Posted on 08/19/2015 8:39:42 AM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - Republicans most trust Dr. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee to handle the issue of abortion, according to a recent CNN poll. However, a series of statements from Carson's campaign, and from Dr. Carson himself, have led to questions about the clarity of his pro-life views about when life begins, how RU-486 works, and his views on experimenting with aborted fetal tissue, among other issues.
On Tuesday, the Carson campaign defended his decision to refer women to abortionists if the child suffered from fetal deformities.
"Referring it on does not mean he is advocating it," campaign spokesman Doug Watts told Politico. "He’s advocating they are getting qualified medical supervision. He has always believed that the battle over abortion had to be waged in the hearts and minds of Americans, that you cannot legislate morality. But he also believes we’re winning the debate.”
Carson told the Baltimore Sun in 1992, “As a physician who does not believe in abortion, when faced with a patient who has severe medical problems, I would refer someone for an abortion."
"I would never advocate it’s illegal for a person to get an abortion," the doctor said at the time. "I think in the long run we do a lot of harm when we bludgeon people."
Carson made the statement the same year he participated in a study that examined tissues derived from two aborted children. While Carson played no role in harvesting or handling the tissue, he strongly defends medical experimentation with aborted babies, calling opposition to the practice "foolish." Rick Santorum has said he would never engage in medical research that was "morally suspect."
Recent misstatements also called into question whether he believes life begins at conception.
On August 12, Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked Carson, “At the point of conception - do you see that as life, Doctor?”
“Certainly once the heart starts beating - certainly at that point," Carson replied.
While he has said he opposes abortion without exceptions, he told Cavuto, "in cases of rape and incest, I would hope that [mothers] would very quickly avail themselves of emergency room and in the emergency room, they have the ability to administer, you know, RU-486, other possibilities, before you have a developing fetus."
Carson later said that he misspoke.
"I think when conception occurs, life occurs," he told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. He also told ABC's This Week program, "I believe that life begins at conception."
He said that his remarks to Cavuto meant to imply that both sides of the abortion debate would be able to agree that life begins when a fetal heartbeat can be detected - usually within the first six weeks of pregnancy.
When asked about "RU-486," he responded, "I think when conception occurs, life occurs. But I do believe in contraception."
"The egg is only fertilizable at certain times - and there are certain types of drugs, progestins, that can prevent ovulation...if ovulation doesn’t occur, you’re not going to have conception."
The Carson campaign later said Carson meant to speak of "emergency contraception," not the RU-486 abortion pill.
However, one of the world's foremost authorities on Plan B has said that it, too, acts as an abortifacient.
Dr. James Trussell, the director of Princeton’s Office of Population Research, wrote in 2013, "To make an informed choice, women must know that [emergency contraceptive pills]…prevent pregnancy primarily by delaying or inhibiting ovulation and inhibiting fertilization, but may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg in the endometrium."
Dr. Carson is currently second in national polls of Republican presidential hopefuls, behind only Donald Trump.
This is not the conservative you've been looking for...
Everything I've seen is that in America (Canada unfortunately has changed), ONLY OB/GYNs are ethically required to give abortion referrals. Doctor Carson has never practiced in this field.
Then with your second statement this would mean that your Primary care doctor doesn't have to refer you to a specialist if he feels the procedure is not necessary. So, no referrals to a dermatologist if your doctor doesn't think you child's acne isn't that bad, no referral to a plastic surgeon? How about a denist who thinks orthdonics is a cosemetic proceedure?
Again, find me a case with a live baby where an abortion is MEDICALLY NECESSARY.
Dr. Carson, you just lost me, and I had so much hope for you.
Shocking news about Carson.
If a doctor or a pharmacist is, indeed, "ethically" "obligated" to cooperate in any way whatsoever in the killing of innocent unborn children, then those professions need to be controlled by a pro-life mentality from the outside as necessary because they recognize no ethical or moral principles.
I can as easily forgive Dr. Carson's error of 1993 if he indeed repents of it as an error and a moral failing. OTOH, this is strike two following his curious view that the 2nd Amendment RTKBA does not apply in our inner cities. Even SCOTUS knows better on that. I also think that if this winnows out Dr. Carson's POTUS candidacy, that is OK. We need to start thinning the herd of candidates and we will not be thinning out Trump any time soon or until we can consolidate actual conservative support behind a candidate (Cruz, Walker?). Trump is not and never has been and never will be a trustworthy conservative.
