Friday, January 21, 2011

What does Jill Filipovic know about Kermit Gosnell's late-term abortion practice?

Next to nothing.

Instead of taking the time to learn something about the case (like by maybe reading some of the grand jury report) and the hundreds viable infants who were slaughtered and women who were maimed for years at Gosnell's clinic, she ignorantly assumes the numerous instances of post 24-week abortions were all for fetal anomalies.
Also, women don’t get late-term abortions for fun. Seriously. No one is like, “I think I will continue this pregnancy for as long as legally possible before I undergo an invasive medical procedure that is rendered longer, more expensive, and more complicated because I waited six months to have it.” No. It’s actually more like, “I really wanted this baby but now it turns out that there’s a fetal abnormality incompatible with life, and if I continue this pregnancy I risk my own health and/or life to give birth to a baby that either will not live or will only live in extreme pain for a very short while.” Fun stuff like that.
How can people be this foolish? It's like there are all these pro-choice people who have convinced themselves (based solely on the testimony of a few) that all women looking for post-24 week abortions do so because of fetal anomalies or life of the mother.

Live in reality, Jill. Some people who get pregnant want to have their child aborted after 24 weeks for other reasons than fetal anomaly or life/health of the mother. For example, it seems clear that one of murders Gosnell is charged with (Baby Boy A) was the case of a teenager who hid the pregnancy from her family until she was past 30 weeks.

Or the case of anonymous patient of Gosnell's noted in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article.
A 21-year-old neighbor who declined to give her name said she was 61/2 months pregnant when she visited Gosnell, paying him $1,300 in cash for an abortion completed in the middle of the night. She was 16, naive, and was never told that her abortion was illegal under Pennsylvania law, she said.


Gosnell killed hundreds of viable, post 24-week children. Hundreds. And it's not like doctors were referring patients to him or he had a huge advertising budget. Women and girls who wanted to kill their viable unborn children searched him out and found him because he was one of the few abortionists who would do it. But from the case of abortionist Steve Brigham, we know that he wasn't the even the only one in Pennsylvania to offer such services.

What's really noteworthy is that Jill is certain that killing born breathing infants is a crime Gosnell should be punished for. She's dead certain what Gosnell did was wrong.

Yet if Gosnell wasn't so lazy and had used a different technique (say the one used by hero abortionist George Tiller) and killed the children while they were in the womb and before they were born, she'd consider that a perfectly moral and legal procedure.

That is the reality thoughtful pro-choice people struggle with. Unfortunately, Jill isn't one of those people.

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