Posted on 06/12/2006 5:05:28 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
A friend of mine told me of a recent conversation at his family's dinner table that keeps reverberating in my mind. His wife, a physician, also performs abortions. And their 9-year-old son -- hearing the words and curious about its meaning -- looked up from his plate and asked, "What is an abortion?" His mother tried carefully to describe it in simple terms.
"But," said her son, "that means killing the baby."
The mother then explained that there are certain months during which an abortion cannot be performed, with very few exceptions. The 9-year-old shook his head. "But," he said, "it doesn't matter what month. It still means killing the babies."
Hearing the story, I wished it could be repeated to the justices of the Supreme Court, in the hope that at least five of them might act on this 9-year-old's clarity of thought and vision.
[This] reminded me of a powerful pro-life speaker and writer who, many years ago, helped me become a pro-lifer. He was a preacher, a black preacher. He said: "There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of a higher order than the right to life.
"That," he continued, "was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore out of your right to be concerned." This passionate reverend used to warn: "Don't let the pro-choicers convince you that a fetus isn't a human being. That's how the whites dehumanized us... The first step was to distort the image of us as human beings in order to justify what they wanted to do and not even feel they'd done anything wrong."
That preacher was the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Later...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Maybe the kid will change Mom's mind about exactly what she's doing.
He is right. So was the child.
Parents that are pro-abortion risk the alienation of their children!! The children NEVER feel totally confident that the abortion wouldn't have happened to them!! It creates a feeling of unease and suspicion for the mother by the child. I have heard of it personally. Beware all you pro-abortion parents...you have been warned.
Can you imagine how traumatized this little boy must be to learn that his Mother is a baby killer? And how can his innate reaction survive what society will be throwing at him as he is growing up. I wonder if "Lifeboat" is still being used.
Exactly. Nat Hentoff, a pro-life atheist, is a thinking Liberal with whom I could have debate and feel all the more enlightened.
An honest liberal, not many of those left. He is also against capital punishment, a view I have come to share as of late, for various reasons.
If an atheist can figure this out and express it so clearly,one would think that so called "people of faith" would be able to do it as well.
Sorry, but this story is a glaring fabrication. If a leftist wrote something like this to push their agenda, everybody on FR would see the holes in it instantly. Nine years old, his mother performs abortions, and is comfortable chatting about that at the dinner table with guests, and the kid has never heard the word before, much less has any idea what it means??? This is a 10.0 on the BS meter.
It odesn't matter what it rings the needle at on the bs meter. All children respond alike. And out of the mouths of babes, sometimes comes wisdom. This is one of those times.
That people like Jesse can be so spiritually dead in order to seek empowerment is a sickening thing. Al Goreghoul and Bill Clinton are two examples of dad souls who changed from pro-life to pro abortion on demand in order to gain power from liberalism. I used to hear Jesse preaching on Chicago radio when I stayed in Skokie, decades ago. He made sense then, but it is apparent from his marriage to the evil of abortion on demand that he was only speeching not preaching. For his immortal soul I can pray, but for his extortionist ass I can wish catastrophe. Jesse is no man of God, especially with this 180 treachery to black people on the issue of abortion.
bump
Do you agree or disagree with that thesis?
That can happen. It is possible.
Free abortions for all liberals!
The way I would put it is that once religious values are taken out of political debate, human life inevitably becomes devalued. If it is all just a matter of getting a legislative majority, how can one object on principle to slavery, to euthanasia, to infanticide, to killing the retarded, to killing the aged, and so on. It is well to remember that for hundreds of years, most people in the South thought it was perfectly fine to own other huamn beings, and that these people (who were pretty much like you and me) fought a bloody war for that "right." Slavery ended when the moral conscience of Notherners (who did not have a financial stake in slavery, and so were not blinded by avarice) was fully awakened to the horror of treating God's children like . . . chattel.
Hentoff is awesome. Thanks for the post.
I generally agree with your position that morality is at the heart and soul of the debate. I also have no problem with your claim that legislative majorities and morality are not always coincident. One would think that is self evident. Your history is a bit shady however. Massachusetts was in the business of importing slaves and selling them in the south. There are no clean hands where slavery is concerned but there are men who came to understand that slavery was wrong then, now and always.
And if the child in question had been described as 3 or 4 or maybe even 5 years old, the story might be believable (except that the follow-on analysis described as having occurred on the spot would require an unusually precocious preschooler). I don't believe for a second that a non-retarded 9 year old from any literate family has never heard the word "abortion" and has no idea what it means. This country is awash in abortion debate; there are abortion bumper stickers (pro and con) galore, kids at school go to various churches many of which make a big deal about abortion, kids at school have parents who participate in pro and anti abortion demonstrations and organizations (many of which are visible to passengers in passing vehicles). This story is about as believable as Mary Mapes' perennial insistence that the Rathergate memo was authentic.
"But," said her son, "that means killing the baby."
This mother lost a good deal of her moral authority with this child when the 9 year old realized that mom was a self deluding crap artist.
I still believed in Santa Clause at nine years old. I sure as hell didn't know what an abortion was. I didn't know what that was until I was like 11 or 12.
I disagree. Same thing happened 2 weeks ago. Up at the cabin some of the adults got into a discussion about abortion. My 11 year old nephew said " Momma what is an abortion" Never forget kids have good hearing.
Amen. I am convinced that there would be many fewer abortions if children learned about fetal development and abortion young - before the age of eight or so. They see clearly then and their sympathies are with the baby.
If they become aware of these matters when they are entering adolescence, then their own sexual desires and political "sophistication" go on the death side of the scales.
