Life Links 4/28/15

A student at Harvard shares her abortion experience in the Harvard Crimson.

I headed to the clinic a week later with just a book, a water bottle, my Harvard ID, and a locket containing a picture of my ex-boyfriend and me. The procedure didn’t take long. It wasn’t even that physically painful. But when it was over, I screamed. I couldn’t stop screaming. As I write these words, it has been over a month since the abortion—and on the inside that screaming hasn’t stopped.

The next time someone claims that “no one is pro-abortion” you can feel free to share this article with them.         

Recently, the Daily Kos published an article titled I Am Pro-Choice, Not Pro-Abortion. “Has anyone ever truly been pro-abortion?” one commenter asked.

Uh. Yes. Me. That would be me.

I am pro-abortion like I’m pro-knee-replacement and pro-chemotherapy and pro-cataract surgery. As the last protection against ill-conceived childbearing when all else fails, abortion is part of a set of tools that help women and men to form the families of their choosing. I believe that abortion care is a positive social good. I suspect that a lot of other people secretly believe the same thing. And I think it’s time we said so.

Time has a piece entitled, “Two Things You Don’t Know About Roe v. Wade That Will Surprise You” which describes how Blackmun’s original opinion in Roe was apparently changed at the suggestion from Justice Powell and one of his clerks. 

As the second oral argument drew near in October 1972, Hammond wrote a game-changing bench memo to Powell, pointing out a recent federal court case out of a lower court in Connecticut that had address that state’s abortion statute. In what lawyer’s call dicta (meaning not critical to the opinion), the Connecticut judges argued that the critical line in any pregnancy was “viability,” that is, when the fetus could live outside the womb—roughly the end of the sixth month.

No one argued “viability” in the briefs or in oral argument. Yet it was Powell who gently suggested to Blackmun that the Court consider and accept “viability” as its important dividing line. The Court adopted a three-part test, according to the trimesters of a nine-month pregnancy, but decided that the rights of a fetus were not to be considered until viability. While the other parts of Roe have dissolved, “viability” remains the law today.

Senate reaches agreement on trafficking legislation, abortions won’t be funded, Planned Parenthood spins itself into a tizzy

So the month long game of chicken on human trafficking legislation has ended and it looks like the GOP and prolife groups won.

According to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, the money has been split so that restrictions on abortion do not apply to fees collected for the victims, which Democrats said constituted an expansion of abortion limitations. The segregated fund would pay for law enforcement services and shelters, not medical services.

Money for medical services for the victims would be fenced off in a fund furnished by taxpayer money. Federal restrictions on abortion funding would apply to that fund.

So no federal funding for abortion, right?  Pro-choice groups must be disappointed, right?

Well, not Planned Parenthood who went into spin mode after the deal became public. 

Here’s their first tweet which declared:

BREAKING: The Senate has reached an agreement on #JVTA that provides survivors with needed svcs & does not expand #Hyde. #WomenOverPolitics

Now if I was a pro-choicer I would read “needed svcs” as abortion since for the whole month Planned Parenthood has been saying abortion needs to be funded for victims of trafficking.

Their next tweet declares that various politicians held the line and preventing Hyde from being extended and the only bad news is that is the legislation was delayed a month. 
  
That’s a hilarious claim of winning after less than a week ago, Planned Parenthood and NARAL co-issued a press release which urged the Senate to pass a “clean bill” and “reject any attempt to deny survivors of human trafficking access to the full range of reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion.”

While Planned Parenthood was busy lying through their teeth and acting like the legislation meets their goals, NARAL was being more genuine and admitting that federal funds aren’t going to be used to pay for abortions. 

NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue made this statement in response to the announced compromise over the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act:

"This bill, and the deal reached, are a perfect example of why the so-called Hyde amendment is bad policy and harmful to women. Because of the Hyde amendment, this bill still denies the most vulnerable women necessary access to vital health services.

When we are talking about a community in which up to eighty percent of victims end up pregnant, often multiple times, it is unconscionable that Republicans are willing to cast aside the rights and freedoms of women and families, particularly the survivors of human and sex trafficking, by denying them the full range of health care they deserve.

So while Planned Parenthood was telling its members and the media that the bill “provides survivors of human trafficking with immediate access to needed health care services,” NARAL was saying the exact opposite. 

NARAL Colorado has bad tweet of the day but for different reasons than you think

(Updated: The Crimes Against Pregnant Women is a bill that already passed)

Below is a tweet from NARAL Colorado

To your average prolife observer (including myself) this tweet from a NARAL affiliate comes off as being opposed to the "Crimes Against Pregnant Women" legislation.  The first thing that comes into a prolifer's head is "What?  Those crazy pro-aborts are now opposed to harsh penalties for people who attack pregnant women and kill their unborn children."

Except it's not. After the horrific attack on Michelle Wilkins and the tragic death of her child and the lack of homicide charges for that death, Colorado legislators have introduced legislation to criminalize actions which result in the death of an unborn child.

