The first bill, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, seeks to establish a permanent, government-wide prohibition on federal subsidies for abortion and for healthcare plans that cover abortion. It would make permanent the so-called Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding but must currently be reintroduced every year.
Firestorm ahead: Rick Santurom is discussing Barack Obama's race and abortion.
"The question is -- and this is what Barack Obama didn't want to answer -- is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no," Santorum said in the interview, which was posted online Wednesday. "Well if that person, human life is not a person, then, I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, 'we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.'"
The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto cites abortion as the reason for deranged hatred of Sarah Palin.
To the extent that "feminism" remains controversial, it is because of the position it takes on abortion: not just that a woman should have the "right to choose," but that this is a matter over which reasonable people cannot disagree--that to favor any limitations on the right to abortion, or even to acknowledge that abortion is morally problematic, is to deny the basic dignity of women.
To a woman who has internalized this point of view, Sarah Palin's opposition to abortion rights is a personal affront, and a deep one. It doesn't help that Palin lives by her beliefs. To the contrary, it intensifies the offense.
Blogger P.Z. Myers shows a high degree of thoughtlessness (even more than usual) when he writes that he doesn't think abortionist Kermit Gosnell should be charged with murdering the infants who survived abortion attempts. He's scared it might open the door to charging other abortionists who perform late-term abortions.
He has also been charged with the murders of seven babies, and there I have to disagree. There has to be a difference in degree, or the mothers of those infants would also have to be charged as collaborators (they were all willing volunteers for this medical procedure, and they knew the result would be termination of their pregnancy). They haven't, and they shouldn't. Much noise is being made about the "horrific" killings, but late term abortions, even the ones done in clean, properly maintained facilities with well-trained personnel, are always necessarily bloody and unpleasant affairs, like most surgeries. The important word there is "necessary". Late term abortions should be carried out when it is essential for the life and health of the woman, who is the most important participant in these circumstances, and opening the door to accusing doctors who perform necessary operations as murder is a dangerous precedent.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on abortionist Kermit Gosnell's grand jury report.
Gosnell killed "hundreds" of babies and at least two women during abortions from 1979 to last year at his Women's Medical Society at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue, according to the grand jury. Further, he and his unlicensed, unskilled staff overdosed patients with drugs, perforated their wombs and bowels, and spread venereal disease by using unsterilized equipment, the report said.....They also have a video of the press conference announcing the charges , a report about the inside of the abortion clinic, and the thoughts of an ex-patient.
Williams said he might seek the death penalty for Gosnell in the murders of seven babies born alive and then killed.
"My comprehension of the English language doesn't and cannot adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell and the ghoulish manner in which he 'trained' the unlicensed, uneducated individuals who worked there," Williams said.
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The entire news article focused on Gosnell and that he was providing a house of horrors. And agree he was dead wrong. But he was not alone. What about all the women who sought Dr. Gosnell out and paid him money to perform those illegal abortions. It certainly feels like the women were as culpable as the doctor. It was only because of the high demand from women requesting and paying for late term abortions that allowed this doctor to perform these horrors for the last 2 decades.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder what kind of clientele he was servicing.
ReplyDeleteWho wants a third trimester abortions?
There are many possible answers to this, but one wonders whether he had any dealings with women involved in some kind of criminal enterprise-- eithers as victims or perpetrators (Prostitutes? Drug addicts? Drug dealers?) . Shady people attract shady people. Just pure speculation on my part.