Posted on 10/26/2004 2:18:04 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
Since we can't post stuff from the Rockford Register-Star (and none of the local TV stations have a story on it) I figure I'd pass the info on.
Richard Ragsdale worked at the Northern Illinois Women's Center in Rockford for 31 years, hanging his shingle out in April, 1973, not long after the Roe vs. Wade decision. He was the region's only abortion provider. He was 69 years old and died after a short illness, which I've been told was pancreatic cancer.
Recently the clinic had gone to being open two days a week. Since Ragsdale's hospitalization, that has been reduced to one day. The Register-Star reports that the clinic will stay open with another doctor performing the abortions, and a local protestor tells me they've seen a new face showing up down there one day a week. Our bet is that they're having to bring someone in from Chicago.
I'd like to echo the words of another local protestor, Kevin Rilott, who said, "I pray that God has mercy on him like I pray he has mercy on all of us." But I will also say that the Register-Star article calls Ragsdale a frequent church-goer, and I shudder that any "church" would have a man elbow-deep in the blood of children.
The Register-star article is here. Be advised this article is subject to a PROJECTILE-VOMITING-BARF-ALERT.
John Anderson- yes he is from here.
I will tell you all this- that "Fort Turner" abortion clinic was one very scary looking place. I can't imagine the how it feels for women to pass that place years afetr having been so hideously violated by Ragsdale.
Absolutely nightmarish. I doubt there is much of a line to replace the butcher.
*TODAY* is *THE* *DAY* of *SALVATION*....
excerpt:
While the 50,000 or more children he has murdered over the past 30 years will never have names by which they can be remembered, the butcher of Fort Turner, “Dr.” Richard Ragsdale (I refuse to use his title without the inverted commas), will go down in history for his “contribution” to “a woman’s right to choose.” Showing exquisite care for his “patients,” Ragsdale filed suit in 1988 to overturn an Illinois law that required “clinics” like N.I.W.C. to have operating rooms that meet hospital standards. (Ragsdale was already operating out of Fort Turner by that point.) Turnock v. Ragsdale, scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on December 5, 1989, was expected to provide the Court with an opportunity to revisit Roe v. Wade (or at least to clarify questions raised earlier that year in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services). On November 22, however, the case was settled out of court, when the state of Illinois agreed to create a new class of lightly regulated abortion “clinics” (that just happened to include Ragsdale’s chamber of horrors at Fort Turner) and guaranteed the “right” to an abortion with essentially no restraints through the 18th week of pregnancy.
“Dr.” Ragsdale has privileges at two of the hospitals in town, SwedishAmerican and Rockford Memorial. (St. Anthony’s does not let him in the door.) As we walk back up the alley to Broadway and the front of Fort Turner, I wonder: Do any members of the board of either hospital ever pass by here? If so, what do they think of the rubber chickens hanging in the gable windows, Wayne Webster’s sick slap at the pro-lifers who meet out on the sidewalk every week to pray? Or the signs in other windows: “What the Hell You Looking Up Here For?”; “PROTECTED BY MR. SMITH & MR. WESSON”; and, just to show his concern for his tenant’s “patients,” “BEWARE OF PICKPOCKETS AND WILD WOMEN”? (Previous signs were even worse: “Jesus loves these braindead a--holes,” “These Bible-thumpers suffer from lack-o-nookie,” “Free coat hangers to picketer’s wives and mothers,” “God bless these horny old sweat-hogs.”) Or the mocking little shrine Webster has created of items—a crucifix, a nun doll, a picture of Pope John Paul II—left behind by pro-lifers? Do they know that Webster’s own son went to Turner School, where now 25 to 70 children are slaughtered every week? Do they even care?
I wish he were hear to testify to how much wrong he perpetrated in his life...but he chose differently and now I honestly don't care...I pray that another baby butcher reads this and takes heed - life is full of choices, and the consequences can *REALLY* be detrimental.
My response would elicit a knock on my door, so I'll politely refrain from commenting on the growing frustration that eats me alive about men and women so depraved...again, I wish he had chosen a different path, but his path is his own - and now the "Ha-has" are his eternal condition.
Is Mrs. Baby-butcher/Predator still counted among the living?
hear=here
The non-judgemental part comes in when we realize that we're hellbound as well, unless we are under the grace of the blood of Jesus. I hope Richard Ragsdale is in Heaven today, but that hope is based on a belief in miracles, not any expectation that such a man would change. Why should he, when apparently some pastor and congregation were willing to enable him for decades, telling him he was a good Christian while he spent his days spilling innocent blood?
Judgement needs to begin in the house of God, and soon.
I assume he is getting warmer now.
If he failed to repent, I'm sure he wishes he had no soul.
The print version of the Register-Star article differs from the web version, and in it Ragsdales wife mentions that he was an altar boy, and also sang in a church choir when he was young.
None of us. Not a bleedin' one.
Was John Anderson an admirer of Ragsdale? Wasn't he one who favored federal support for all abortions at any time for any reason for any woman?
A lot of so-called Christians are more than happy to see someone they do not like suffer.
Excellent question. It is better explained by saying that God either causes or allows all things. God caused my children to be born. God allows abortions, because if he prevented sins we wouldn't have free will, we'd just be automatons.
I remember hearing about that (it happened before I moved to the area) but could not find confirmation online, so I didn't mention it. I didn't want to get the thread pulled because of some legal vulnerability.
So, what was the deal with this not being prosecuted?
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