"Abortion - Not Healthcare"

Today is World Health Day. As such, myself and like-minded bloggers are working to debunk the common misunderstanding that abortion (one of the most common surgical procedures in the world) is healthcare. I contend that it isn't, for reasons I'll state below.

1) Abortion: Not a Physical Health benefit.

So to be really obvious: What is Healthcare?
At its most basic, healthcare is the care of people's mental and physical health.  It is the prevention of disease, illness and stress resulting in mental disorders, and the treatment of every kind of sickness and mental illness.  It is also the promotion of healthy living and behaviours.

Abortion - what is it and how does it fit into Healthcare?
You'd be justified in thinking it's stupid to explain what abortion is.
Actually, it's a little more complicated than a simple 'surgical procedure'.  Abortion can be scientifically described as the termination and removal of the embryo/foetus from the uterus of the mother.  Let's put it more simply: abortion ends the life of a living human being  - a being that at the time of the operation will have a heartbeat, as well as (often) measurable brain waves.

Quit the pro-life yabbering and answer the question.


Ok. What the debate (whether or not abortion is healthcare) rests ultimately upon is what the foetus is.
For the sake of the argument, the foetus is, in the belief of most pro-choice people, a lump of tissue that will at some point during the pregnancy - or even, as soon as it draws breath, become a human being.  Before that, it is merely a tumor, something that will keep growing until it has become something that brings a woman the pain of morning sickness, of child birth etc.  It impinges on her social ability, and could seriously constrict her career plans.

IF it were true that the foetus is a lump of tissue during the majority of a woman's pregnancy, then pro-choice people would not be far wrong from saying that abortion is a healthcare issue.

Unfortunately for them, they are wrong about the foetus being merely a clump of tissue or at best, a parasitical creature that has no right to the womb.  As stated above, abortions always kill babies with heartbeats.
Most random lumps of tissue do not have heartbeats.  The presence of a heartbeat says something radical.  It says: Hey, I'm living!  Science is quite predictable about what the foetus is.  All biology textbooks agree: the egg and sperm together create a new individual that has its own unique DNA info - all the data it needs to produce a unique Somebody.

Abortion, then, reliably kills a unique somebody.  And unique somebodies can not be called sicknesses that can be cured with 'healthcare'.  That just doesn't match up with the science.

Yeah, sure.  But it's the mother's choice.  If she feels like she couldn't cope with the baby, like mental stress and stuff, then she should be allowed the choice to make decisions about her own body.


So we're on to the next part of what healthcare does: It works to prevent/cure mental illness and stresses.
It's outrageously early in the morning, so I'll use a quote from a fellow blogger from the groundswell youth for life movement, on the prolife.org.nz blog.

"David Fergusson, a professor at Otago University based at Christchurch hospital conducted some studies (not sure how many – google him) that proved a causal link between abortion and an increased risk of mental health problems – 1.4 – 1.8 times the control rate. 98% of abortions in New Zealand are conducted on the grounds of risk to the mental health of the mother.  This inconsistency is astounding." - (thanks, Alex)


Add to that the fact that abortion has huge health risks for women (which I'll write about later) that makes it
an incredibly unsafe operation for both mother and child.

What we're seeing here is that Abortion isn't healthcare.  In terms of women's safety, their risk of increased complications due to abortion (breast cancer, depression, inability to have further children, infections, bleeding etc.) - are very high.  In terms of the foetus' health - this unique somebody that we discussed - abortion does away with their need for healthcare.

Here are a list of articles that have been written to address this issue:

National Public Health Week & Abortion - The A Word
If Abortion is Healthcare than Healthcare is Dead - The Culture Vulture
Abortion: Not Healthcare - Insights From Eire - Prolife NZ
World Health Day: Abortion Is Not A Health Issue - Dr. Matthew Flannagan, PhD
Madeleine Is Right, Abortion isn't a Health Issue, it's a Moral Issue - Dr. Jim West, ThD
Is Abortion Healthcare? - Dr. Glenn Peoples, PhD
Abortion: It's A Health Issue AND A Crime - Jim Mc Veagh, MD
On World Health Day Tell The World: "Abortion Is Not Healthcare" - JillStanek.com

Anti-Life Extremism: Abuse

Hey guys and gals.

