The Case Against Abortion

Ruth Lamperd's article, 'The best doctors are only human', has been welcomed by pro life advocates who remain concerned that our society has only expressed outrage at the loss of one of the twin boys aborted two weeks ago today. It has become obvious that the outrage is because of a  "bungled abortion", that claimed the life of the "wrong baby". 

But what about the other baby boy - the "unhealthy twin"?

In her article, Ms Lamperd describes a contrasting outcome for a boy called Kush, who also had a serious diagnosis similar to that of the "unhealthy twin": "At 19 weeks gestation, medics discovered he had a serious congenital heart defect. They recommended termination because of the likelihood he would die early and painfully. But his parents would not consider abortion. When he was born prematurely at under 2kg they had no expectations. One minute? One day? One week? One month? A year was even too much to expect, even if they hoped".

The article says that "Kush will join classmates at a graduation dinner celebrating the end of his primary school years" and that "Last year, he qualified for his school's cross-country competition and he plays cricket every weekend. He's a kid who was never expected to live long enough to even start primary school, let alone finish it. This little chap functions on only three heart chambers. He's cheeky and smart and he has a mile-wide smile".

How is it possible to know what the possibilities may have been for babies lost to abortion - for our "unhealthy twin", who are simply not given any chance at life? There has developed a "cruel to be kind" mentality in our society that is fast removing any chance that these babies have to 'beat the odds'. And we can all tell a story of someone we know who has!   

Ms Lamperd closes by saying "You can't help notice the wildly contradictory ideas on what constitutes viable human life. Or human life full stop. People like Kush and his parents are in no doubt."

NB. According to the Victorian Health Department's Report - Infant Mortality and Morbidity, over half of the babies aborted late term in Victoria are performed on perfectly healthy babies - so the loss of "the healthy twin" is no different to what happens 'every other day' in Victoria.

Related article here.

 

By Debbie Garratt, Real Choices Australia - Used with permission.

This week we watched in horror as the story of the tragic death of two baby boys at the royal women's hospital  unfolded.  We are rightly horrified.  A healthy, viable, loved baby has been deliberately killed and the parents and other family members will have to live with the loss and grief for the rest of their lives.  It is a tragedy. 

One aspect of this story that will not make the news is that had the 'correct' baby been terminated he would have been simply a number in the 2011 Perinatal Morbidity Statistics.  We wouldn't have heard about him or his family. 

Is it because the baby was healthy that we are outraged and it made the news headlines? No, it can't be that because every year healthy babies are aborted after 23 weeks of pregnancy.  The Perinatal Morbidity Statistics reveal that of 328 late term abortions in 2008, 178 of them were performed on healthy babies whose mothers were experiencing psychosocial problems.  So it isn't that the baby was healthy that we are outraged, otherwise we would be outraged for all of these babies and their mothers.

Is it that the baby was apparently 'wanted' then?  Perhaps not, as research tells us that more than 70% of women having abortions do so feeling as though they have no other choice.  This suggests that if the women were provided social and emotionally supportive alternatives they would have continued their pregnancies.   It wasn't their babies that were unwanted, but the circumstances they found themselves in. 

Perhaps it is that the tragedy of abortion on the lives of babies, women and families has become so great that we don't really want to believe it when we hear it.  When something like this situation occurs it's a collective and cumulative outrage for all mothers and babies that we express.   We should be outraged with a society that continues to allow women to be told that their medically determined 'less than perfect' children are better off not being born or that their social problems are best 'fixed' by the termination of their child.  

The messages we send women and girls about their 'right' to pregnancy and motherhood are outrageous.  Teen mums in Wagga Wagga have been told this month that they must choose between their children and an education,  that abortion would have been a 'better' choice for them.  Instead of looking for ways to support young mums to build a positive future full of opportunities, local services fuss about the lack of surgical termination options available locally.  

Instead of getting the support and encouragement to embrace and love their 'less than perfect' child, even if he only lived a short while, a couple have now lost both their children.  

We should be outraged, but let's be outraged on behalf of every mother not offered what she needs to be able to hold her baby in her arms rather than an ache in her heart for the rest of her life.





Executive Director


Real Choices Australia

My journey through abortion
Used with permission

When I was around the age of 19, my girlfriend came to me one day and told me we were going to have a baby. We had been together for a couple of years and this was a topic we had discussed more than once, should something like this happen.

