M
Mary MacElveen
Guest
The survivors of abortion
By Mary MacElveen
November 5, 2007
In response to my previous column on abortion published on OpEdNews.com I
read each and every response to it and many if not all sounded much like the
responses I gave when I was pro-choice. I used many of those same arguments
in confronting those who were/are pro-life. So, yes, I did hear you, but
still stand my ground as an advocate for unborn children as I have done for
the children of The Congo, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
After I wrote that column, I received an email from someone who I have
corresponded with for a long time. She is presently on a political Yahoo
group which tends to be progressive in nature. Since I wish to shield her
identity, I will call her Rachel and this is what she had to add and mind
you she is a Democrat, "I have had an abortion, before I really understood
what I was doing. I still feel guilty about it, of course. I hope you will
change people's hearts with this, and I think you will." I do not know about
that, Rachel, but let us hope so. Also, Rachel used to volunteer her time
for a Right to Life movement and is still a member. While I cannot assuage
her guilt, at least I can be her voice. Perhaps helping out with this Right
to Life movement is her way of giving back. Good for you, Rachel.
Then I received a very sad comment containing a story from another woman who
I will call, Kate. In her email she stated, "A friend of mine used to act
as an escort outside women's clinics. He would explain that he was the
result of an unwanted pregnancy, and had grown up passed from one relative
to another, until he was old enough to enlist in the army. He's bowlegged
from rickets, because he didn't have enough to eat. He's single and
childless, because he really doesn't know how to do a relationship. He saw
himself as saving children from the life he led." At first, I did not know
how to feel of his actions, but thinking further, I saw him imprinting his
life on others. Could those children he saw himself saving wind up in the
homes of loving parents only to go on to do great things in life? We will
never know.
Many folks are raised with hardships, only to turn them around into
positives. Some have endured pain that you and I will never know, yet they
rise above it all. While Rachel has called me a hero in the past as she has
read my numerous columns, the true heroes are the ones you are about to
meet. By the way, you will never meet them through groups such as NARAL
(National Abortion Rights Action League) and NOW (National Organization for
Women). But, they are our sisters none the less.
I would like you to meet, Gianna Jessen. You may be asking who she is and I
will tell you a bit about her. She is a survivor of abortion. No, she did
not have one through a botched abortion or a back-alley abortion, but she
was the survivor of a late-term abortion. "On April 6, 1977, Gianna's 17
year old birthmother (named Tina) sought a saline abortion at seven months
pregnant. Saline abortions involve injecting a caustic saline solution into
the amniotic fluid, which (normally) causes the fetus to be scalded to death
and then delivered dead. In this case, however, things didn't go according
to plan. In the early hours of April 7th, Tina went into labor and gave
birth to a living baby girl, Gianna. Fortunately for Gianna, she was born
before the abortionist had arrived at the clinic for the day. As a result,
instead of being killed at birth by the abortionist, she was transported to
a hospital. She was severely injured by the abortion attempt, requiring a
three month stay in the hospital, but she survived to be placed in a foster
family specializing in high risk babies."
While she could have turned that huge negative in her life, she has chosen
to speak out against the very procedure that could have ended her life. As
a result of this abortion that almost ended her life, what resulted was her
being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. In that procedure her brain was
starved of oxygen. While she has never met her birth-mother and has no
anger towards her, she has also met with women who have had this procedure
done. I call that the ultimate gift of compassion.
I think what angers me most is this passage, "On April 22, 1996, Gianna
testified before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary
Committee on the issue of abortion. Sadly, out of 13 members of the
subcommittee, only 2 were willing to listen to her testimony; abortion
supporters boycotted the meeting." I have often referred to Scott Ritter and
Hans Blix as being the go-to-men when it came to our actions leading us up
to the war as being the ones that our congress should have listened to, in
this debate, Gianna was that very go-to-woman. At that moment in time, she
could have been the true voice of abortion victims. Yet those who failed to
show up to listen to her showed their cowardice.
