Posted on 05/23/2005 10:16:50 AM PDT by shhrubbery!
excerpt from transcript of Howard Dean's performance on 'Meet the Press' yesterday, May 22, 2005 (all emphasis mine):
...MR. RUSSERT: Well, the--but several heads of the American Medical Association endorsed banning third-term abortions because they said life of the mother is one thing but the health is a much different issue. It can be defined in so many different ways, it was a major loophole.
DR. DEAN: You know what I'd prefer to see, frankly? I'd prefer to see medical practice boards around the country, state by state--because people do believe different things about this in different states.... I'd prefer to see medical practice boards around the country set ethical guidelines for abortion. I don't have a problem with that.
You know, I don't know of people who do third-term abortions without a moral reason for doing it, which is to save the health and life of the mother. So let them set some ethical guidelines. But I think this debate ought to get out of the realm of having politicians standing up and grandstanding.
It is an incredibly difficult area. It is an area which is conflicted. I don't know anybody who ever had an abortion who feels, "Oh, boy, this is just great. I can't wait to have another one." That's not what this is about. This is a very difficult, horrible choice. Does the government make that choice or does the individual make that choice? There are ethical constraints around the issue of abortion. There is no question about that. I think those ought to be done state by state...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What Dean does not seem to realize is that he is describing, as his ideal scenario, the very situation that existed in the states BEFORE Roe v. Wade:
1. Most states had medical boards, just as "Dr." Dean describes, deciding the ethics of individual abortion cases; and
2. State legislatures, under our federal constitution, had the power to legislate "constraints" on abortion precisely because, as "Dr." Dean says, "people do believe different things about this in different states." (Indeed, some states such as California and New York had already legalized abortion before Roe; and other states had more-or-less "constraining" laws.)
This is anathema to NOW, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and all other radical pro-aborts who demand that Roe v. Wade --i.e., abortion-on-demand at anytime during pregancy, for any reason whatsover-- remain the "law of the land," imposed as it was on all fifty states by judicial fiat in 1973.
These hard-core Dim organizations must be...well, I'll leave it to your imagination what they must be doing in reaction to the Dean gaffe.
So far I haven't heard anyone in the MSM call Dean on this. If and when they do, can Dean be long for this world in his post as DNC chairman?
He started to say something, then just shook his head and walked away.
This is my first ever (and probably only ever) vanity post. I thought I'd never post one, but so far I haven't seen any bloggers (or anyone in the MSM, of course) call attention to Dean's radical departure from Democrat gospel!
LOL. I think Dean is doomed as head of the DNC. Sad as that may be for us.
Rush is talking about this right now.
YES! THANK YOU! AND THANK YOU RUSH!
Cat's out of the bag now.
(Wonder if Rush reads FR? Naahhhh. Probably just GMTA.)
Good call shhrubbery. It pays to be old enough to remember the "old days", since you won't learn about history in the public schools.
How old is Howard Dean? Certainly over 50, isn't he?
So he should be old enough to remember the medical boards, and individual abortions laws in the states, pre-Roe.
And as a doctor, he should doubly know.
I hardly ever call anyone stupid, but I'm starting to think the man is dumb as a rock. Thank God he's not anyone's doctor anymore.
He's reportedly 54 years old.I think he did stuff years ago that is now contributing to his early dementia. A doc I used to work with said that all the abuse one does to ones body will start showing up in their fifties.
I will keep that in mind! :)
Good catch! Thanks for posting.
I wonder if Dr. Dean knows George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas?
" You know, I don't know of people who do third-term abortions without a moral reason for doing it, which is to save the health and life of the mother "
Too bad Russert didn't ask Dean these two questions :
If a woman's life is in danger- why not do an emergency C section ?
How does forcing her to endure the rigors of a protracted labor, save her life ?
2. State legislatures, under our federal constitution, had the power to legislate "constraints" on abortion precisely because, as "Dr." Dean says, "people do believe different things about this in different states."
You are absolutely 100% correct. To me, there are only 2 possibilities that can explain Dean's comments. They are:
1. The Democrat Party now favors overturning Roe v Wade and returning to the pre-1973 status where individual states could set their own rules on abortion.
or:
2. Howard Dean doesn't have a clue what the Roe v Wade ruling was about leading him to mouth platitudes concerning abortion that he thought would sway "ignorant Red State voters" who actually do understand what Roe was about.
I pick the second as the only realistic possibility. And I am now convinced that Dean is really stupid and totally uninformed on even basic issues. He is the best thing to happen for the Republican party in years. May he live long and prosper. ;~))
Depends on what the meaning of "know" is, no doubt.
Clintonian constructions come so naturally to Dimocrats, don't they.
Dean doesn't personally know any doctors who perform late abortions --perhaps. I.e., they don't come to his dinner parties.
But there's no excuse NOT to know. Dr. Tiller's abortuary has been in the news for years. Many other "facts" about abortion have been exposed as lies, even in the MSM, for years.
For example, the Bergen Record in my state of NJ--not a conservative newspaper --exposed the lie that partial birth abortion is "exceedingly rare," reporting in 1996 that in one clinic alone in Englewood, NJ, "doctors" perform 1500 "elective" partial birth abortions yearly!
And it's been well known since 1997 that abortion industry claims that PBAs are performed only on "unviable fetuses" or to "save the life of the mother" are lies:
Ron Fitzsimmons, then and now executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted this was only the "party line." He said, "I lied through my teeth. … In the vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus that is twenty or more weeks along."
"Dr." Tiller is just the tip of the iceberg. And "Dr." Dean ***knows*** it.
As an MD, you would think Dean would understand that inducing a breach birth is NEVER, under any circumstances, a good thing for the "life or health of a mother" woman.
Special note to Chairman Dean... a woman becomes a "mother" when the child lives.
I think you're right. It's #2.
Good point!
And Dean couldn't have deflected the question with the standard "well you and I aren't doctors, so we can't discuss this" line used by most Dim pols.
Even one of the nation's worst abortionists, "Dr." Warren Hern, admits that partial birth abortion is "never necessary to preserve a woman's health."
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