Sophie refused to tell anyone, especially her parents at that stage, which made things very difficult. I finally convinced her we needed to see a doctor and we went to my doctor to confirm the pregnancy and ensure Sophie was ok. I’m a bit hazy on whose idea it was, whether it was my Dr’s or ours but we ended up at the local hospital being assessed by a social worker.

After many lengthy interviews, both together and separately we were seen as a young couple that could successfully raise a child. And we were ok with that. Due to the social worker’s decision, it was not an option for Sophie to have a legal abortion, from the hospital’s criteria. This was one of the options discussed in the interviews.  I believed at the time we could make this work for our child, even if we didn’t live as a couple.

I finally convinced Sophie we must tell her parents.  I asked her Mum to come on a walk with me and we got no more than 20 yards from the house and she turned and looked at me and asked how far on Sophie was. She’d known all along. This was at the 3month mark.

It was out in the open. I was sure I was going to get dragged out the back of the woodshed, but instead Sophie’s father informed me they were worried Sophie would destroy my life. That was definitely not what I was expecting, nor did I agree with it.

After 27 years some of the exact sequence is lost but somewhere around this time a third party became involved, a woman and her husband .

The next thing I was being informed that Sophie was being taken to Auckland by this third party to the only illegal abortion clinic in NZ at the time. I don’t remember being referred to in the process, it just happened –Sophie and our baby were gone.

Sophie returned a few days later, I went to see her, we just sat, what could you say? I was numb. We stayed together as a couple, as I wanted to be there for her as best I could but the strain grew too much between us and we began to push each other away and tear each other apart..

During this time I had to do something with all the feelings churning inside and I had no one to talk to about it. I was suppressing it all. Who does a young guy talk to about this kind of situation? Talk to the wrong group of friends and you get told you were lucky – you’ve got a second chance at life – that’s not how I saw it at all. I was concerned what the trauma of the situation would do to my own immediate family so I just buried it deeper. I would only really speak of it when I was drunk or under the influence of other substances and with people I felt safe with.

At that time I was a keen outdoorsman so I went to a picturesque lake I knew and had spent many happy hours at. It was and still is a special place. I paddled to the most remote section of the lake and on a small hill I made a little grave and placed a simple cross for our daughter. Since becoming a Christian some 22 years ago and becoming aware of the grace of God, I’ve given my daughter the name Jasmine.

Eventually we ended our relationship. I moved 1000km away and began a new life. I returned to my old town about a year later for a family occasion and as I walked down the street and rounded a corner I walked straight into Sophie. She was heavily pregnant.

We just stopped and stared at each other. We didn’t say a word. Slowly we moved off still staring at each other. I’ve since learnt that often after an abortion a woman may experience a tremendous need to have another child

I later found out Sophie gave that child to her sister to raise.

Approximately 18months later I received a phone call very late one night. It was my Mum. Sophie had taken her life.

There is a road I can drive down whenever I return to that area, and from it I can see Jasmine’s lake and hill.  The entire area has since been set aside as a wildlife sanctuary not to be disturbed.

I’ve only just started to tell my story and it stirs up a myriad of feelings. Some of the strongest ones are the anger, frustration and sheer grief that I didn’t want anyone to die and I couldn’t protect either of them. Also I wasn’t permitted to be with Sophie when she was in one of her darkest moments in her life. Other times I stop and wonder what Jasmine would be like if she were here now.

My hope is that in time more men will speak up about their experiences and through that, change will occur. Ultimately, greater support will be provided, and there will be a deeper understanding of how men feel and cope with the experience of abortion - which, by the way, we don’t do very well. Personally I believe, suppressed grief from abortion could well contribute to many of the health issues men face and don’t deal with. We’re very good at self-medicating.

The pain doesn’t go away as such but I’ve learnt to live with it and embrace it and move forward with it through the Cross of Jesus. It’s in that place where He can touch my heart, take my pain and grief; and in turn enable me to move on by His Grace.

There are many different seasons with grief, and it is important to be gentle on yourself in working through it. The guilt and shame have been the most difficult to deal with. Sharing my story firstly in a safe environment was such a tremendous help in overcoming the shame. I’d encourage any male struggling to email Open Doors or a likeminded support group and take that bold step. In that place, healing will begin to flow.

I’d like to thank my beautiful wife and our five children, without their support and encouragement I wouldn’t be standing before you. I’ve only just begun the next part of my journey through abortion.

 

Congratulations to 60 Minutes for their story about teenage mums and their babies, aired in April (in case you missed it!).  Karl Stefanovic was positive about the 'gutsy' young ladies making enormous progress in education and in raising their babies. 
The story describes the criticism these young mums endure and makes it clear that while teenage pregnancy is a challenge, it is most definitely not the end of the world - despite what parents, friends, boyfriends and society may say.
 
