Hey Pro-Choicers, Try Watching Abortion, Then See How You Feel
I wrote this morning that showing the reality of abortion tosses "pro-choice" platitudes out the window.Newsweek reporter Sarah Kliff wrote a nice pro-abort puff piece about late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart but in a related piece reported running into emotional trouble when actually watching him commit the dirty deed:
... But I'd never actually seen an abortion; I'd never watched the procedure that activists vehemently defend or deplore.... I wasn't sure I would. I confess I was hesitant to step into Carhart's operating room....
A 1st-trimester abortion, from my vantage point behind the glass window, looked like an extended, more invasive version of a standard ob-gyn exam. A woman with her heels in stirrups, clothes traded in for a hospital gown, a speculum holding the cervix open. Carhart used a suction tube to empty the contents of the uterus; it took no longer than 3 minutes. The suction machine made a slight rumbling sound, a pinkish fluid flowed through the tube, and, faster than I'd expected, it was over.... I'd anticipated some kind of difficulty watching an abortion; it wasn't there.
At least not physically. But there was a discomfort I hadn't expected, my emotional reaction to watching abortions....
When I returned from Omaha, friends and colleagues wanted to know if I had "done it." When I said I had, their reactions surprised me. Friends who supported legal abortion bristled slightly when I told them where I'd been and what I'd watched. Acquaintances at a party looked a bit regretful to have asked about my most recent assignment. The majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade's protection of abortion, about 68% as of May. But my experience (among an admittedly small, largely pro-choice sample set) found a general discomfort when confronted with abortion as a physical reality, not a political idea. Americans may support abortion rights, but even 40 years after Roe, we don't talk about it like other medical procedures.
And maybe that's appropriate. Abortion may be a simple procedure medically, but it is not cancer surgery. It's an elective procedure that no one - neither its defenders nor its detractors - expects to elect for themselves. I had (and still have) difficulty understanding my own reaction, both relieved to have watched a minimally invasive surgery and distressed by the emotionality of the process. Abortion involves weighty choices that, depending on how you view it, involve a life, or the potential for life....
Not only did her own reaction to abortion surprise Kliff, but also the reactions of her "large pro-choice sample set" - friends and colleagues. They approve of the concept of abortion but don't like being reminded of the reality.
Kliff is having "difficulty understanding" her reaction to the graphic reality of abortion that confronted her pro-abort self.
Hey Pro-Choicers, Try Watching Abortion, Then See How You Feel
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Mmm
Maybe more pro-choicers should watch an abortion . Seemed almost effective in altering Kliff's opinion. Maybe in time it fully will change her vote .
- Dylandts
August 18, 2009 1:29PM
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Watch one
There is a Abortion on video that shows the baby fighting for its life before it is sucked out.And after the MD saw it he stoped doing abotions.I need help on the name of the video.
- countryboy
August 18, 2009 4:27PM
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Great, let's make decisions based only on emotion
Whether someone supports abortion should be a thoughtful process that considers the Constitution, the rights of the mother, and the rights of the unborn child. It should not be based on some knee-jerk reaction to watching an abortion. The worst policy is the policy that is made on "emotion" and "feeling."
Pro-life people diminish their credibility when they make ridiculous arguments like "watch an abortion and you won't support it". Virtually everyone knows what happens during an abortion, what does watching it accomplish when you should be using your mind to make smart policy. Can emotion play a role? Of course, but I fail to see how viewing an abortion helps decide whether or not the procedure is constitutional.
- caelum
August 19, 2009 11:53AM
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No one LIKES abortion
Of course it's not "comfortable" or without emotional response. It shouldn't be. Abortion should never be performed as a meaningless, thoughtless act.
That doesn't change the fact that it is sometimes necessary, and sometimes the best possible option for all concerned (yes, arguably even including the fetus, who might otherwise be born into abuse, neglect or starvation). It shouldn't be a blase means of birth control, to be repeated over and over, but there are times when its use is quite justified, and as such it should be readily available.
Should we "get comfortable" with it? No, of course not. But that does not equate to believing that it should be banned.
Clearly late-term abortions should only take place in cases where the mother's life or long-term health cannot be saved by any other means, or where the fetus is indisputably not viable outside the uterus. This is already the law .
- Babaroni
August 19, 2009 1:09PM
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