That taboo topic - again -- Fetus aborted at 6 months because of a cosmetic deformity

Toronto Sun ^ | December 13, 2003 | Michael Coren

[Clive]

Let me tell you a secret about abortion. You're not meant to talk about it. Really. Don't say a word.

As a journalist, you can call for hospitals to be closed, the poor to be ignored, minorities to be exploited and you'll still be acceptable in polite and correct society. But say that life begins at conception and the doors close on you like you were a criminal in a prison.

I used to write about the issue too often, I think. Now I hold my fire, make sure my guns are loaded to the full. And, oh, how full they are now, as I tell the story of a brave, beautiful woman and the child for whom she fights.

The woman is Joanna Jepson, a curate in the Church of England. She is 27 years old, attractive, modern and wise. She was also born with a facial defect that required corrective surgery. It was that fact, among others, that made her so very angry in this particular case of an unborn child in the sixth month of development being aborted in Britain.

The reason? It had a cleft palate. The parents decided they really couldn't cope with the now very common and relatively minor surgery to repair the palate of their child and instead asked doctors to get rid of it.

The obliging doctors did. Out it came, cleft palate and all, and into the hospital garbage along with the rotten organs and the bodily waste. Six months. Meaning it was a baby, could have survived outside of the womb, was perfect in every other way.

How a parent, how a mother or a father, could have requested such a thing is, frankly, beyond me.

Sense of solidarity

Beyond Jepson, too. She felt not only a moral stab on hearing of this but a sense of solidarity with another powerless human being who happened to have a cosmetic deformity. Because Joanna's parents, if callous, could have decided to have had a hit job done on her as well while she was still safe in her mother's womb.

The law in Britain is vague on abortion but usually prevents the procedure from taking place after 24 weeks. Anything later than that is very rare, and would have to involve ultimate danger to the life of the mother. Not a cleft palate to the child.

So Joanna went to the police and the lower courts, who told her to get lost. After all, there were parking tickets to hand out and other serious offences like that. But this young woman, a feminist who has battled for recognition in church and society, refused to listen. She fought on, and finally the High Court in Britain agreed with her arguments and has ordered the police to investigate.

We don't know what the outcome will be, but already the pro-abortion advocates are screaming mad. Problem is, this time they've rather given themselves away and have alienated entire chunks of the previously supportive or indifferent British population. Because abortion has always been argued from the standpoint of female liberation and autonomy.

Hard to do that when a fully formed, healthy and beautiful child was slaughtered because of a cleft palate. Those who have previously preferred to argue about Beckham than babies are now questioning the basic premises behind abortion.

The abortion took place because this facial problem was classified as a "serious handicap." That is simply a lie. No debate, no argument. A lie. Liar, liar, government grants on fire. Because this involves lots of taxpayers' money and an entire industry. Just like in good old Canada.

Fool and romantic that I am, I'd like to think a child with a cleft palate has a right to live. But then I'm an extremist. I'd like to think children with Downs syndrome have a right to live, and that none of us measures up to some artificial notion of perfection. But then I believe in equality, which is something the abortion lobby seems to have abandoned rather a long time ago.

Not Joanna Jepson, though. She knows the pain and knows the truth. Voices sometimes cry from the grave, and their echoes are heard by living heroes. Thank heavens.

[Clive]

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[international american]

"Fool and romantic that I am, I'd like to think a child with a cleft palate has a right to live. But then I'm an extremist"

This indeed does make me ill. Heartless Ba$tards!!

[ValerieUSA]

Well written article! I hope it has a lot of readers - people who usually won't read an abortion article.

[Spell Correctly]

It means you hate women.

Here in this country, only about 10% agree with the Democratic platform position of abortion on demand, all the way until the umbilical cord is cut. But, if you disagree with that position, then you're "out of the mainstream, " a "religious zealot," and an "extremist."

[international american]

I love women, but put me down as a "religious zealot" anyway:)

[mitchbert]

Coren's article was published in the Toronto Sun and he is a well known writer and radio personality here. Bet on at least 250,000 people seeing this today. Minimum. Could be way more.

Thanks, Clive. I skipped over this at MARS this morning. :-)

[TheSpottedOwl]

Ms Jepson doesn't seem like a feminist to me. She sounds like a decent person.

[South40]

[international american]

What a great cartoon!
Best regards, IA

[PaxMacian]

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Psalm 139:13
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14 :I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 :My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 :Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Galatians 1:15
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,…

Isaiah 49:1 :
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

Matthew 18:5
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Deuteronomy 30:19
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

Proverbs 6:16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

[Paul Atreides]

I'd like to ask Joanna what the differences are in a child that is aborted for cosmetic reasons and a child that is aborted simply because abortion is being used as a means of after-the-fact birth control. It seems that her indignation, while appropriate, is a little late in coming.

[Paul Atreides]

There have been some, who have suggested getting rid of the elderly, the infirm, and the mentally handicapped. They are part of the compassion crowd, you see. They don't want tax money, that could go to AIDS research, being squandered on the "useless."

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[Qwinn]

I now refer to abortion as "a woman's right to participate in a eugenics program".

The couple of times I've tried it on a diehard abortion supporter, it's been surprisingly effective. You'd be amazed at how that perspective hardly ever occurs to them. It often makes 'em stop short.

When they tell you "abortion is NOT a eugenics program", show 'em this:

CNN Recommends Abortion for Down's Syndrome Babies:

http://www.nationalreview.com/shiflett/shiflett200311100904.asp

Qwinn


Qwinn

[vetvetdoug]

When is it going to become legal to have a post partum abortion?

[MainFrame65]

The sad fact is that these heartless, selfish baXtards played the incremental game on us until they could get their lies to the Supreme Court and sell them on it. Now we have to fight back from defeat, and with 42 million casualties already, use our own form of incrementalism to win back the high ground.

The killers are right that the PBA was the first step, and I think we have to be grateful for even those who will go no farther than that - at least for a while. I will not be fully satisfied with less than a total ban on abortion except to save the mother's LIFE, but I will take anything less that moves in the right direction until the final goal is reached.

[PropheticZero]

There have been some, who have suggested getting rid of the elderly, the infirm, and the mentally handicapped. They are part of the compassion crowd, you see. They don't want tax money, that could go to AIDS research, being squandered on the "useless."

Screw AIDS research. I say if it comes down to it, the infirm and mentally handicap rate higher since their condition is an unavoidable problem, then people infected with AIDS which is 99% avoidable. If I had to choose one it wouldn't be AIDS research.

[Cindy]

LIFE!