This is a short vid from a pro-lifer in the States who's not afraid to stand up for the unborn, or to take the consequences of her actions.  Those of us who have taken a stand have faced bullying: swearing, spitting, verbal abuse - something that will happen whenever abortion is talked about in the public square.

Apparently, the phrase: "I hope you get raped.  Then you'll understand" that a vitriolic, anti-life male fired at me one time is a fairly commonly used abuse against pro-life women.

You'll find, as you get more involved in pro-life activism, that you'll also get abused more often.  But that's okay.  In fact, it's a great witness to the truth of the pro-life message when we're abused and we are seen to be the calm and rational victims of that abuse.

A defining difficulty that anti-lifers have is that they can't argue against the science presented by pro-lifers.  Intelligent people will resort to philosophy, attempting to make the definition of 'personhood' vague so that the pre-born can be killed legitimately.  But so many anti-lifers will just be angry.  And speechless.  You can ask them to talk about their views, but much of the time they'll tell you they don't want to talk about it, and walk away yelling curses at you.

That's okay too.  We have to be seen to be the people who are the reasonable ones; we also need to convince the people who are ready to be challenged by the facts.  If abuse is upsetting you, remember that's normal, and talk to the other members of your pro-life team. We're there to support one another to spread the word.

:)

Margaret Sanger: Anti-Abortion Founder of Planned Parenthood

She was a eugenicist.  A promoter of birth control for minorities.  Margaret Sanger was Anti-Life and yet ironically, strongly Anti-Abortion.

At a time when the Nazis were rising to power, Margaret Sanger was promulgating her beliefs on the necessity of birth control and was calling for a systemic use of eugenic policy to deal with social and political problems.  Minority groups and the poor that bred indiscriminately and were unable to raise their children properly should have access to birth control - in this case, contraceptives.  For those who were 'feeble-minded' or struggled with mental illnesses, Sanger strongly advocated sterilization.  In addition, Sanger set up birth control clinics in impoverished areas in an effort to begin controlling the population, and founded the American Birth Control League, later known as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Here's an excerpt from Planned Parenthood on their organisation's founder:

"Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is one of the movement's great heroes. Sanger's early efforts remain the hallmark of Planned Parenthood's mission..."

In 1996 they inaugurated the Margaret Sanger Award which they have given many times to different 'human rights' champions.  

The above is what we are told regularly by pro-lifers.

What Planned Parenthood isn't telling us is that Sanger was overtly anti-abortion, and spoke against the 'hundreds of thousands of abortions' that were happening every year in America in her lifetime:

"While there are cases where even the law recognizes an abortion as justifiable if recommended by a physician, I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization." - (Woman and the New Race (1920) titled "Contraceptives or Abortion?)

In another place, explaining her 1916 views on opposing abortion in her 1938 autobiography, she says:

"To each group we explained what contraception was; that abortion was the wrong way—no matter how early it was performed it was taking life; that contraception was the better way, the safer way—it took a little time, a little trouble, but was well worth while in the long run, because life had not yet begun."

Margaret Sanger's views on birth control are celebrated by Planned Parenthood.  However, her statements on the hundreds of thousands of children being killed by abortion as being 'a disgrace' has not been reflected in the actions of Planned Parenthood since the years it was founded.  

The fact that Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist and racist, was strongly convinced by science that abortion was immoral and a disgrace because it took human lives makes me wonder - what is it that a staunch advocate of eugenics could grasp, and our society can not understand?  That a foetus is undoubtedly a baby, and that aborting it is taking away its right to life.

Planned Pimphood: "We don't actually care about Women"

We've all seen Live Actions undercover videos that have captured Planned Parenthood's staff aiding and abetting supposed sex trafficking.


The videos where two people, a guy dressed as a pimp and a girl dressed as his prostitute, walk into a Planned Parenthood abortion mill and quiz the staff on how much help they can get for their business from the mills.


We've listened, horrified to their responses - 'health workers' who have been told that 13 and 14 year old girls are being used as sex slaves, and who enthusiastically offer advice: where the business can get abortions for the girls, where they can get tested for STDs, what to do in the interim between each girl's abortion and work as sex slaves (sexual activity should occur 'waist up' as one 'health worker' advised the Live Action crew).


