Telling Your Story

"Physicians who have written scholarly papers against partial- birth abortions are dismissed - - if their views on abortion differ from those of the judge. Of one, [Judge Richard] Posner sniffs, 'Although the author is an MD, she is also a pro-life activist.' "

Ann Coulter, who described Judge Posner's fiery dissent in the 7th Circuit's decision upholding Illinois and Wisconsin's bans on partial-birth abortion as "hysterical rant more typically associated with Planned Parenthood fliers than with judicial opinions by learned federal judges."

Detroit Free Press

"'You get into a gray zone when the baby is born with signs of life,' said [Dr. John] Weitzner, who estimates his unit [at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center] performs about 100 labor- induction abortions each year. 'By giving a potassium chloride injection, you avoid the controversy [of a live birth]. The question is, is there any medical advantage [to the woman] if you're just doing it to prevent the controversy?'"
An explanation of why the staff does not use heart-stopping drugs on certain unborn babies in utero but instead induces premature labor, which can and does result in babies who survive the abortion.

Chicago Tribune, September 29

"'If you want to [perform abortions] and think that way, then don't call yourself "Christ" Hospital,' said the Rev. Tim Harlow. 'Call yourself Oak Lawn Hospital but take the Cross off of the top of your building and change your name. Or better yet, stop doing it.'"

The Star, September 2 (see story, page 4)

In the depths of their souls pro-lifers know that the pounding that accompanies the relentless, oftentimes emotional debate over partial-birth abortion is inflicting major damage to the anti-life forces.

Much of the wreckage is visible to the naked eye such as favorable swings in public opinion and passage of bans on this hideous abortion technique in 27 states, to name just two examples. But I am persuaded that it is likely that far greater damage than we know has been done to the hull of the pro- abortion ship (beneath the water line, as it were), and therefore out of sight.

Let's take a few minutes to examine how well the pro-abortion bulkhead is holding up under the pressure of a campaign of truth about this nauseating abortion "procedure."

In a federal court system whose customary response is to uphold each and every pro-abortion barbarism, a few judges have of late established beachheads of civilization. The best recent example is the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In an October 26 nail biter (5-4), the court rejected challenges to Illinois's and Wisconsin's bans on partial-birth abortions. (See story, page 1.)

Writing for the majority Judge Frank Easterbrook thoughtfully disagreed with plaintiffs' insistence that the laws were unconstitutionally "vague.'" (How ironic that vagueness should be the peg on which they hung their legal hats. Aren't these the same people who - - when pro-lifers showed simple black and white line drawings of a partial-birth abortion - - gnashed their teeth and rent their garments, wailing that the sketches were too specific, too inflammatory?) His opinion was the model of dispassionate jurisprudence.

By reputation, Easterbrook is a legal "titan," and so, too, is Richard Posner, his colleague. Posner was so angry at Easterbrook's calm deference to legislative intent that he slipped a sprocket. Pro-abortion Washington Post columnist Judy Mann grossly understated the case when she described his dissent as "blistering." Posner was so unsettled by the fact that he lost that his opinion mercilessly hammered everyone who disagreed, including one abortionist who dared to break ranks.

At the top of this editorial is a quote from Ann Coulter, who penned two devastating critiques of Posner, one for the Detroit Free Press, one for Human Events. In her Free Press op-ed, she explained how Posner had airily dismissed one physician who testified on behalf of the ban as a "pro-life activist."

But as Coulter pointed out, "It never occurs to the pro-abortion hysterics that perhaps it is the very fact that she is a doctor of medicine that prompted her to become a pro-life activist in the first place."

In the November 12 Human Events, Coulter annihilated Posner's overwrought broadsides against those state legislators who had incurred his wrath by daring to pass the bans in the first place. What's the diff if the kid is killed inside or outside the womb, Posner snarls. Maybe not much. But thrusting a pair of surgical scissors into the back of the head of a mostly delivered baby and sucking out the kid's brains is as close to infanticide as is humanly possible to imagine. Give the states a break!

As Coulter put it, "The states are simply trying to legislate within the deranged and grisly analytical framework imposed on them by the Supreme Court." Judge Posner, of course, felt warm and fuzzy toward abortionists whose consciences are on permanent holiday. Their heartless support for partial-birth abortions earned them the sobriquet " reputable physicians." Pity one poor abortionist, a Dr. Giles, who supported the legislation. Posner described the enthusiasts for partial-birth abortion as "more reputable, perhaps, ...than Dr. Giles."

But the damage goes deeper than what pro-abortionists may persuade themselves is merely surface damage - - that because there is conflict between federal appeals courts, the issue will likely go to the Supreme Court. The damage is fast becoming structural.

There are a number of beams that hold up the "right" to abortion. But is there one comparable to the floor joist upon which the first floor of a house rests? I would argue that it is the ability of the general public to distance itself from the brutality that is sawing a kid in half or shredding her body with a powerful vacuum machine - - this is the foundation of the abortion "right."

But, on second thought, perhaps even more foundational is the unspoken assumption that the babies' corpses somehow just "go away." What happens when Joe and Sally Jones find out that the body parts of aborted babies are being frozen, dismembered, and parceled out like different cuts of a cow: spleens, brains, ears, eyes, "intact trunks (with/without limbs)"? Stomachs will turn and minds will change. (See story, page 8.)

One final related thought. A couple of weeks ago my brother-in- law sent my wife a story from the New Yorker titled "The Rookie." I would highly recommend Adam Gopnik's poignant tale, subtitled " An American Bed-time Story."

Gopnik and his family are living in Paris and the prospect of his young soccer-playing son growing up knowing nothing of baseball lore is too much to bear. As fate would have it, one night, groping for a bedtime story, Gopnik makes up an amazing tale of a three-year-old pitcher for the 1908 Giants.

As far as his son is concerned, Gopnik hits a grand slam homer with 'The Rookie." For about a year, each night at bedtime an enraptured little Luke hears another installment in the ongoing saga of the three-year-old pitching wizard.

But Gopnik begins to wonder what words and idioms such as "all the way to the backstop" or "Polo Grounds" or "He had all day" can mean to a child living in Paris, who has never picked up a glove, or watched a game on television, let alone actually played baseball? "What did he think, what did he see when he heard these [cliches]?"

He had always been taught that you were to use words to point at a thing "and hope that the thing will somehow end up pointing at a symbol: a feeling, a state of mind." Luke, a very young child living in a baseball-free society, lacks the repertoire of cultural images needed to understand what these phrases mean in the same way his father does.

But Gopnik is pleased to see words like "Polo Grounds" and "full count" do call up "a powerful reaction" in Luke. "There is, I believe now, a force in stories, words in motion, that either drives them forward past things into feelings or doesn't," he writes.

But whatever is the explanation (and it's obviously not the " credibility of details" that Gopnik was taught was crucial to storytelling; after all, the entire story is made up), something rivets young Luke's attention. Happy that he can share this quintessentially America lore with his son, Gopnik observes, " Sometimes the words fly right over the fence and all the way out to the feelings." The power of words wrapped in love and shared with someone we care about is hard to overstate. How does that relate to us?

There are many stories that pro-lifers can share that will move people "forward past things into feelings." Stories of aborted women emotionally mangled for life. Stories of marriages shattered when husband and wife are unable to deal with the aftermath of a decision to take their own child's life. Stories of "technicians" so emotionally anesthetized they can treat the bodies of aborted babies like well-paying scraps of meat.

But the most powerful story of all will be yours: your artless, uncomplicated love for both mother and child. Tell your story, won't you? You never known how many lives you will touch - - and perhaps even save - - just by being yourself.

dave andrusko [dha1245@juno.com]