On a moral AND ethical scale, referring a patient to an abortionist or abortion mill (with the sole exception of a clear and imminent threat to the life of the mother) or facilitating abortion prescriptions is an abomination and an atrocity and one that occurs quite unnecessarily more than a million times per year for 42 years now. That is just surgical abortions. Then there are RU-486, "morning after pills," IUDs, and chemical abortion related to certain "birth control" pills. Welcome to Margaret Sangerland and remember that Jesus Christ is coming back and is probably none too amused.
In our society, each married person is allowed to end his or her marriage by divorce. Why don't we allow anyone so inclined to hire a professional killer to dispose of an inconvenient spouse while avoiding court complications over alimony, child support, custody of children and distribution of property? And don't say (since 1973) that hiring a hitman is prohibited because of our regard for human life.
Thanks for the ping. I have a sister who is all in for Carson. I need to get up to speed on this,
The Catholic prohibition on Birth Control goes to sexuality in marriage and not to question that life begins at conception. As such Birth Control is acceptable to many Christians but unnecessary to the conservative Catholic health care provider. Taking wagabees point to conclusion, the Catholic health care provider can just act clueless when asked about birth control.
Again, I think you understand this point but you want a pro-life mentality with this doctor. I am sure that eats at Christian Doctors and I hope they refer to abortionist that at least care about the mother. The other choice is for Christians to entirely exist the medical field. Given the growing number of bio-ethical issues, I would find this disturbing.
For your consideration. Ectopic Pregnancy WebMD
Ectopic Pregnancy - Mayo Clinic
This happen to friends of mine, very sad after several attempts to get pregnant.
I know personally a mom who had an ectopic pregnancy as well as a fetus/life in the womb. To save mom and the child in the womb surgery was required to save mom and the child in the womb. It happens. Mom and offspring are living today. Had nothing been done all three would have died.
These folks are too “pure” for their own good
It was legally and morally accepted and medically practiced for decades before Roe vs Wade even by the staunchest of pro-lifers, and still is.
That is because it is not the intentional killing of a baby. It is the intentional removal of a diseased fallopian tube.
Therefore it is not an "exception" to the ethical principle of "no abortion" --- removal of a fallopian tube is not a method of abortion. It is a matter of double effect.
My chances of supporting Ben Carson just went from zero to less than zero.
Not. Ready. For. Prime. Time.
It is immoral for Christian physicians to cooperate in intrinsically evil acts. There is NO justification.
That is a morally indefensible position. Making the referral is cooperation in an intrinsically evil act.
Agreed
It might well have been that Hitler's subordinates who might have refused compliance with the Holocaust might themselves have been taken into custody by the Third Reich and executed for such defiance. Nuremberg, as a precedent, teaches that we are expected to forfeit our own lives rather than to comply with and participate in crimes against humanity rising to the level of the Holocaust.
Our legal system will not arrest, try, convict and execute those who comply with the abortion holocaust. No American doctor would be risking his life, nor even his freedom, by simply refusing co-operation with baby-killing. If the medical profession has been so corrupted as to go after the doctor's license for refusing to co-operate in baby-killing, then the doctor can find other employment or retire but the society should go after those who have so corrupted medicine.
Stalin famously said that a single death is a tragedy but a massive number of deaths is merely a statistic. So it is with 60 million surgically slaughtered innocent babies, courtesy of our elites who always think they know better. Likewise with those millions of others who have been chemically slaughtered. We either believe that each one is a precious human being with a full range of human rights or we do not. I do believe that. Dr. Carson seems to believe that but needs to act consistently on that belief.
SCOTUS inflicted his holocaust on our country and all of those justices responsible have had to face their Creator already. Only Warren Burger ever publicly repented his vote for Roe vs. Wade and most of its judicial progeny. William Rehnquist and Byron White voted morally and had no need to repent.
Finally, except for "caucus threads" limited to members of some specific religious community or other, when we post here anyone may respond. JimRob's living room, JimRob's rules.
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