The Burnside High School is featured in the story, showing the fabulous support and alternative education that is assisting these young mums to thrive. 
Bernadette Black (from 'The Brave Foundation') also appears, with her family. Having been a teen Mum, she went on to write 'Brave Little Bear' and become a nurse. She later received the award for 'Barnados Mother of the Year'. 

Story contacts (from the 60 MInutes website):

"For more information on the Burnside High School program for teenage mums - STEMM (Supporting Teenagers with Education Mothering and Mentoring): www.stemm.com.au

Bernadette Black (former Barnardos Mother of the Year) : www.bravefoundation.org.au "

 Rebecca Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker from the U.S, an attorney, a wife and mother of five. Her life story is inspiring - having been conceived in rape, she has made it her mission to change the negative stereotypes and expectations surrounding pregnancies by rape and to advocate for lives like hers that are often aborted.
"I do hope that, as a child conceived in rape, I can help to put a face, a voice, and a story to this issue" - Rebecca Kiessling.

The following article has been used with permission.

We've all heard someone say "I'm pro-life, well, except in cases of rape . . ." or "I'm pro-choice, especially in cases of rape !"

Have you ever considered how really insulting it is to say to someone, "I think your  mother should have been able to abort you."?  It's like saying, "If I had my way, you'd be dead right now."  And that is the reality with which I live every time someone says they are pro-choice or pro-life "except in cases of rape" because I absolutely would have been aborted if it had been legal in Michigan when I
was an  unborn child, and I can tell you that it hurts. 
But I know that most people don't put  a face to this issue -- for them abortion is just a concept -- with a quick cliche, they  sweep it under the rug and forget about it. 

I was adopted nearly from birth.  At 18, I learned that I was conceived out of a brutal rape at knife-point by a serial rapist.  Like most people, I'd never considered that abortion applied to my life, but once I received this information, all of a sudden I realized that, not only does it apply to my life, but it has to do with my very existence.  It was as if I could hear the echoes of all those people who, with the most sympathetic of tones, would say, “Well, except in cases of rape. . .  ," or who would rather fervently exclaim in disgust: “Especially is cases of rape!!!”  All these people are out there who don’t even know me, but are standing in judgment of my life, so quick to dismiss it just because of how I was conceived.  I felt like I was now going to have to justify my own existence, that I would have to prove myself to the world that I shouldn’t have been aborted and that I was worthy of living.  I also remember feeling like garbage because of people who would say that my life was like garbage -- that I was disposable.

I've often experienced those who would confront me and try to dismiss me with quick quips like, “Oh well, you were lucky!” Be sure that my survival has nothing to do with luck.  The fact that I’m alive today has to do with choices that were made by our society at large, people who fought to ensure abortion was illegal in Michigan at the time – even in cases of rape, people who argued to protect my life, and people who voted pro-life.  I wasn’t lucky.  I was protected.  And would you
really rationalize that our brothers and sisters who are being aborted every day are just somehow "unlucky"?!!

Although my birthmother was thrilled to meet me, she did tell me that she actually went to two back-alley abortionists and I was almost aborted.  After the rape, the police referred her to a counselor who basically told her that abortion was the thing to do.  She said there were no crisis pregnancy centers back then, but my birthmother assured me that if there had been, she would have gone if at least for a little more guidance.  The rape counselor is the one who set her up with the back-alley abortionists.  For the first, she said it was the typical back-alley conditions that you hear about as to why "she should have been able to safely and legally abort" me -- blood and dirt all over the table and floor.  Those back-alley conditions and the fact that it was illegal caused her to back out, as with most women. 

Then she got hooked up with a more expensive abortionist.  This time she was to meet someone at night by the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Someone would approach her, say her name, blindfold her, put her in the backseat of a car, take her and then abort me . . . , then blindfold her again and drop her back off.  And do you know what I think is so pathetic?  It’s that I know there are an awful lot of people out there who would hear me describe those conditions and their response would just be a pitiful shake of the head in disgust:  “It’s just so awful that your birthmother should have had to have gone through that in order to have been able to abort you!”  Like that’s compassionate?!!  I fully realize that they think they are being compassionate, but that’s pretty cold-hearted from
where I stand, don’t you think?  That is my life that they are so callously talking about and there is nothing compassionate about that position.  My birthmother is okay – her life went on and in fact, she's doing great, but my life would have been ended.  I may not look the same as I did when I was four years old or four days old yet unborn in my mother’s womb, but that was still undeniably me and I would have been killed through a brutal abortion.