I would now like to invite you to meet, Sarah Smith. Again, you are probably
saying who? She too like Gianna is a survivor of abortion as one reads, "In
1970, Betty tried to abort Sarah in Los Angeles. At the time, Betty did not
know she was pregnant with twins. One baby was aborted, but miraculously,
Sarah survived. Sarah has forgiven her mother -- and for five years they
traveled the world speaking together about the pain and suffering caused by
abortion." Her aborted twin was later named Andrew. According to Sarah who
is a beautiful woman, she had this to say of Andrew, "Somehow, miraculously,
I survived! My twin brother wasn't so lucky. Andrew was aborted and we lost
him forever." I believe that Andrew is her guiding spirit. According to
Sarah, to this day, her mother deeply regrets that abortion.
Then we have the story of Amy and no last name given. She too was the
victim of a late-term abortion and the facts only became clear to her when
later on in life she needed her mother's medical records. Her mother died a
few years later after her birth. The saline abortion did not take and Amy
was born healthy. Somewhat sounding angrier than Gianna and Sarah, she
said, "My mother had no right to try and abort me, no matter what the
circumstances were, no matter how inconvenient her pregnancy was. And if she
was here with us today, I'm sure she would agree. Life is too precious to
simply throw away. Now I can speak out against abortion from the baby's
perspective. Any baby would choose life."
In reading this one story which was published in the Times Online fifty
babies are born alive a year after surviving abortions. In reading this
article one will see there is "growing unease among clinicians over a legal
ambiguity that could see them being charged with infanticide." You will also
read, "Its (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) guidelines
say that babies aborted after more than 21 weeks and six days of gestation
should have their hearts stopped by an injection of potassium chloride
before being delivered. In practice, few doctors are willing or able to
perform the delicate procedure." In this country, doctors take the
Hippocratic Oath and within this oath is "First do no harm" I do not know
about you, but as a doctor, I could not bring myself to inject that into a
baby's heart.
In death penalty cases here in the United States, doctors are not the ones
to inject the lethal ****tail for this very reason. They are not even in
the room when the condemned is being executed. They only pronounce them
dead.
So while those babies should have their hearts stopped according to those
guidelines, this story made me sit up and take notice, Born at just 22
weeks - Amilla is not yet allowed home. In juxtaposition in which fifty
babies survive each year due to abortions this article reports, "A girl born
after just under 22 weeks in the womb - among the shortest gestation periods
known for a live birth - will remain in a hospital a few extra days as a
precaution, officials said." It goes onto report, "Amillia Taylor was born
after 22 weeks weighing just ten ounces." According to her doctors she will
be fine. If this baby was able to survive outside of the womb at 22 weeks
in gestation; shouldn't we as a society err on the side of life?
In speaking out on this issue, I would be hubristic if I think that any of
these columns can affect the course of our national debate. That is not my
intent what so ever. My intent is hopefully to reach out to at least one
girl/woman who is thinking of having an abortion to tell her that she has
other options namely adoption. Hear the voices of Gianna, Sarah and Amy.
In one of the many responses I received to my previous column, one person
suggested that I speak out on birth control. As I said in an email to
someone should a couple find themselves in the throws of passion and do not
have protection, perhaps watching TV or going to the movies is in order.
Again, I want to challenge those who see abstinence as being the best guide
to decreasing the abortion rate, you are only kidding yourselves. While you
preach that schools should only teach abstinence it will do little to
decrease the thousands of abortions that take place every day. You say that
you are pro-life then prove it. Sit down with your sons and daughters to
insist they use birth control should they choose to have sex. By the way,
tell them what sex is. If you cannot do that, then allow for these
discussions to take place within our public schools. Our children have the
right to know and should not be kept in the dark.
As a responsible parent, my two teens know all about sex and how to use
protection. Thankfully they have not engaged in sex since we have open and
honest discussions.
