Connecticut ping!
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Posted on 02/03/2006 11:10:47 AM PST by presidio9
The UConn Women's Center hosted an event Thursday night that highlighted a woman's right to choose an abortion. Co-sponsored by the National Abortion Rights and Reproduction Action League (NARAL), the event consisted of the documentary film, "Speak Out: I Had An Abortion," and a discussion among students about the social issue.
The film documented the stories of several women of different racial, social and religious backgrounds and their decision to have an abortion performed on them, whether it was legal or illegal depending on the time period. The film was directed by Gillian Aldrich and produced by Jennifer Baumgardner. The first segment dealt with an 85-year-old black woman named Florence Rice who had an illegal abortion performed to her at the age of 16 in 1938. At this point in time during the Depression, abortions were both illegal and greatly shunned upon in society, yet Rice stated she had no regrets over her decision.
Many women spoke about their lives and their decision to have the procedure, even if they had to keep the ordeal a secret from friends and family. Some, however, had to face the harsh consequences from their families. Jenny Egan had an abortion while in high school in 1994, but faced many hardships growing up in a conservative Mormon household. Her mother found out about her abortion after an anti-abortion group known as "The Brotherhood" sent a letter informing her parents of the abortion, to which her mother inflicted much guilt onto Egan. Upon entering an all-girl college, Egan found comfort in telling her story to her peers.
A woman named Robin Ringletta-Kottkin, who grew up in a strict Catholic household with anti-abortion beliefs, had to ultimately choose to have the procedure after an adoption agency informed her that they would not accept a bi-racial baby, since the father of the child was black. While still in college and with no way to care for and support the child, it was then that she realized society had valued some children over others, which led to her decision. Ringletta-Kottkin discussed the day of her abortion and the protesters she had to face outside the clinic. It wasn't until inside with the female physician that she felt comfortable about what she was doing. Since then, she has regretted not talking about her abortion because it had just created more shame for herself.
The goal of this documentary was to discuss this social issue with true stories of women who had to face this decision and the comfort they felt in openly dealing with their stories. The film chronicled the support women had for each other- whether it was just with their gynecologist or holding "speak outs" where women spoke to large crowds about their experiences. "When I saw women standing up for their support of abortion, I realized how little alone I was," remarked one woman who participated in pro-choice rallies.
After the film, Lisa Marie Griffiths, an instructor in the School of Nursing and a board member of NARAL, hosted an open discussion with students on their thoughts on the film and any questions they had regarding the medical procedure and social history of abortion. Some students chose to discuss their own experiences with abortion and the difficulty that came with the decision.
"The purpose is to bring awareness of women's choices and to increase acceptance in women's abortions," said Griffiths about the goals behind the event. "If we don't talk about it, it's still going to be a social stigma."
Where did she go, 'The Aryan Adoption Agency'? Does this sound like bunko to anyone?
Why do you think there are holes in that story? These are women who had abortions many years ago, not current college students.
Maybe you should do some research on what the common practices of adoption agencies have been in past decades. These are not current college students talking.
Let's say this woman was 100 years old. The Catholic Church and its affiliates was not avising women to have abortions in 1920 either.
Presumably the event was planned with the idea of countering the barrage of anti-abortion activism that pervades this country. How many people on FR would have a problem with a campus political or religious group staging an event which focused on the negative aspects of Islam?
She didn't say the Catholic Church advised her to have an abortion. She said an adoption agency told her they couldn't take her baby because it was half black.
I understand that. I reject the idea that Catholicism or strict anti-abortion beliefs had any effect on her, because she decided not to chose a Catholic agency and went ahead with the abortion after one bad experience. This doesn't sound like desperation to me. Sounds more like a convenient excuse.
My BS meter just got pegged when I read this line right here, she is so full of $%!T her eyes are brown.
I guess whatever you have to tell yourself to get to sleep at night.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
ping
She said that she had an abortion in a clinic with protestors outside and that she was in college when she had her kid murdered.
In other words the oldest she could be is roughly 55 right now.
But most likely younger than 50.
She claims to be Catholic from a devout Catholic household. Catholic adoption agencies have never had racial exclusion policies (heck, one of my high school teachers years ago was himself an adopted biracial child and he was born in Pennsylvania in the 1930s and raised Catholic by a white family), and every "devout" Catholic can easily get in touch with a Catholic adoption agency.
She is a complete and utter liar and I challenge her and any of her supporters to document her absolutely preposterous claim.
That's ridiculous. According to the details she provided the earliest she sought the abortion was 1973. It was already illegal then for adoption agencies to practice racially discriminatory policies or refuse children based on race.
What a liar this vile woman is.
It's not choice, it's a baby,
and when you kill it, it is murder.
Where does it say that the agency was Catholic? For all we know the agency told her that a biracial (black/white) baby would be impossible to place. Lots of states/agencies had policies back in the old days where black children (including half-black children) had to be placed with black parents. You said that your high school teacher was biracial, but not whether he was part black.
Of course, none of this excuses what she did. It was her own flesh and blood, she could have found a way to take care of the baby, even if she had to leave the child with the state.
Yeah, but have you SEEN these women? They don't exactly look like models! Not to mention their reprehensible views.
Ever notice most of the women that demonstrate at these pro-abortion rallies are women most men wouldn't screw if their life depended on it?
Why do you think she was referring to a Catholic adoption agency? Nothing in the article suggests that. If she was in college, in a white area, and didn't have a car (and few coelge students did in those days), and obviously didn't have access to the Internet, she probably had access to only one or two agencies, and had no real way of finding out whether policies were likely to differ at different agencies.
Let's take a step back here:
Do you believe that this is a Conservative website, or a Libertarian one? If you believe it is the former, why would you be debefending the free speech of NARL activists?
But it was possible, back when abortions had to be approved physician's committees, if you were a white woman, to state that the baby's father was black, and get the abortion approved.
The face of progressivism...
Mrs VS
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