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?"
If you outlaw abortion, mothers will go to the black market to have them performed regardless. Then we would have a very serious problem on our hands. In nations where abortions are illegal, just as many are performed on the black market compared to the nations that it legalized. Just something to consider.
~Scott~
When you allow for "health of the mother" exceptions, killing the unborn is probably legal right up to birth in most of our bloodthirsty country.
I'd love to see a photograph of the piles of women who died from botched abortions pre-RvW.
You know what most women did before RvW? They kept their legs crossed at the knees.
The entire "coat hanger" myth has been created to mislead people from the real truth, and that is that abortion would not be made illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned. All that would happen is that the individual states would have their Constitutional rights restored.
Since 1973, when Roe v Wade became the law of the land. It became legal to abort up to the moment of birth for any reason in every state in the country. It's only been since 1989 when the Webster decision came out of the Supreme Court that states could begin putting very very limited restrictions back on the procedure. Since 1989, very few states have been able to get laws past their courts.
..... actually, I only support the right to an abortion as a last resort. I believe that it is a woman's right to have an abortion performed if she was raped, the birth might harm her physically or mentally, or she has it very early on in the term. We don't want our ladies sneaking across the border to have an abortion in some dingy garage someplace.
~Scott~
IN 1972, according to CDC, there were 586,000 abortions performed.
Are you claiming that in 1970 there were 500,000 illegal abortions?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
God -- 30 abortion clinics closed Saturday(some still underwater)
Abortion clinics in Southeast Texas and La -- 0
God -- casinos destroyed by Katrina and Rita
Gambling industry -- 0 (and hoping the casinos in Shreveport and Baton Rouge don't get flooded out by Rita).
It is unclear if any of the Casinos in Baton Rouge and Shreveport were doing as much business as normal -- Baton Rouge had about 8 inches of rain yesterday (Friday night/early Saturday), and Shreveport is getting hammered today/tonight...
"The maternal mortality rate is six times higher during natural childbirth than from an abortion"
Childbirth is natural. Abortion is not. Any death caused by the overwhelming majority of abortions is worse, by comparison, because it is usually unnecessary and is birth control by infanticide.
You dog or cat have much more sanitary conditions at a vet clinic than at an abortion mill.
Most abortionists are those that flunked out of med school or are from some foreign country.
Roe vs. Wade make abortion legal, Doe vs. Bolton established that a baby can be aborted at any time during the pregnancy -- 1st, 2nd or 3rd trimester...
If in the 9th month of pregnancy, a woman/girl goes into labor, they can go to an abortion clinic to have an abortion, according to the law. States have passed restrictions, but not all states...
These 7 men were our Supreme beings of in-Justice.
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.
Commonly referred to as Tiller the killer.
However, he is a great ICON of the liberal left media...
What?
I don't know that exact numbers, but I support abortion early in the term (and as a last resort).
~Scott~
Our nation needs to enforce a high level of standards for those that perform abortions.
~Scott~
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