Posted on 09/24/2005 2:08:34 PM PDT by wagglebee
I have written only a handful of columns that required fighting back the tears. This is one of them.
I got a call last Thursday from a colleague-in-arms asking me for help. He wanted me to write the story I am about to tell because it has been buried by a conspiratorial level of silence rooted in political and media bias.
This is the story about an incredibly loving young girl named Christin. A very active high-school graduate and a beloved member of her softball team and community, she was sweet beyond the norm as so often is the case for children with her diagnosis. She had Down syndrome. (I have heard it said, anecdotally, the extra chromosome which characterizes Trisomy 21, encodes for love. For those of you blessed enough to know anyone with Down syndrome, you will likely agree.)
There is simply something about these gifted children that reminds us all about what really matters in life no matter how busy and how complicated our lives appear. Sen. Brownback, R-Kan., made just that point last week on the third day of hearings on the nomination of Judge Roberts.
He spoke on the effects of Roe vs. Wade and on children diagnosed with a disability while still in the womb. Specifically, the records show that 80-90 percent of all children diagnosed with DS are killed. One tragedy to this statistic beyond the obvious taking of life is that waiting lists of people exist to adopt these children. These deaths are a great loss not only to the mother and family, but society as a whole. By way of example, Sen. Brownback spoke of a young man named Jimmy diagnosed with DS who operates an elevator in the Senate building.
His warm smile welcomes us every day. We're a better body for him. He told me the other day – he frequently gives me a hug in the elevator afterwards. I know he does Sen. Hatch often, too, who kindly gives him ties, some of which I question the taste of, Orrin ...(LAUGHTER)
... but he kindly gives ties.
HATCH: It doesn't have to get personal ...
(LAUGHTER)
BROWNBACK: And Jimmy said to me the other day after he hugged me; he said Shhh, don't tell my supervisor. They're telling me I'm hugging too many people.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWNBACK: And, yet, we're ennobled by him and what he does and how he lifts up our humanity and 80 to 90 percent of the kids in this country like Jimmy never get here.
What does that do to us? What does that say about us?
That means Jimmy and Christin were lucky exceptions to the general rule and trend to kill the unborn diagnosed with a disability. Sadly, Chrisitin's luck unexpectedly ran out this past year when she was not only sexually assaulted in January of this year, but remarkably became pregnant. No one seems sure of the occurrence that young women diagnosed with DS become pregnant. According to the experts I consulted, the numbers are likely too rare for an official count. One thing is sure, of those becoming pregnant, complications are likely to exist.
In Christin's case, she was taken by her family at 28 weeks pregnant to Wichita, Kan., to the infamous abortion clinic of Dr. George Tiller. At that time, a drug was administered to kill the baby and another drug to open the cervix for delivery or removal of the dead baby. After starting the procedure, which normally takes 3-4 days, Christin was sent to a local hotel to begin her labor.
Somewhat surprisingly, she returned to the clinic the next day, the abortion procedure was completed and she was once again told to return to her hotel room. Immediately her condition began to deteriorate. When she returned to the clinic, her symptoms were misdiagnosed as dehydration. She was given an IV and again sent back to her hotel where she began having episodes of vomiting and unconsciousness. She was advised to return to the clinic where she became unresponsive. By this time Christin was in serious trouble. According to one doctor who reviewed her autopsy report, she was "bleeding and oozing from every orifice of her body."
A clinic employee called 911. More worried abut the clinics image than Christin, she begged the dispatcher to turn off the lights or sirens of the ambulance. The ambulance arrived and took Christin to the emergency room at Wesley Medical Center, but it was too late. Christin died. According to the medical examiner's report, her horrifying and painful death was a direct result of the abortion. What's worse, it could have been prevented if not for the misdiagnosis and slow response of clinic staff.
I really must wonder how much she understood of what was happening to her during those painful and frightening hours and days leading to her death and the death of her baby. But without any coverage from the news, no outcry from her parents or the public, Christin is now dead. This sweet and precious little girl was sexually assaulted, her baby was killed (likely without her consent) then she herself suffered and died a brutal and painful end.
God help us for not protecting the most precious and vulnerable among us. I can only repeat the questions asked by Sen. Brownback: "What does that do to us? What does that say about us?"
$$$$$$$
I cannot picture an abortionist--and here I include any ob/gyn who performs abortions--even presenting induced labor as an option. There is no money in it. Pure, sick evil, love of money, and bloodlust. There is no ethical or moral reason.
Too sensible?????
It is just beyond words.
I'm not really certain that you do. If you want to truly educate yourself on the negative aspects of the issue, I urge you to look into "Operation Outcry" and "Silent No More." If you don't want to expend your time doing that, just stick around the forum. Women like me will willingly tell you, in graphic detail, just how negative the negative aspects of abortion are. Don't you owe that to your potential female constituents?