The nasty disposition and foul mouth of this second back-alley abortionist, along with a fear for her own safety, caused her to back out.  When she told him by phone that she wasn't interested in this risky arrangement, this abortion doctor insulted her and called her names.  To her surprise, he called again the next day to try to talk her into aborting me once again, and again she declined and was hurled insults.  So that was it -- after that she just couldn’t go through with it.  My birthmother was then heading into her second trimester – far more dangerous, far more expensive to have me 
aborted.

In law school, I’d also have classmates say things to me like, “Oh well!  If you’d been aborted, you wouldn’t be here today, and you wouldn’t know the difference anyway, so what does it matter?”  Believe it or not, some of the top pro-abortion philosophers use that same kind of argument:  “The fetus never knows what hits him, so there’s no such fetus to miss his life.”    And if a baby is aborted, and no one else is around to know about it, does it matter?  The answer is, “YES!  Their lives matter.  My life matters.  Your life matters and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

According to the research of Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, co-editor of the book Victims and Victors:  Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault, and author of the article "Rape, Incest and Abortion:  Searching Beyond the Myths," most women who become pregnant out of sexual assault do not want an abortion and are in fact worse-off after an abortion.  http://www.afterabortion.org. 
So most people's position on abortion in cases of rape is based upon faulty premises:  1) the rape victim would want an abortion, 2) she'd be better off with an abortion and 3) that child's life just isn't worth having to put her through the pregnancy. 

I hope that my story, and those following, will be able to help dispel that last myth.

For Life,
Rebecca
rebecca@rebeccakiessling.com

Rebecca's website has footage from three women who were raped and who defied pressure from society to abort their babies. Their stories are both beautiful and powerful - well worth watching.  http://rebeccakiessling.com/PregnantByRape.html

Social commentator, Bill Muehlenberg, responds to the latest from the pro-abortion camp:

Those who seek to defend the indefensible have to resort to increasingly bizarre argumentation and twisted thinking to make their case. A prime example of this is the attempt to justify the killing of unborn babies. Some of the most inane and vacuous reasoning can be found coming from the pro-abortionists.

Consider a piece found in the Saturday Age (why are we not surprised?). Jane Caro, a “spokeswoman for Pro-Choice NSW” had one of the more ludicrous pieces I have seen for some time now.

... Consider this bizarre remark: “No one wants to have an abortion. It is not something women take lightly, but sometimes they decide it is the lesser of two evils.” One could write an essay on all the logical fallacies found in this one sentence alone.

First of all is the usual pro-death comment that ‘no one wants an abortion” and that it is never “taken lightly”. No one wants an abortion? Then why are entire industries devoted to ensuring that women can have abortions? If no one wants them then why are 45-50 million of them performed every year?

If no woman wanted an abortion, there would be presumably far less than these millions a year. ...

Indeed, if this is simply a “blob of tissue”, then why even bother to take it seriously? If the pro-death camp is intent on persuading us that abortion is no different than having your tonsils out or clipping your nails, than why should any moral angst arise from this choice?

Indeed, how in the world can she go on about abortion being “the lesser of two evils”? Is clipping your toenail evil? Of course not. Given that the pro-death camp wants to convince us that just a mass of cells is being removed, then why the moral panic? It only makes sense to describe abortion as evil if in fact the pro-life camp is correct: every abortion kills an unborn baby, a very young member of the human race.

Is Ms Caro conceding that this is the case? If so, she should join the pro-life camp. If not, she is being disingenuous to even speak about various evils, or hard choices. Clipping a nail is never a hard choice, and we do not have great moral debates about it. So either Ms Caro must consider that killing an unborn baby is far different than nail clipping, or she should change her tune.

... Consider also her closing paragraph: “Women are not simply portals through which other human beings enter the world. They are thinking, breathing, sentient beings, as human as any man. Therefore the only moral way to decide what should occur in the unfortunate and fraught case of an unwanted pregnancy is to allow the person most directly affected to decide.”

To see how empty her rhetoric is here, all we have to do is substitute a few words: “Unborn babies are not simply objects which other human beings can dispose of at will. They are thinking, breathing, sentient beings, as human as any woman. Therefore the only moral way to decide what should occur in the unfortunate and fraught case of an unwanted pregnancy is to allow the person most directly affected to decide.”

Full article.