My message to the girls and women out there on the topic of birth control,
if the boy/man you are with does not have a condom, you are to tell him
absolutely no sex. Women of all ages are strong and I know that you can do
this. Don't fall for if I pull out in time, you can't get pregnant. That
is simply not the case. Can you see yourself being put into a situation in
which you may seek to abort your baby? If you can't then the responsibility
is on your shoulders to use some form of birth control.
To the men/boys out there who are even thinking of having sex with a
woman/girl, if you do not have a condom, quite frankly you are showing
little respect for your female partner. Do you really wish to get a call
from them saying, "I am pregnant, now what?" Are you ready to be a father
or at least hold her hand should she choose to have an abortion? Or will
you run? If you run, you are beyond contempt.
I say that because I once paid for a girl friend to have an abortion. She
did not know who the father was. It was one of two men. I made damn sure
they paid me back. I and another friend escorted her to the clinic and this
is going back over twenty-years ago and one of the men came by later on that
night with a bottle of wine. He could not bring himself to escort her. He
wanted to see how she was and I refused to let him see her, but said, "Hand
over your share of the money owed me." He did so. The other one who also
did not escort her also paid me back. To this day, she is still my best
friend and will be so for life.
Lastly to the Republican candidates running for president who see themselves
as being pro-life, I came to hear your voice when it comes to abortion
through my own means not yours and do agree with your stance. Now you must
come to hear my call to end the war in Iraq which is also taking the lives
of innocent victims and many of them are babies. You must put an end to the
use of depleted uranium since it does affect the lives of the unborn. Many
Iraqi mothers are terrified in giving birth since the child they will give
birth to in many cases will be deformed and often will die. I have seen
their pictures. Have you? You say that you are pro-life well damn it,
prove it! To continue this war and if you are looking beyond Iraq into
Iran, then you are pro-death.
I have seen the photos of dead Iraqi and Lebanese children as I have seen
the photos of dead aborted babies and quite frankly, I see absolutely no
difference. Is this the best society in general has to offer humanity?
Author's email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2007/11/5/3334809.html
By Mary MacElveen
November 5, 2007
In response to my previous column on abortion published on OpEdNews.com I
read each and every response to it and many if not all sounded much like the
responses I gave when I was pro-choice. I used many of those same arguments
in confronting those who were/are pro-life. So, yes, I did hear you, but
still stand my ground as an advocate for unborn children as I have done for
the children of The Congo, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
After I wrote that column, I received an email from someone who I have
corresponded with for a long time. She is presently on a political Yahoo
group which tends to be progressive in nature. Since I wish to shield her
identity, I will call her Rachel and this is what she had to add and mind
you she is a Democrat, "I have had an abortion, before I really understood
what I was doing. I still feel guilty about it, of course. I hope you will
change people's hearts with this, and I think you will." I do not know about
that, Rachel, but let us hope so. Also, Rachel used to volunteer her time
for a Right to Life movement and is still a member. While I cannot assuage
her guilt, at least I can be her voice. Perhaps helping out with this Right
to Life movement is her way of giving back. Good for you, Rachel.
Then I received a very sad comment containing a story from another woman who
I will call, Kate. In her email she stated, "A friend of mine used to act
as an escort outside women's clinics. He would explain that he was the
result of an unwanted pregnancy, and had grown up passed from one relative
to another, until he was old enough to enlist in the army. He's bowlegged
from rickets, because he didn't have enough to eat. He's single and
childless, because he really doesn't know how to do a relationship. He saw
himself as saving children from the life he led." At first, I did not know
how to feel of his actions, but thinking further, I saw him imprinting his
life on others. Could those children he saw himself saving wind up in the
homes of loving parents only to go on to do great things in life? We will
never know.
Many folks are raised with hardships, only to turn them around into
positives. Some have endured pain that you and I will never know, yet they
rise above it all. While Rachel has called me a hero in the past as she has
read my numerous columns, the true heroes are the ones you are about to
meet. By the way, you will never meet them through groups such as NARAL
(National Abortion Rights Action League) and NOW (National Organization for
Women). But, they are our sisters none the less.