My brother was born 35 years ago at about 27 weeks, at first it was real touch and go as to whether he would make it. He was sick all the time until he was about five years old.
For whatever the reason, when he was about 12 year old he took up running and by the time he was a senior in high school, he was All American in track. After college he went into the Army and went through Ranger school. After about three years in, he fractured his shoulder on a jump and was by that time sick of the bureaucracy so he decided to get out. He went to law school and is now a very successful litigator. He still runs about 5 miles a day.
So basically, I think that all life is a gift from God and it is His decision alone when to end a life. Since 1973, 40 million+ live have been lost, we will never know how many Einsteins, Reagans, etc. we have been deprived of. Abortion is simply another tool the left uses to make themselves and government a god.
Only God has the right to condemn them to hell. Not you.
Any program of selective population reduction is inherently immoral
That is so true. I know someone who had always wanted a child, but her boyfriend pressured her into an abortion because the baby was a "blob of tissue" and he "wasn't ready for the committment."
Not long after, they got married; when he finally was ready, she had trouble conceiving (she even had to take drugs) and then had a miscarriage before she finally was able to give birth to two children.
Hi jan,
Many women (myself included) who grew up in the liberal late sixties and seventies, when there was no alternative media, were really sold a bill of goods. There was a concerted effort on the left not to give us information on fetal development or the deleterious effects of abortion on a woman's body. I think we wanted to believe it at the time, or would shudder in horror at what we've done. Call it denial.
Blessings on you.
I disagree. I am a big fan of the death penalty.
When a woman is contemplating having an abortion, the last place she should go for facts is an abortion clinic, or ANY "women's health" clinic which performs abortions or refers women to clinics which perform abortions. She won't get facts. She'll be beaten down into thinking that "it's the right thing to do."
You know what I think would be money well spent by pro-lifers? Opening crisis pregnancy centers in the immediate vicinity of abortion mills.
You are 100% correct. These women are upset, confused, hearing mixed messages from the feminists, the media, and possibly their families, and husband or boyfriend. I know, I've been there. What these women and girls need is kindness and support from pro-life groups, not condemnation. The people from the abortion clinics are not ogres, and they come off caring, and this often fools women into thinking they are doing the right thing. Especially if the pro-life people outside are yelling "slut and murderer" at them. That is the WRONG tactic. Be kind to them, listen to them--and talk them out of the abortion with love, not hate.
Also, women surivors of abortion need support--so that they don't become repeat offenders or pass this behavior on to their living children. I feel very strongly about this. That's why I hate the attitude of just condemning women who've had abortions. There are millions of us, millions of victims of the lies of the abortion industry. We who have been victimized by the abortion industry can be the strongest advocates for life; we who have made the ultimate mistake. Women and girls might listen more carefully to us, than to people who haven't been through the horror. Thanks for letting me vent.
The maternal mortality rate is six times higher during natural childbirth than from an abortion.
A recent addition to the FreeRepublic family, and here you are, sputtering...
My sentiments exactly. Just what was the point of this remark in the first place? I wonder if someone is lost and belongs on a different board?
I also notice he/she/it has not bothered to reply to you either.
Thanks for the info - just shows you how little most people know about abortion laws. I always assumed they were only legal up to a certain point - I never realized you could abort at any time. I'm personally against it at any stage - but the reality of these late term abortions is horrific. I don't see how anyone could think aborting a viable fetus is a mother's right, unless her own life is truly threatened.
I bet you were always of the impression that some of us were simply crass and crude when he suggested the pro-abortion crowd is into killing and eating babies for sport.
excuse me? I don't get your point.
Banned. It was interesting ... he also was slamming me on an evo thread ... and of course he was an evo type.
First evo type that is banned to my knowledge...
Absolutely spot on. As a young feminist and liberal, I bought the whole thing, hook line and sinker. It should come as no surprise that Hugh Hefner and Playboy came out very early in support of legal and easy access to abortion in the early 60's; after all, who benefits from sex without consequences but the pornography industry. Strange bedfellows indeed, the porn industry and the feminists! I remember writing letters to the editor as a nineteen year old NOW member, saying the baby was a blob of tissue. Men who wanted sex without strings were the recipients of this "benefit" of the feminist movement. As a result, many of us had abortions, the most anti-woman act a woman can participate in, and kill the beautiful life within us. You cannot imagine the pain, remorse and regret that comes with this act. Pain that to this day causes me to fear for my living child, that God may punish me by taking her; though in my heart I know my God does not do this.
I do thank you for writing. Your points are right on the money.
Blessings,
Ari
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