A bill is going through Illinois' federal government at the moment.  Its primary aim is to ensure that all staff within the Planned Parenthood mills will be legally required to report any sexual offences they hear of.  At the moment, in Illinois, only professional medical staff are required to report - consequently, staff like the woman quoted above do not feel obligated to report crime.


Here's an excerpt from Live Action on this bill:


"There is a proposed law, HB 2093 that would expand who is a mandated reporter of child sexual abuse to include every employee or volunteer of any organizations that provides or refers for reproductive health care. This more expansive definition of who should be required to report child sexual abuse is consistent with most other states that I have looked into." 


Seems like a fair case they're making.
Here's a plea from Planned Parenthood about HB 2093. 


"HB 2093 requires office staff and volunteers of organizations that provide reproductive health care or sex education to be mandated reporters of child abuse. All doctors, nurses and teachers are already mandated reporters. Therefore, these organizations are already legally required to make reports. This bill creates redundant regulations that have the potential to overload the Department of Children and Family Services." 


This came from a standard letter with little blurbs about three different bills going through the Illinois federal government at the moment.  The conclusion is that all the things the bill wants to change (PP's aiding of sex trafficking, shoddy, run down abortion mills that need rennovating etc., and a requirement for women to see the ultrasound of their baby before having an abortion) - impose too much cost on Poor Little Planned Parenthood, who really can't afford to update their mills, because they don't want to spend money on things that help women.


No, they don't care about women.  
They don't care that they're being abused as sex slaves.  
They don't want them to have an informed choice (by seeing a picture of their own baby before the abortion).  
They don't even care enough about women to give them a clean and tidy sitting room to wait in before they kill their children.


Planned Parenthood cares about one thing: money.

ALRANZ: New Campaign to Decriminalize Abortion

The pressure is on.

The biggest advocate of abortion rights in New Zealand, ALRANZ, started a national campaign last Saturday (12 March) to decriminalize abortion in New Zealand.  

This is no surprise.  ALRANZ exists to decriminalize abortion - their website states: 

"ALRANZ firmly believes that a woman should decide whether or not to continue her pregnancy, not parliamentarians with a conscience vote and not state-funded doctors."

So what is their agenda?

ALRANZ, partnering with their affiliate, the more militantly anti-life WONAAC (Women's National Abortion Action Coalition) are campaigning to make the killing of unborn children legal, for any reason.

They are seeking to 'reform' our current law (ASC Act) which states that two certifying consultants must give abortion referrals only if the woman's mental or physical health would be at risk if she continued to carry the child to birth.

The recent High Court ruling from Right to Life's court case battle with ALRANZ was in favour of RtL's assertion: that a stunning 98% of abortions in New Zealand are illegal, with certifying consultants across the country signing off women as being mentally unprepared to have children, and referring them to abortionists.

As a response to Justice Miller's ruling, this nation-wide campaign was launched.  Dr. Morgan Healey, spokesman for the campaign says:

"The Right to Life case, currently before the High Court, shows just how fragile and outdated our abortion services are. Should the High Court rule in favour of Right to Life, the Abortion Supervisory Committee could be forced to crack down on certifying consultants using ‘mental’ health as a fix-all for our unfair abortion law.”

Campaign spokesperson Kirstie Vonk, has a solution:

"They need to be urgently updated and made fairer," said campaign spokesperson Kirstie Vonk. "They are preventing women from accessing health services when and where they need them, and make criminals out of patients instead of dealing with unwanted pregnancy as a health issue."

Abortion is a 'health issue', all right.  It kills 18,000 New Zealand children each year and physically and psychologically damages thousands of women.

In his press release on the campaign, Family First director Bob McCroskrie nails the issue:

“Abortion harms women – yet groups seeking to decriminalise abortion refuse to acknowledge this, seeing the right to abortion more paramount than the long-term health and welfare of the women.”

Here's an unashamed comment from WONAAC's press release on the campaign:

"To be fair counsellors and consultants have worked to make the system as sympathetic as possible. Almost all requests for abortion are approved."

Abortions are essentially a money-making scam.  It's too hard for me to believe that the law was broken over 17,000 times just because counsellors and consultants were sympathetic.