc., but again, knew nothing about the process should anyone ever ask for details. If a pregnant woman wanted to learn more about these other choices, the best the ‘options counselor’ could offer was a post-it note with a phone number hastily scribbled on it.”
Her full story about how she ended up rejecting this pro-death work is well worth reading, but she concludes as follows: “For myself, I know in my heart that I would never again terminate a pregnancy — EVER — nor would I ever work at an abortion clinic again. If someone I love was facing an unplanned pregnancy, I would do my very best to help her find a way to stay pregnant and give that baby a chance—whether it be by becoming a parent, or by offering up the child for adoption.
“There are far too many innocent lives being snuffed out in our country before they have the opportunity to take their first breath, and as a nation we should be doing better. We need to do better. We need to provide real resources to pregnant mothers facing an unplanned pregnancy. The women and babies of our country deserve better. After all, sometimes the best things in life aren’t planned. Happy Nobirthday, Unbaby. I miss you every day. Love & tears, Mom.”
12 Replies to “Abortion: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
I can’t believe it that this battle over abortion gets uglier every time it is debated. Even though i am pro-choice, and respect the pro-life position, i still think this controversy over the abortion issue should be treated with respect. I feel like in order to to diffuse the issue, i think people on both sides of the abortion debate should look towards a common ground especially with promoting birth control. I think if both pro-lifers and pro-choicer promote birth control, then the abortion debate would die down.
Tim Thompson
Thanks Tim
My response is quite simple really – simply substitute the word ‘murder’ for ‘abortion’ here (or, for that matter, rape, genocide, Nazism, racism, etc):
‘I can’t believe it that this battle over murder gets uglier every time it is debated. Even though i am pro-choice, and respect the pro-life position, i still think this controversy over the murder issue should be treated with respect. I feel like in order to to diffuse the issue, i think people on both sides of the murder debate should look towards a common ground especially with promoting prison reform. I think if both pro-lifers and pro-choicer promote prison reform, then the murder debate would die down.’
Sorry, we are not talking about the ethical merits of gum chewing here, but the killing of unborn children. It is not the debate that needs to die down, but the slaughter of 45-50 million children each year.
And many abortions occur by women who are using birth control. Moreover, many so-called contraceptives are in fact abortifacients, so babies are still being killed. I am afraid your supposed solution solves nothing – we still end up with the massacre of millions.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
One baby aborted is one baby too many. What about their choice?
Leigh D Stebbins
Is it harder to live knowing your child is adopted out, or to try and live knowing you killed that child ??
But I could not disagree with you and Frum more. All you are doing is telling us you still think it is fine that we slaughterer unborn babies. Thus you are just as extreme as Obama is: you both champion the rights of mothers to kill their own babies.
All your tinkering around the edges does is sanitise this horrific evil. You might as well tell us that we need to make Nazism a bit less extreme. Let’s give Jews 24-hour advance notification before we round them up and kill them in the camps. Let’s just kill 11,000 concentration camp inhabitants a day, instead of 12,000. Let’s allow a real water shower for prisoners before the gas shower. Let’s allow German taxpayers to opt out of a few of the payments for the final solution.
In both cases these little niceties do not change the simple reality at all: millions still end up being killed. There is nothing moderate about your views at all. All baby killing ideologies are always evil, no matter how nicely dressed up they come.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
There isn’t much “common ground” to be had in the abortion debate. Either abortion victims are human people who deserve the right to life or they aren’t and they don’t. And as for the idea that both sides should agree to using birth-control to end abortion, that overlooks a couple of significant facts – that no contraception is 100% effective, and that the contraceptive mentality itself is a factor that has contributed to the problem of abortion.
Ewan McDonald, Victoria.
Without demonising Tim, he’s been duped by the feminist con which in its most mildest form says that some situations are an exception and that the value of a child isn’t worth the discomfort of the mother.
Its a basic theological error about where life begins, always has been always will be.
Bill Rizo
Well said Ewan. Birth control is the problem, not the answer. Birth control gives a false sense of security. It often fails, it doesn’t stop sexually transmitted diseases and it does nothing to stop the emotional scars that many suffer through promiscuity. Women need to be given all the information and then be able to make their own decisions about what is best for them. That is truly pro-choice. Not the lie that birth control will fix all your problems!
