...and decides they need full rights and access to this:
Posted on 11/07/2004 5:05:16 AM PST by conservativecorner
A few weeks ago, I went to lunch at a diner in Mount Vernon with Rick Marino, a moral philosopher disguised as a home renovation contractor. The subject turned to pregnancy and ultrasound. A decade ago, when I was having my last crop of kids, the pictures came out fuzzy. The doctor would point - "These are the fingers" or "There is the head" - and I'd nod. In truth, I couldn't make much of the blurry images.
Today's ultrasound photos come in 3-D and color. At 18 weeks you can easily discern fingers and facial features. At seven months, you have a fully recognizable human baby. It's so clear that even a man can see it.
For a couple of hundred bucks a pregnant woman can go to the mall nowadays and have a picture taken of her baby. Or even a video with a musical soundtrack.
Rick and I were marveling over this when we were interrupted by the waitress. "You guys talking about ultrasounds?" she asked. At first I missed the edge in her voice.
"Amazing, aren't they?" I asked.
"They're going to be used against women," the waitress snapped. She was obviously ready to sacrifice a tip to make a point.
She was right, of course. Ultrasound images are already changing the perception of abortion. Once, the idea of fetal humanity was a matter of religious conviction. Now, it is an observable fact. If you don't believe me, go to Google Images on the Internet and type in: Ultrasound, 30 weeks.
The implications are both political and philosophical.
In the new Bush administration, abortion is going to become the hottest of hot buttons. The President will probably appoint three or four Supreme Court justices. At the very least, a Bush-leaning court would probably reverse previous rulings that outlaw a federal ban on third-term abortion. Ultimately, Roe vs. Wade itself may be in danger.
Obviously this is a crisis for the abortion-rights movement. It is also a problem for the Democrats. Most Americans are already queasy about third-term abortions. As ultrasound imagery improves, abortion-righters may find themselves without significant support in their own party.
Dogmatic orthodoxy on abortion is also a philosophical problem for the left. In the great moral debates of our time, they have rested their case on science, not blind belief. Lately they have taken to calling themselves "reality-based," in somewhat sneering contrast to presumably simpleminded "faith-based" conservatives. The problem is, this time they are on the wrong side of science.
It is true that millions of opponents of abortion arrived at their position without the need for photographic evidence. They have always believed that human life begins at conception. But there are million of others, neither reactionary nor religious, who have now concluded - or are in the process of concluding - that at some point, before birth, fetuses become babies, deserving of protection.
Finding that point will be the crux of the coming debate. If the abortion-rights movement wants the support of the middle-aged, socially liberal guys in the diners of America, it had better find a more convincing tone than anger - and an argument that doesn't require us to deny, on doctrinal grounds, the evidence of our own eyes.
Imagine what might have been if someone had managed to smuggle pictures of the Nazi gas chambers out to the free world in 1943.
Oh I can buy the greed/money angle. No problem there at all. It's the original assertion that's it's pleasurable that I dispute.
==Pro-choicers don't want to know the truth. They can't handle the truth.==
Then they're not pro-truthers
Thank you and all like you that open your hearts to kids in need.
Now if only we could get some of the "blue state" kids out to Red States, where they might live and prosper away from the elitist, amoral filth...then I may stop weeping for the future.
I am so happy for you and for the children-you made my morning!
From the standpoint of your question as posed, there's no "continuum" involved. Once "it" is a living human being -- i.e., at conception, which is not arbitrary at all -- then "it" is a person and should have rights at that time.
an awesome God bump.
"(Our objective is) unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children... (Women must have the right) to live... to love... to be lazy... to be an unmarried mother... to create... to destroy... The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order. The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthhood,The Woman Rebel Volume 1, Number 1.
Truly disgusting. It's my understanding that she was quite the racist as well. Abortion is far from one of my hot button issues, but the paragraph you posted truly distrubed me.
Actually, if abortion is legal, murder should be legal too.....
What happened to those "Life is a beautiful choice" commercials? I never see them anymore. Maybe it's time for those tv ads again using such images.
...and decides they need full rights and access to this:
Oh yes they are. Women that see these commercials about the new GE Ultra sound devices can now see that the tissue blob has a face. Makes it harder to kill something that looks human. The GE commercial with the Roberta Flack song "The first time I ever saw your face" playing in the back ground while a picture of a preborn baby is shown is absolutely devistating to the pro abort crowd. You can see it in their faces when this ad is shown. It reminds me of a vampire being shown a garlic necklace.
This new technology has to be hitting the pro abort group. Why else would CBS nightly news do a hit piece on these ultra sound boutiques wednesday night?
Strictly speaking, all biological phenomena are on a continuum. Our need for discrete terminology doesn't trump the laws of physics. So, of course you are wrong. There are a continua of chemical processes involved in the process of conception (albeit over a short period compared to gestation time).
Still, what criteria determine rights?
Thank you for sharing, yours is a heartwarming story! And 3 grandchildren---thanks for reminding me, if I hold out long enough there should be a grandchild to babysit :)
Whoa! Big, bright flash of understanding just occurred. Wasn't one of the features of Hillary-Care penalties if you tried to circumvent the system and obtain medical care on your own? Maybe like a medically 'unnecessary' ultrasound?
27 weeks here! he's doing GREAT!
Ping.
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