Abortion in the Media

Article by Bill Muehlenberg
September 13, 2009

Yet another abortion-related murder. The controversial issue of abortion has resulted in more killing. And as usual the media is having a feeding frenzy on this story. All over the world the news of this latest shooting is being reported.

The above story is true, except for a few items. Yes, there was a shooting, but not as you might expect. Over the years a handful of abortionists have been killed for various reasons. The mainstream pro-life movement has always roundly condemned the use of violence in stopping abortion.

But this shooting was different. This time a pro-lifer was shot dead. And one other item needs to be mentioned. Unlike the shooting deaths of abortionists, wherein the mainstream media goes ballistic and runs the story for days, calling on authorities to make pro-life activism illegal, this story has hardly been touched upon in the MSM.

Indeed, not only is it almost impossible to find any coverage of this story in the international media, but where it occurred – in the US – there is also frightening silence. Because this is a pro-lifer who has been shot, the MSM has basically decided that this is not a news-worthy item to carry.

So it is largely the alternative media that has been running with the story. Thus I too will write this up, to allow some more public exposure to this important news item. The details are as follows: Michigan man Jim Pouillon was outside of a High School where he was shot three times and died on September 11.

As one press report puts it, “Locals say that the victim, James Pouillon of Owosso, was well-known in the area for his pro-life activities.  Columnist Doug Powers wrote on his blog that Pouillon, called ‘the abortion sign guy’ by Owosso locals, was known for standing on street corners holding up signs with pictures of aborted children.

“Pastor Matt Trehella of Missionaries to the Preborn said today that Pouillon had joined his organization for a few stops of a pro-life tour less than a month ago. ‘Jim was a selfless, soft-spoken, kind-hearted man.  All who knew him, knew this,’ he said. ‘Please pray for Jim’s family.’

At this point it is not clear what the motivation of the shooting was. So we cannot say for sure if this was related directly to the abortion issue. Of course when a pro-abortionist is shot, the media is all over the story, even before it is clear who did the killing and why.

(Stop the press, this just in: “33-year-old Harland James Drake has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder of pro-life veteran Jim Pouillon this morning as he carried a pro-life sign in front of a local high school, reports local news station WILX-TV. Prosecutors said Drake told them he targeted Pouillon because of his pro-life activities.”)

This may have been the first death of a pro-lifer in the US, but it is certainly not the first act of violence against those who would defend the life of the unborn. Violence, intimidation, threats and abuse are the continual lot for those who stand up for children in the womb.

For example, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue said that this is a long-standing problem: “We have received literally hundreds of death threats in the past three months. Our office has been vandalized three times. Just yesterday, the FBI was in our office and picked up a stack of threatening letters that we received. We denounce violence in the strongest terms. The bloodshed must stop both inside and outside of the abortion clinics.”

Thus there is the daily violence against unborn babies, as well as against those who seek to protect them and speak up on their behalf. As Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life said, “James Pouillon today joined the approximately 4,000 other victims who will be killed today because of abortion. The taking of all innocent lives must stop. I call on the leaders of the so called ‘pro-choice’ movement to condemn this killing and to consider all of the people who lose their lives to abortion every single day.”

Cal Zastrow, Co-Founder of Personhood USA, said this about his friend: “This morning a violent man murdered a peaceful pro- life Christian, Jim Pouillon, my close friend. Jim was completely non-violent and never condoned using violence. I knew him very well and had prayed and ministered with him often. He was praying and holding a poster of a newborn baby outside of Owosso High School. One of the students in the school was his granddaughter. His beating heart and measurable brainwaves are stopped. Also today, 4,000 American preborn children with beating hearts and measurable brainwaves are being murdered with suction ‘abortion’ machines or drugs. Their beating hearts and measurable brainwaves are stopped. We condemn both forms of murder. Don’t shoot, stab, smack, slap, or suck the arms and legs off of children with suction machines! Stop the violence!

“The last time I talked to Jim was this week, Monday. I prayed with him over the phone as he was preparing to go talk about Jesus and show pro-life signs in front of Owosso High School, where he was martyred this morning.”

Abortion is clearly the human rights issue of our time. As Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “In the Fifties and Sixties, people lost their lives to secure the civil rights of those victimized by discrimination. Now, James Pouillon has lost his life in the civil rights cause of the 21st Century, the struggle to protect the right to life of every single person, born and unborn. Mr. Pouillon has not died in vain; the struggle will only be renewed because of his courage and sacrifice.”

This tragic story highlights the very real divide in the US about the abortion issue. It is clearly a contentious issue that will not go away. One wishes however that the MSM would be even-handed about this topic. Its near silence about this shooting simply demonstrates how one-sided and biased the MSM is on this topic.

If it ever decides to present a bit of balance here, my job would be less vital. But because it seeks to cover news mainly from a pro-death perspective, this and numerous other alternative media sites will continue to speak out. And for the sake of the 45 to 50 million unborn babies who are killed around the world each year, we dare not remain silent.

Used with permission.

Bill Muehlenberg's CultureWatch delivers reflective and incisive commentary on a wide range of issues, helping to sort through the maze of competing opinions, worldviews, ideologies and value systems.