Lyn Schoof
Tim, I don’t think Bill despises anyone, please show a quote from any of Bill’s writing where he says that. He does despise the act of killing an innocent human being, however, as do I. Finding common ground with those who sanction killing innocent people is a bit tricky and actually quite immoral. We do not want to reduce the number of innocents dying, we want it to absolutely be taken to the minimum possible level. More than 1 million innocent human beings being killed annually, even though it may be a big reduction in the rate per 1000 women compared to 20 years ago, is hardly something to aspire to. The debate will not die down even if that number is reduced by 50% (>500000 killings), 75% (>250000 killings), 90% (>100000 killings); those numbers are still intolerable. Contraception, e.g. the pill has been available for 40 years or so now, will not solve this problem anytime soon, though it may continue to reduce the abortion rate slowly (as population increases the numbers may stay the same or even increase, of course). The problem is that pro-choicers believe that it is OK to take an innocent human being’s life (in a very violent manner). It is not. Regarding the articles by Frum: the first ignores the fact that abortion has been illegal in the US in the past and is now illegal in e.g. Ireland, Chile, etc. These two countries are the antithesis of disasters in maternal health or mortality rates (Ireland is among the best by those measures). Higher mortality rates in the US before legalisation are almost 100% due to the difference between modern medicine and medical methods more than 40 or 50 years ago (e.g. antibiotics, anesthesia, surgical techniques and medicines, etc.). This is easily verified. The 2nd article is more relevant: yes, a discussion certainly needs to be had on social services and community support for pregnant women, poor mothers, etc. Government funding pregnancy support centres (which do help mothers after birth too) instead of Planned Parenthood would be an excellent start in the right direction, as would removing the high amount of cost and red tape that must be passed through in order to adopt out your children (e.g. those whom you cannot afford to or are otherwise unable to raise).
Richard Gerlach
As a mother of two teen daughters, I have had to withdraw them from their schools sex education classes because some of the content is completely inappropriate and quite frankly..gross!
Worksheets and programs supplied to schools by groups like Family Planning (that refer for abortion) are unacceptable.
Although it would have its challenges, pregnancy is not the worst thing that could happen to any of my children when they are teens… being the parent of a dead (aborted) baby is far worse!
Girls, women, babies, men, fathers and families deserve better than abortion!
The only form of birth control that truly works in reducing unexpected pregnancy and therefore abortion is abstinence. People need to be encouraged to abstain, rather than being told that they are nothing more than animals who should not have to control their desires.
Mario Del Giudice
I can’t believe it that this battle over abortion gets uglier every time it is debated. Even though i am pro-choice, and respect the pro-life position, i still think this controversy over the abortion issue should be treated with respect. I feel like in order to to diffuse the issue, i think people on both sides of the abortion debate should look towards a common ground especially with promoting birth control. I think if both pro-lifers and pro-choicer promote birth control, then the abortion debate would die down.
Tim Thompson
Thanks Tim
My response is quite simple really – simply substitute the word ‘murder’ for ‘abortion’ here (or, for that matter, rape, genocide, Nazism, racism, etc):
‘I can’t believe it that this battle over murder gets uglier every time it is debated. Even though i am pro-choice, and respect the pro-life position, i still think this controversy over the murder issue should be treated with respect. I feel like in order to to diffuse the issue, i think people on both sides of the murder debate should look towards a common ground especially with promoting prison reform. I think if both pro-lifers and pro-choicer promote prison reform, then the murder debate would die down.’
Sorry, we are not talking about the ethical merits of gum chewing here, but the killing of unborn children. It is not the debate that needs to die down, but the slaughter of 45-50 million children each year.
And many abortions occur by women who are using birth control. Moreover, many so-called contraceptives are in fact abortifacients, so babies are still being killed. I am afraid your supposed solution solves nothing – we still end up with the massacre of millions.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
One baby aborted is one baby too many. What about their choice?
Leigh D Stebbins
Is it harder to live knowing your child is adopted out, or to try and live knowing you killed that child ??
Johannes Archer
Bill,
Respectfully I disagree with that notion because I also support legislation like parental notification, pain capable bill, ban on taxpayer funding etc. and yet you despise people who are prochoice even when they don’t support Obama radical position? Here are two good articles by David Frum talking about what I’m talking about.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/24/opinion/frum-abortion-issue
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/opinion/frum-abortion-reality
Tim Thompson
Thanks again Tim
But I could not disagree with you and Frum more. All you are doing is telling us you still think it is fine that we slaughterer unborn babies. Thus you are just as extreme as Obama is: you both champion the rights of mothers to kill their own babies.
