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In The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, Ramesh Ponnuru brings to his journalism yet another kind of knowledge: a clear and precise understanding of the philosophical ethics of his subject, informed by a grasp of the relevant scientific knowledge. His subject is abortion, and the emerging, related issues of euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research. Ponnuru makes his position clear at the outset: he is "pro-life," though he once accepted the legitimacy of abortion; even after he came to oppose abortion, he long rejected the "pro-life" label. His pro-life stance, he says, is not bias or opinion or "values." It is acknowledgment of moral truth. The book's implicit premise is that the conviction of abortion's wrongness allows one better to see the facts about abortion politics in America, from its treatment in court, to its effect on partisan elections, to its coverage in the press. With the facts clear, a better story can be told and public opinion, one presumes, will be better formed.
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As with abortion, Ponnuru shines the light of his logic on the politics surrounding stem-cell research and euthanasia. He acknowledges not only moral questions specific to each issue (for example, the question of "discarded embryos" conceived in test tubes but not implanted in a mother's womb) but also the different state of public opinion, less clearly formed than on abortion and less supportive of the right to life. As with confusion over the meaning of Roe, Ponnuru attributes the drift of public opinion partly to his fellow journalists, whom he calls "scribes of the party of death." Despite the harsh moniker, Ponnuru's reporting here is restrained, perhaps because he knows he is writing for a skeptical public. For example, in discussing the Terri Schiavo case, he writes with sadness that "most Americans support[ed] the deliberate killing of an innocent woman" by denying her nutrition and hydration when she was not otherwise in the course of dying. Not least of the media's confusions in this instance was its portrayal of the opposition as equipped only with religious, rather than ethical, arguments.
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One vignette on Planned Barrenhood operations in Maine fits here. A doctor friend of ours, a midwife who loves babies and having babies moved her office to a spot right next to the local Planned Parenthood clinic. She made not much fanfare, but a steady parade of happy pregnant moms passing by the PP door to her office. I can only guess how many had started to walk in the cobweb filled door of PP and instead went to her. I am sure it is more than one.
Augusta, ME (LifeNews.com) -- The state of Maine already gives over $1 million annually to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which does abortions in the northeastern state. But some state legislators say that's not enough and they want the legislature to approve a bill that would spend $283,000 to directly fund poor women's abortions.
Maine Legislators Want to Spend 300K Funding Poor Women's Abortions
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