Prolife legislators have introduced the Offenses Against Unborn Children legislation which includes the unborn as persons for homicide and assault charges and makes exemptions for abortion and actions the mother takes against herself.

Pro-choice legislators already passed the Crimes Against Pregnant Women legislation which made various crimes against pregnant women that result in the death of her child to be felonies of differing classes.  For example, the unlawful termination of pregnancy in the first degree is a class 3 felony.  It's a class 2 felony if the mother dies.

For pro-choice groups, the unborn child can never be the victim.  For them, if a woman is attacked and her unborn child dies, there is no homicide. There is just an attack on the mother. 

So NARAL Colorado's tweet is attempting to say that Colorado shouldn't pass the Offenses Against Unborn Children legislation because the Crimes Against Pregnant Women is already on the books but does so in such a muddled way that it leaves readers with the impression NARAL Colorado opposes harsh penalties for ending pregnancy against a mother's wishes when they don't.

NARAL Colorado also didn't respond to any of the numerous tweets asking about their tweet/position.  If you don't clarify quickly, your lack of response seems like an indication you believe what people think you believe.  That's social media 101.    

Life Links 4/15/15

NARAL will be hosting an event where comedians make fun of crisis pregnancy centers. 

There's no shortage of these laughably absurd anecdotes, and NARAL is now hoping to shed light on the manipulative tactics and misinformation of crisis pregnancy centers through an unconventional advocacy event this week in Oakland: a comedy show.....

On April 16 at the New Parkway (474 24th St., Oakland), four comedians will speak out about crisis pregnancy centers as part of a comedy event NARAL is organizing called Stand Up for Choice. The show will feature Kurt Braunohler, a Los Angeles-based comedian and the event's headliner; Nato Green, a San Francisco-based comic and San Francisco Examiner columnist; Aparna Nancherla, a New York-based comic and former writer for W. Kamau Bell's show Totally Biased; and Eliza Skinner, an LA-based comic and Funny or Die writer. Their stand-up routines will touch on CPCs and other topics.....

A majority of the centers — some licensed as community clinics by the state, others unlicensed — referred to fetuses as "babies" and told the women they were "already a mother," NARAL reported.

NARAL’s next move will apparently be to make fun of baby showers and anyone who uses the term baby bump.



Bloomberg has an article where Congresswoman Renee Elmers signals she is in favor of a revised version of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Ellmers said the new version, as shown to her, would no longer require victims of rape to report the crime to law enforcement if they wish to have a late-term abortion under the law. She said the physician would have to know this was a pregnancy as a result of a rape.

A new study in Health Economics finds that making emergency contraception available over the counter hasn’t had the best results. 

Utilizing state-level variation in access to EBC, we find that providing individuals with over-the-counter access to EBC leads to increase STD rates and has no effect on abortion rates. Moreover, individual-level analysis using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicates that risky sexual behavior such as engaging in unprotected sex and number of sexual encounters increases as a result of over-the-counter access to EBC, which is consistent with the state-level STD findings.

Life Links 4/13/15

The opening of a Planned Parenthood in El Centro, California has been delayed in opening because they didn’t pass the fire inspection.

At the clinic's final inspection, the city's fire chief said the building had been incorrectly classified. The new classification requires the clinic to add a fire-suppression system and other expensive improvements.

Planned Parenthood officials said the city is responding to pressure from people who don't want the clinic to open.

El Centro Fire Chief Kenneth Herbert said that had nothing to do with his decision.

"I've got a job to do and it's about protecting life, enforcing life safety code and such, and I've never been one to bow to pressure," Herbert said.

  
The editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle is upset prolifers have used environmental law to prevent Planned Parenthood from converting a building into an abortion clinic.

In the lawsuit, Respect Life South San Francisco alleged that the city should have conducted an environmental review before approving the renewal of a vacant downtown building into a health clinic. The lawsuit has held up the conversion for 18 months and counting.....

We can now add women’s health services to the toll of public goods that have been stymied by the California Legislature’s refusal to stand up to the interest groups who seem to think CEQA should remain carved in stone. It needs reform so that it no longer provides a free pass into court for people whose real agendas have nothing to do with the environment.

    

Here’s some dreadful advice from Dear Abby to a teen girl worried her father will forced her into an abortion: Go to Planned Parenthood.

You must also be sure to have the best prenatal care possible, so your child will be born healthy. Planned Parenthood has clinics where this care is offered, and you should contact it as soon as possible. If you check its website, www.plannedparenthood.org, you also will find information about adoption.

Senate Democrats are still opposing human trafficking legislation unless it include abortion funding.

Abortionist says abortion is good because children who aren't aborted fare worse than peers

Longitme abortionist David Grimes writes in The Huffington Post and tries to justify his years of killing unborn human beings by looking at research (some from more than 50 years ago) which follows women who were denied abortions. 

These unwanted children fare less well in life than their peers. Their social handicaps persist at least into adulthood. Under-employment, poverty, and dependency on social services are other consequences of denied abortions.

You know who fares far less than their peers?  Children who are aborted.