All your tinkering around the edges does is sanitise this horrific evil. You might as well tell us that we need to make Nazism a bit less extreme. Let’s give Jews 24-hour advance notification before we round them up and kill them in the camps. Let’s just kill 11,000 concentration camp inhabitants a day, instead of 12,000. Let’s allow a real water shower for prisoners before the gas shower. Let’s allow German taxpayers to opt out of a few of the payments for the final solution.
In both cases these little niceties do not change the simple reality at all: millions still end up being killed. There is nothing moderate about your views at all. All baby killing ideologies are always evil, no matter how nicely dressed up they come.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
There isn’t much “common ground” to be had in the abortion debate. Either abortion victims are human people who deserve the right to life or they aren’t and they don’t. And as for the idea that both sides should agree to using birth-control to end abortion, that overlooks a couple of significant facts – that no contraception is 100% effective, and that the contraceptive mentality itself is a factor that has contributed to the problem of abortion.
Ewan McDonald, Victoria.
Without demonising Tim, he’s been duped by the feminist con which in its most mildest form says that some situations are an exception and that the value of a child isn’t worth the discomfort of the mother.
Its a basic theological error about where life begins, always has been always will be.
Bill Rizo
Well said Ewan. Birth control is the problem, not the answer. Birth control gives a false sense of security. It often fails, it doesn’t stop sexually transmitted diseases and it does nothing to stop the emotional scars that many suffer through promiscuity. Women need to be given all the information and then be able to make their own decisions about what is best for them. That is truly pro-choice. Not the lie that birth control will fix all your problems!
Lyn Schoof
Tim, I don’t think Bill despises anyone, please show a quote from any of Bill’s writing where he says that. He does despise the act of killing an innocent human being, however, as do I. Finding common ground with those who sanction killing innocent people is a bit tricky and actually quite immoral. We do not want to reduce the number of innocents dying, we want it to absolutely be taken to the minimum possible level. More than 1 million innocent human beings being killed annually, even though it may be a big reduction in the rate per 1000 women compared to 20 years ago, is hardly something to aspire to. The debate will not die down even if that number is reduced by 50% (>500000 killings), 75% (>250000 killings), 90% (>100000 killings); those numbers are still intolerable. Contraception, e.g. the pill has been available for 40 years or so now, will not solve this problem anytime soon, though it may continue to reduce the abortion rate slowly (as population increases the numbers may stay the same or even increase, of course). The problem is that pro-choicers believe that it is OK to take an innocent human being’s life (in a very violent manner). It is not. Regarding the articles by Frum: the first ignores the fact that abortion has been illegal in the US in the past and is now illegal in e.g. Ireland, Chile, etc. These two countries are the antithesis of disasters in maternal health or mortality rates (Ireland is among the best by those measures). Higher mortality rates in the US before legalisation are almost 100% due to the difference between modern medicine and medical methods more than 40 or 50 years ago (e.g. antibiotics, anesthesia, surgical techniques and medicines, etc.). This is easily verified. The 2nd article is more relevant: yes, a discussion certainly needs to be had on social services and community support for pregnant women, poor mothers, etc. Government funding pregnancy support centres (which do help mothers after birth too) instead of Planned Parenthood would be an excellent start in the right direction, as would removing the high amount of cost and red tape that must be passed through in order to adopt out your children (e.g. those whom you cannot afford to or are otherwise unable to raise).
Richard Gerlach
As a mother of two teen daughters, I have had to withdraw them from their schools sex education classes because some of the content is completely inappropriate and quite frankly..gross!
Worksheets and programs supplied to schools by groups like Family Planning (that refer for abortion) are unacceptable.
Although it would have its challenges, pregnancy is not the worst thing that could happen to any of my children when they are teens… being the parent of a dead (aborted) baby is far worse!
Girls, women, babies, men, fathers and families deserve better than abortion!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaTywSDmls
Sonja Couroupis
The only form of birth control that truly works in reducing unexpected pregnancy and therefore abortion is abstinence. People need to be encouraged to abstain, rather than being told that they are nothing more than animals who should not have to control their desires.
Mario Del Giudice