I would like you to meet, Gianna Jessen. You may be asking who she is and I
will tell you a bit about her. She is a survivor of abortion. No, she did
not have one through a botched abortion or a back-alley abortion, but she
was the survivor of a late-term abortion. "On April 6, 1977, Gianna's 17
year old birthmother (named Tina) sought a saline abortion at seven months
pregnant. Saline abortions involve injecting a caustic saline solution into
the amniotic fluid, which (normally) causes the fetus to be scalded to death
and then delivered dead. In this case, however, things didn't go according
to plan. In the early hours of April 7th, Tina went into labor and gave
birth to a living baby girl, Gianna. Fortunately for Gianna, she was born
before the abortionist had arrived at the clinic for the day. As a result,
instead of being killed at birth by the abortionist, she was transported to
a hospital. She was severely injured by the abortion attempt, requiring a
three month stay in the hospital, but she survived to be placed in a foster
family specializing in high risk babies."
While she could have turned that huge negative in her life, she has chosen
to speak out against the very procedure that could have ended her life. As
a result of this abortion that almost ended her life, what resulted was her
being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. In that procedure her brain was
starved of oxygen. While she has never met her birth-mother and has no
anger towards her, she has also met with women who have had this procedure
done. I call that the ultimate gift of compassion.
I think what angers me most is this passage, "On April 22, 1996, Gianna
testified before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary
Committee on the issue of abortion. Sadly, out of 13 members of the
subcommittee, only 2 were willing to listen to her testimony; abortion
supporters boycotted the meeting." I have often referred to Scott Ritter and
Hans Blix as being the go-to-men when it came to our actions leading us up
to the war as being the ones that our congress should have listened to, in
this debate, Gianna was that very go-to-woman. At that moment in time, she
could have been the true voice of abortion victims. Yet those who failed to
show up to listen to her showed their cowardice.
I would now like to invite you to meet, Sarah Smith. Again, you are probably
saying who? She too like Gianna is a survivor of abortion as one reads, "In
1970, Betty tried to abort Sarah in Los Angeles. At the time, Betty did not
know she was pregnant with twins. One baby was aborted, but miraculously,
Sarah survived. Sarah has forgiven her mother -- and for five years they
traveled the world speaking together about the pain and suffering caused by
abortion." Her aborted twin was later named Andrew. According to Sarah who
is a beautiful woman, she had this to say of Andrew, "Somehow, miraculously,
I survived! My twin brother wasn't so lucky. Andrew was aborted and we lost
him forever." I believe that Andrew is her guiding spirit. According to
Sarah, to this day, her mother deeply regrets that abortion.
Then we have the story of Amy and no last name given. She too was the
victim of a late-term abortion and the facts only became clear to her when
later on in life she needed her mother's medical records. Her mother died a
few years later after her birth. The saline abortion did not take and Amy
was born healthy. Somewhat sounding angrier than Gianna and Sarah, she
said, "My mother had no right to try and abort me, no matter what the
circumstances were, no matter how inconvenient her pregnancy was. And if she
was here with us today, I'm sure she would agree. Life is too precious to
simply throw away. Now I can speak out against abortion from the baby's
perspective. Any baby would choose life."
In reading this one story which was published in the Times Online fifty
babies are born alive a year after surviving abortions. In reading this
article one will see there is "growing unease among clinicians over a legal
ambiguity that could see them being charged with infanticide." You will also
read, "Its (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) guidelines
say that babies aborted after more than 21 weeks and six days of gestation
should have their hearts stopped by an injection of potassium chloride
before being delivered. In practice, few doctors are willing or able to
perform the delicate procedure." In this country, doctors take the
Hippocratic Oath and within this oath is "First do no harm" I do not know
about you, but as a doctor, I could not bring myself to inject that into a
baby's heart.
