Philly Women's Center Gives Free Abortions to Honor Tiller
Operation Rescue is appalled to learn that Philadelphia Women's Center gave away free abortions on Tuesday as a means of "honoring" slain late-term abortionist George Tiller.
"There seems to be no comprehension of the value of human life with these people. Killing babies for free to honor someone who was murdered can only be described as sick," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
The abortion clinic told the media that an unspecified number of abortions were done free of charge, but there are no further plans to offer additional free abortions.
"There is no such thing as a 'free abortion,'" said Newman. "It costs the life of an innocent baby and puts the woman at risk for increased problems in her life. The loss of each innocent life diminishes us all."
Studies show that women who have received abortions are more at risk for problems such as suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental illness.
"If the people running that abortion clinic really wanted to help women, they would follow the Tiller family's example and close their clinic for good," said Newman.
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I mainly want to echo some of the very reasonable statements in the earlier comment posted. Particularly, health care providers who engage in providing pregnancy termination should not be targeted and statements by Operation Rescue that, "there seems to be no comprehension of the value of human life" only serve to add irrational emotion and dehumanize the medical professionals. Furthermore, OR participates deliberately in actions to marginalize women who terminate pregnancies and then cite the depression -related problems of the women as evidence against abortions. While OR contends to take this topic very seriously, their actions suggest that they take their IDEOLOGY very seriously and that rationality has been terminated.
While from a moral perspective, I do not find the abortion topic very palatable; from a healthcare provider perspective, I do believe that it should be an available, safe, legal and regulated practice. It should be as easily accessible as having your tonsils taken out. However, I do believe that offering free abortions does cross the line and offer nothing more than antagonism of the extreme views that these groups have. These procedures aren't meant to be taken lightly, but rather a very carefully thought out and deliberate medical procedure to terminate an unwanted pregnancy for whatever reason (fetal anomaly, social/psychological issues or issues of maternal health ...and YES, there are such conditions where continuing a pregnancy could in fact, harm the mother even more.) It's my opinion (and just an opinion) that this action taken by PWC, can be perceived as a proverbial "slap in the face" to those people who work to keep this procedure legal, and work to keep some type of esteem to the providers.
Furthermore, while I understand the views of Mr. Newman; I respectfully disagree with the statement he makes in regards to the only way to help these women is to close the clinic. Granted, OR (Operation Rescue) seems to specifically target these clinics for no other reason than their belief that the procedure is equivalent to murder . Would they also target hospitals, doctors , nurses and respiratory therapists, who terminally extubate a dying patient? Technically, those providers have ended a human life. Would this group also like to bring to light the mountains of other botched surgeries, or unlicensed medical "doctors" who perform, plastic surgery for instance? These clinics function to serve a select group of women who have exercised their right to end a pregnancy. These doctors need not be ostracized or considered to be "less" than an average physician, they are medical doctors, surgeons, OB/GYNs, some of who not only provide abortion services, but also work towards research on how to maintain a high-risk pregnancy.