Posted on 10/04/2006 5:33:24 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
NEW YORK -- As the abortion debate rages, Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled ''We Had Abortions'' that lists names of thousands of women who signed a petition making that declaration.
The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers a watershed moment.
Abortion access in many states is being curtailed, activists are uncertain about the stance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and South Dakotans vote Nov. 7 on whether to ban virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest.
''All this seems very dire,'' said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Ms.-publishing Feminist Majority Foundation. ''We have to get away from what the politicians are saying and get women's lives back in the picture.''
Even before the issue reaches newsstands Oct. 10, anti-abortion activists have been decrying it. Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, wrote in a commentary that when she saw a Ms. announcement of the project, "the evil practically jumped right off the page."
Ms. executive editor Katherine Spillar said more than 5,000 women have signed the petition so far -- heeding its appeal to declare they are unashamed of the choice they made. The magazine itself had room for only 1,016 names, she said Tuesday, but all of them will be viewable online as Ms. encourages other women to continue adding their signatures.
Ms. says it will send the petition to Congress, the White House and state legislators.
The signatories include Ms. founder Gloria Steinem, comedian Carol Leifer, and actresses Kathy Najimy and Amy Brenneman, but most are not famous names.
Tyffine Jones, 27, of Jackson, Miss., said she had no hesitation about signing -- although she lives in a state where restrictions on abortion are tough and all but one abortion clinic has been closed.
Jones said she got an abortion 10 years ago -- enduring harassment from protesters when she entered the clinic -- in order to finish high school. She went on to become the first member of her family to graduate from college, and hopes at some point to attend law school.
"I wanted to do something bigger with myself -- I didn't want to be stopped by anything," she said in a telephone interview.
Another signatory, Debbie Findling of San Francisco, described her difficult decision last year to have an abortion after tests showed that she would bear a son with Down syndrome.
"I felt it was my right to make the decision, but having that right doesn't make the decision any easier," she said. "It was the hardest decision I've ever made."
Findling, 42, is married, with a 5-year-old daughter, and has been trying to get pregnant again while pursuing her career as a philanthropic foundation executive.
She says too many of her allies in the abortion-rights movement tend to minimize, at least publicly, the psychological impact of abortion.
"It's emotionally devastating," she said in a phone interview. "I don't regret my decision -- but I regret having been put in the position to have to make that choice. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life."
Findling strongly supports the Ms. petition, and believes women who have had abortions need to be more open about their decisions. She has written an essay about her own experience, and plans to include it in an anthology she hopes to publish next year.
Ms. mounted this kind of petition drive when it was first published. Its debut issue in 1972 included a manifesto signed by 53 women -- many of them well-known -- declaring that they had undergone abortions despite state laws outlawing the procedure.
The next year, the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision establishing abortion rights nationwide. Some abortion-rights activists are concerned that Roe could be overturned, either by the current court or if President Bush has the opportunity to appoint one more justice.
Smeal said Ms. staffers called the women who signed the petition to verify their information and be sure they were willing to have their names in print.
"The women thanked us for doing this," Smeal said. "They wanted to tell their stories."
BEING PUT in the position.....I believe she put herself in that position when she laid herself down. She's basically saying "it's not my fault I got pregnant."
"As the abortion debate rages, Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled ''We Had Abortions'' that lists names of thousands of women who signed a petition making that declaration.
The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers a watershed moment"
And they seem so proud of murdering their children. Or at least they have been convinced that it's not murder.
Good idea, but an 18 year cooling off period would be even better. On his 18th birthday, mom can explain to junior that his life is worthless and that he should abort himself, saving her the bother. How could he not agree?
You are lovely for embracing your triplets, despite the
urging of others.
Let's mail each of these women a scarlet letter "A" along with the following challenge. "If you're so proud of your abortion, I challenge you to sew this on the lapel of your outergarment and wear it in public."
I did a 9 News interview on this topic which amazingly
wound up on CNN. I've heard from a woman in Canada and
another in South Carolina about it.
I'm pleased that it is out there but sure wish they'd have used
the first few quotes I gave.
"Any woman that is proud to have destroyed the life, hopes and dreams of
her child is a danger to herself and to society."
"We've destroyed over 50 million innocent lives by dismemberment, sucking them into sinks, poisoning by human pesticides
and flushing them down toilets. Is that something to be proud of?"
OK, you are right..
.they have been conditioned to believe they have power over their bodies....or.
..this is only about a 'product' of conception.....or
the 'law' says we can.
Even given all those arguments....do you really believe most women have no idea their product of conception is a .....baby...
..not even a basic idea.
Do you think they believe they have a mosquito...
or a silkworm or
...a prairiedog ...in their bellies?....even when their bellies are rounding and growing at say....4 months, 6 months or more...gestation.