More information is available from LifeNews.com.

A growing number of induced babies are born alive following failed late-term abortions.

New Queensland Health figures show 19 babies were aborted at 20 weeks or more in 2007, but rather than dying at birth as intended, the newborns were able to breathe unaided. The babies, some as advanced as 26 weeks, were aborted using drugs to induce labour. Once born, no medical help was offered and they died soon afterwards.

Former Queensland Health obstetrician Dr Caroline de Costa, now a professor at James Cook University in Cairns, said it was extremely distressing for parents and medical staff when terminations went wrong. "If babies are born alive after this they are likely to die within a few minutes, although it can take up to half an hour," she said. "We can only keep them wrapped up warm. It is up to the parents whether they want to see the child."

The figures - obtained under the Freedom of Information Act - reveal one in four abortions performed at 20 weeks and more went wrong in 2007, up 20 per cent on 2003. The number of abortions carried out at 20 weeks and more is also increasing, up from 27 in 2003 to 75 in 2007. Medicare funds terminations up to 26 weeks. In the same five-year period, there were 55 babies born alive after a termination procedure and not given medical treatment. Ninety per cent of the 2007 terminations were due to congenital abnormalities. Some were life-threatening, but they also included cleft palates and club feet.

By Hannah Davies, used with permission
From The Courier-Mail,September 01, 2009
 

ACL - Media release
Sunday September 6, 2009

Australian Christian Lobby Managing Director Jim Wallace said Dr Grundmann’s entry into the abortion debate praising Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday for “letting sleeping dogs lie” (Weekend Australian, 5/6 Sept) should send a shiver up the spines of civilised people everywhere.

“Dr Grundmann wants to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’, but the most vicious sleeping dog in this debate, the practice of partial-birth abortion, still needs to be destroyed”, Mr Wallace said.

Dr Grundmann is Australia’s most prominent advocate of “partial-birth abortion”, a technique developed in the US but banned in 2003 by the United States Congress as “a gruesome and inhumane procedure that is never medically necessary.” The method involves half-delivering the baby – often older than those in our hospital nurseries – before piercing its head and crushing the skull. The baby is given no pain relief. The US Supreme Court, which contains a majority of pro-abortion judges, upheld the ban in 2007 – but there is no ban on Dr Grundmann practising this “gruesome and inhumane procedure” in Australia.  

Asked on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes on April 17, 2005, “Do you pierce the baby’s head with a sharp instrument?” he replied, “I’m not going to discuss details of specifics about procedures because I don’t think that you or the public needs to know.”

In November 2005 Dr Grundmann was confronted again on the SBS’s Insight program. “I’m not sure that the debate would in any way be enhanced by descriptions of fairly explicit surgical and destructive procedures,” he said.

Mr Wallace said, “Dr Grundmann clearly does not want his practices exposed to the light of media investigation or parliamentary scrutiny, because he knows the only response of civilised and compassionate parliamentarians would be to impose appropriate regulations.”

Mr Wallace challenged the Health Minsters of Queensland and Victoria – where Dr Grundmann has clinics – to act without delay.

“The Health Ministers have authority to stop this gruesome and unjustified practice immediately, without needing another Parliamentary debate, by making it a condition of licensing for private clinics that they cannot perform partial-birth abortion”, Mr Wallace said.

“This is unfinished business, a ‘sleeping dog’, more important that the small legal technicality dealt with by the Queensland Parliament last week. The practice publicised and practised by Dr Grundmann is ‘gruesome, inhumane and never medically indicated’ and no Government can allow another baby to be mauled to death by this ‘sleeping dog’ of partial-birth abortion”, Mr Wallace said.

Contact: Glynis Quinlan 0408 875 979 or Jim Wallace 0402 341 755

As the pro abortion agenda in Queensland continues it’s relentless onslaught, media across the country have been decrying the plight of women who have been sent across the border into NSW to obtain the medical abortions that they ‘must have’.

The story of ‘Shay’ has been twice reported in The Australian, which cites her story as one of the reasons that Queensland legislation should be amended in response to the withdrawal of medical abortion services in some Queensland facilities.

Nineteen weeks pregnant, Shay was told that her baby was so severely malformed as to have no prospect of survival. She was subsequently advised by her obstetrician to terminate the pregnancy with a drug-induced abortion, according to one article in The Australian.

According to the other article, a surgical termination would create complications for her and husband Brad having other children, because the pregnancy was already into the second trimester.

One of the very worrying aspects of this story is some of the language used to decribe the young woman’s situation. Why is this an abortion she ‘must have’? Was Shay given any real choice? Or was she pressured, as so many women are, to get rid of the dodgy baby and get on with conceiving a better one? Not that those exact words are ever used, but the message is often clear.

Those with the courage to love their children despite even fatal abnormalities can experience great joy, and have the opportunity to grieve a natural loss, rather than having to grieve their own decision. Check out T.K. and Deidrea Lauxs experience with their son Thomas, or the story of baby Faith whose life mother Myah describes as the ‘best 93 days of my life’.

The unfortunate reality of abortion is that what starts as an opportunity, a ‘choice’, quickly becomes an expectation that ultimately robs us of true freedom. Women deserve better than abortion.