In death penalty cases here in the United States, doctors are not the ones
to inject the lethal ****tail for this very reason. They are not even in
the room when the condemned is being executed. They only pronounce them
dead.
So while those babies should have their hearts stopped according to those
guidelines, this story made me sit up and take notice, Born at just 22
weeks - Amilla is not yet allowed home. In juxtaposition in which fifty
babies survive each year due to abortions this article reports, "A girl born
after just under 22 weeks in the womb - among the shortest gestation periods
known for a live birth - will remain in a hospital a few extra days as a
precaution, officials said." It goes onto report, "Amillia Taylor was born
after 22 weeks weighing just ten ounces." According to her doctors she will
be fine. If this baby was able to survive outside of the womb at 22 weeks
in gestation; shouldn't we as a society err on the side of life?
In speaking out on this issue, I would be hubristic if I think that any of
these columns can affect the course of our national debate. That is not my
intent what so ever. My intent is hopefully to reach out to at least one
girl/woman who is thinking of having an abortion to tell her that she has
other options namely adoption. Hear the voices of Gianna, Sarah and Amy.
In one of the many responses I received to my previous column, one person
suggested that I speak out on birth control. As I said in an email to
someone should a couple find themselves in the throws of passion and do not
have protection, perhaps watching TV or going to the movies is in order.
Again, I want to challenge those who see abstinence as being the best guide
to decreasing the abortion rate, you are only kidding yourselves. While you
preach that schools should only teach abstinence it will do little to
decrease the thousands of abortions that take place every day. You say that
you are pro-life then prove it. Sit down with your sons and daughters to
insist they use birth control should they choose to have sex. By the way,
tell them what sex is. If you cannot do that, then allow for these
discussions to take place within our public schools. Our children have the
right to know and should not be kept in the dark.
As a responsible parent, my two teens know all about sex and how to use
protection. Thankfully they have not engaged in sex since we have open and
honest discussions.
My message to the girls and women out there on the topic of birth control,
if the boy/man you are with does not have a condom, you are to tell him
absolutely no sex. Women of all ages are strong and I know that you can do
this. Don't fall for if I pull out in time, you can't get pregnant. That
is simply not the case. Can you see yourself being put into a situation in
which you may seek to abort your baby? If you can't then the responsibility
is on your shoulders to use some form of birth control.
To the men/boys out there who are even thinking of having sex with a
woman/girl, if you do not have a condom, quite frankly you are showing
little respect for your female partner. Do you really wish to get a call
from them saying, "I am pregnant, now what?" Are you ready to be a father
or at least hold her hand should she choose to have an abortion? Or will
you run? If you run, you are beyond contempt.
I say that because I once paid for a girl friend to have an abortion. She
did not know who the father was. It was one of two men. I made damn sure
they paid me back. I and another friend escorted her to the clinic and this
is going back over twenty-years ago and one of the men came by later on that
night with a bottle of wine. He could not bring himself to escort her. He
wanted to see how she was and I refused to let him see her, but said, "Hand
over your share of the money owed me." He did so. The other one who also
did not escort her also paid me back. To this day, she is still my best
friend and will be so for life.
Lastly to the Republican candidates running for president who see themselves
as being pro-life, I came to hear your voice when it comes to abortion
through my own means not yours and do agree with your stance. Now you must
come to hear my call to end the war in Iraq which is also taking the lives
of innocent victims and many of them are babies. You must put an end to the
use of depleted uranium since it does affect the lives of the unborn. Many
Iraqi mothers are terrified in giving birth since the child they will give
birth to in many cases will be deformed and often will die. I have seen
their pictures. Have you? You say that you are pro-life well damn it,
prove it! To continue this war and if you are looking beyond Iraq into
Iran, then you are pro-death.
I have seen the photos of dead Iraqi and Lebanese children as I have seen
the photos of dead aborted babies and quite frankly, I see absolutely no
difference. Is this the best society in general has to offer humanity?
Author's email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2007/11/5/3334809.html