Lies Revealed and Histories Ignored

For anyone with eyes to see, the ironies were enough to take your breath away. There they were, the two women cynically used by the abortion industry and its legion of lawyers to undermine the abortion laws of all 50 states, bemoaning how they had been mercilessly exploited.

The setting was a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee called (as chair Sen. Sam Brownback described it) to examine “the effect certain Supreme Court decisions have had on American life.” Among others testifying were Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, and Sandra Cano, the “Jane Doe” of Doe v. Bolton (the companion case to Roe).

As I explained yesterday, my schedule didn’t permit me to attend, unfortunately. But judging by press accounts, Ms. McCorvey and Ms. Cano eloquently reiterated their complaints against the lawyers whom they angrily insist used them. They also called for Roe's/Doe’s reversal. It was the first time the two women have testified together before a congressional committee.

According to the Los Angeles Times, McCorvey, now 58, said she was "used and abused by the court system in America." She went on to "accuse lawyers of using her as a 'guinea pig' to encourage a court decision that enshrined into law a practice she called 'horrible and evil," the Times reported.

Likewise Cano, now 57, "told the panel she was uneducated, poor and pregnant with her fourth child when lawyers recruited her to challenge Georgia's anti-abortion statute," the Associated Press (AP) reported. "She claims she never authorized lawyers to say she wanted an abortion."

"I feel like my name, life and identity have been stolen and put on this case without my knowledge and against my wishes," Cano said.

Forgotten--or never known--is that neither woman had an abortion.

So, what do we have? On one side, the plaintiffs whose personal hardscrabble backgrounds were manipulated by pro-abortion forces to overturn abortion laws telling the world that abortion is wrong, wrong, wrong.

On the other side we have those who insisted that abortion must remain legal, one of whom was identified as Kenneth Edelin. The AP described him as an associate dean of Boston University School of Medicine, who “recounted his experience as a young doctor in 1966 trying to save the life of woman who had a botched illegal abortion.” Edelin, the AP added, told the lawmakers not to “turn back the clock" on abortion rights.

Well, it's a little more complicated than that. In the mid-1970s, Kenneth Edelin was at the center of one of the most famous–-and horrific–-abortion controversies of a decade that was filled with ghastly stories.

In February 1975, a jury found Dr. Edelin guilty of manslaughter in the death of a 20-24-week-old baby following an abortion. Let me recount some of the details, quoting the March 1975 issue of National Right to Life News.

“The case stemmed from a series of events which began in late September 1973, when a 17-year-old girl, accompanied by her mother, came to Boston City Hospital to seek an abortion. The girl agreed to participate in a study involving amniocentesis, a technique that taps the fluids in the womb to pick up cells from the unborn children for diagnosis of inherited diseases.

“On October 2 the girl was twice subjected to [a] saline infusion abortion procedure. A third and similar attempt was made the following day.All proved unsuccessful. Later the second day Dr. Edelin performed a hysterotomy and surgically aborted the child. It was during the hysterotomy that Dr. Edelin was alleged to have detached the placenta from the uterine wall and then held the child inside its mother for at least three minutes...

According to NRL News, “The prosecution charged that the infant was viable at the time the abortion was performed and that it was the action of Dr. Edelin of holding the child inside its mother’s womb after detaching the placenta which caused it to suffocate. (One witness for the prosecution said that holding the baby inside the mother for three minutes "would be equivalent to cutting the air hose on a salvage diver.")

“‘Manslaughter is the issue, not abortion, criminal manslaughter,’ the prosecution said.”

Edelin’s attorney responded that “the hysterotomy as performed by Dr. Edelin is an acceptable medical practice and that the ‘fetus’ never drew a breath outside its mother’s body.”

Edelin was convicted, but went scot-free when the verdict was reversed in December 1976 by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Predictably, Edelin later became Chairman of the Board of Planned Parenthood.

Let me add one concluding thought.  When there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, whether it is a matter of a week or two or further down the line, it is essential that truth prevail. And that cannot happen if crucial contextual information, such as Edelin’s checkered past, is omitted.

Nor will it prevail if pro-abortionists, such as Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wi.), are allowed to get away with saying (as he did yesterday, according to the AP) that there are estimates that “more than 5,000 women a year had died as a result of complications from botched abortions in the years leading up to Roe.” That wholly fictitious number was simply conjured up by the strategists who plotted to overturn the abortion laws, as former abortionist turned pro-life activist Dr. Bernard Nathanson wrote in his famous book, “Aborting America.”

Sen. Brownback has not yet set a date for further hearings, according the AP. Believe me, I won’t miss the next one.