Yet they abort.
teenyelliott....what would you call it?...if not evil?
I really want to know.
Try 40 plus million, and you would be closer to being right.
It's disgusting.
I think y'all are missing the point.
IMHO, This is nothing more than an effort to defuse the rumors that Hillary!™ had an abortion.
It's all about politics, courtesy the pro-death party...
No, I don't believe that.
I do believe that young women have no real grasp of the seriousness of their actions. They are raised in a country that tells them that abortion is just "a procedure", that it is no more serious than having a root canal.
Most young people give no weight to anything that has life and death consequences, whether it is abortion or driving drunk or doing drugs or any number of things that young people do, without regard to what might happen.
Now, I differentiate between those kind of people, who I do not judge but instead feel sorry for, as they will come to realize the gravity of what they have done when they are older, and women like those in the story who have been pregnant before, have had babies before, and choose abortion as some sort of unnatural selection. THOSE women I have enormous disdain for, and they know what they have done.
However, I still would not label them evil. The reason I don't is because as a society, the rules and laws that we make are what we expect people to follow, and that is what becomes acceptable to the vast majority, even though you and I might feel differently.
As an example, it used to be the norm that women were routinely accused of witchcraft, and either burned at the stake or drowned. We would believe their persecutors to be evil, but at the time that is how the majority of society functioned. Another example would be the convicted being drawn and quartered in the public square. Or Indians being walked down the Trail of Tears, or Hiroshima being bombed and children being incinerated, or Alexander the Great conquering territory and his men raping pillaging and plundering along the way.
All of those things are terrible, yet I am loathe to throw around the word "evil", to apply to anyone who does things I consider to be very, very wrong.
I live in Wichita, where the infamous George Tiller performs even late term abortions. THAT man is evil, and I hope that his soul pays for his deeds for eternity. He knows full well what he is doing, and counsels even the most frightened and doubtful girls to continue on the path that they have chosen. He has even done late term abortions on mentally retarded girls, one of which I know died from the operation.
Not all women are smart, and not all women think that abortion is wrong because they have been told since they were young that it is okay. If you raise a child to believe that the color blue is actually green, that is what they will know to be true. If you raise a child to believe that abortion is just a "procedure", to be used anytime a "problem" arises, then that is how they will see it.
I do not label people evil for the result of how they are raised. I label them ignorant.
Among those 'terminated' may have been the next Mozart, the pioneering researcher who found the cure for AIDS, and the child genius who found a way to procure limitless energy cheaply from tap water. Or not...
Your point is very well taken. These children belonged to God and one day the parents will be asked to answer for them. What will these poor women respond? That they didn't like reading nursery rhymes?
Frank
Since abortion is legally available to any woman who wants one, of course there are doctors who will offer it with "no indication", at least no indication beyond the woman not seeming sure she actually wants the baby. But suggesting abortion specifically in response to suspected Down Syndrome is a different matter. However, I'm not sure exactly what years the various techniques for ascertaining with certainty became available. I would have thought by 1989, but possibly it was a bit later. Today, at any rate, there is no doctor in this country suggesting that a woman go ahead with an abortion for Down Syndrome, based only on the "triple screen", any more than there is any doctor suggesting a woman go ahead with a mastectomy based on an unbiopsied lump that was spotted on a mammogram.
There's a lot of hyperbole on FR re abortion, and I've seen people within the past couple of years claiming that their obstetrician "told us we should abort" after a positive triple screen, when in fact what they were being told was just that abortion would be an option if Down Syndrome was confirmed by subsequent testing. Obstetricians have a massive problem with skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates (I've met one who switched to gyn-only after his ob rate went to $260,000/year, after 25 years of practice with not a single claim against him) and unfounded lawsuits. The last thing they're going to do is deliberately set themselves up for claims that will almost certainly result in a 7-8 figure payout and the end of their medical careers.
And of course, this increases the pressure on OB's to recommend abortion rather than take on the management of a high-risk pregnancy. A live but handicapped baby can be more costly to the MD's career than one who ended up "dead by choice."
And then she had the gall to state:
" "I don't regret my decision -- but I regret having been put in the position to have to make that choice. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life."
She needs to have her tubes tied!
I had all the tests, so that I could prepare for any special needs my children might have.
My third child has one bad test. I was told that she would probably be severely disabled, with "shovel like hands"...it was horrifying! But, instead of killing the baby, we went for further testing....she is now a wonderful, redheaded, PERFECT 13 year old!
The Ultimate "disenfranchising" of the Dem/Lib voter!
Killing them off so mom can get back on the dance floor and look cute in her skirt and get that job that she'll get paid 75% of what a man will get paid to do it.
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