Mrs VS
"Mommy, why would a mommy kill her baby?" "Well darling, da, blah, da, do, dah ahhhh."
Who's Santa Clause? The patron saint of grammar?
My nine year old just learned what abortion was this last year. He is shielded - we don't have television, and we watch what we say in front of the children.
I can see an abortionist shielding her child from the ugly realities - the way pro-abortion people explain abortion to children is usually along the lines of sparing women an unwanted pregnancy - the children don't always make the connection. A baby-sitter once told my daughter that Bob Dole was bad because he wanted to force women to be pregnant - my daughter thought Bob Dole was a very bad man until she learned exactly what that meant. 180 deg. about face.
Nat Hentoff has never never set off my BS meter - and I don't always agree with him - I believe him to be a man of great integrity.
Mrs VS
That's just about what's happening. We'd have a lot more Democrats in office if abortion were illegal, but instead all the Hillary types are killing off their own flesh and blood, and don't get a chance to fill their skulls full of commie mush.
-ccm
I hate to say this, but if Mexican illegals could vote, they would overwhelming vote Republican. Mexicans are very conservative.
I understand that some people make a point of seeing that their children live sheltered lives, but if this woman was interested in "shielding her child from the ugly realities", she would hardly have brought up the topic at the family dinner table, with her 9 year old son and well-known (to be anti-abortion) columnist Nat Hentoff both present. Or am I to believe that Mr. Hentoff was boorish enough to raise this obviously contentious and sensitive subject at the dinner table, in front of his hosts' 9 year old son? Nope, I don't buy it -- if there's any truth at all to this tale, it's been greatly embellished.
Yes, but I expect your mother wasn't a physician (much less one who provided abortions), and your family didn't have people like Nat Hentoff over for dinner. I'm sure there are many kids out there leading very sheltered lives, however they're not only ignorant of many things, but also not likely to be quick on the uptake and confident of their opinions upon first hearing of something new, nor inclined to start arguing with their mother in front of an adult guest. Strong parental authority and sheltered child-rearing go hand-in-hand in my experience. Everything in this tale shouts "not a sheltered child" except for the mysterious exception of the word "abortion".
Nat wasn't at the dinner, he said he heard the story from the father. The child overheard something they said at the dinner table, and asked about it. There is no indication that there was a full-blown discussion of abortions at the table, just that the child heard the word and asked about it.
It could be the mother did NOT want her child to know what she did. Nat's story never says the son knew that she was performing abortions, just that he understood what she was saying was that abortion was killing babies.
You have ignored the first line of the article: "A friend of mine told me of a recent conversation at his family's dinner table that keeps reverberating in my mind." Stop trying to make Nat out to be a liar with crap like "... if this woman was interested in "shielding her child from the ugly realities", she would hardly have brought up the topic at the family dinner table, with her 9 year old son and well-known (to be anti-abortion) columnist Nat Hentoff both present."
I realize your worship of liberalism and abortion specifically has you blind to certain things, but even you must be able to see how utterly foolish is your assertion in light of the very first line in the article!
Spread the word.
As part of a worldwide promotion of Melinda Tankard Reist's new book, "Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics
Mel will be presented by Nat Hentoff, of the Village Voice, at a US book launch wine and cheese party in New York City tomorrow, Tuesday evening, June 13 at 5-8 pm.
Event is free and all are welcome... so if you want to go, freepmail me.
Surely there's a web link to material on your new book, er, on Melinda's new book. Do you have it, the web addy I mean?
You are 100% right. My brother worked at the Voice for years, Nat's a good guy and spot on re: pro-life.
You should hear Andrew Wilkow of WABC/WGY in NY, amazing breaking down every aspect of pro-life.
You don't know what you're talking about on this one... trust me.
He made sense then, but it is apparent from his marriage to the evil of abortion on demand that he was only speeching not preaching. For his immortal soul I can pray, but for his extortionist ass I can wish catastrophe. Jesse is no man of God, especially with this 180 treachery to black people on the issue of abortion.
No truer words were ever said.
Are you in the NY area? Come with me tomorrow night and ask him.
No, it's not my book... invitation was emailed to me.
Obviously, I can link you to the book:
http://www.defiantbirth.com/
Try the google page:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-01,RNWE:en&q=Defiant+Birth%3A+Women+Who+Resist+Medical+Eugenics
Ah, I see. Seems quite unlikely, though, that a father would have related this story to Nat Hentoff (and presumably also given Hentoff permission to relate it to the world at large in an article, since Hentoff still describes the man as "a fried of mine"), unless the father wanted to advance Hentoff's agenda, and thus was utterly opposed to his own wife's activities. But the scenario of two parents who disagree that seriously on a major issue, and discuss it at the dinner table, while their son has still not heard a peep about said issue at the age of 9, is also pretty hard to swallow. I mean how do you think this man's wife would have reacted to seeing their private family conversation sprawled across the pages of a major newspaper, with their innocent young son's part in it being exploited to oppose her position on this contentious issue in which she has a personal stake? Imagine if your spouse was pro-choice, and your 9 year old had expressed agreement with that position at the family dinner table, and your spouse had shared the child's words with a major columnist known to write pro-choice opinion pieces, and given said columnist permission to relate the child's words in a national publication.
Hentoff didn't mention the family's name. Privacy secure. Parents don't necessarily disagree seriously - father could be somewhat more troubled than the mother. I wonder how abortionists do explain their work to their children - "I dismember embryos and fetuses for a living?" Or, "I help women facing unwanted pregnancies."
Mrs VS
I entertained notions of doing a similar book a few years ago. I was collecting stories from women and have posted one or two here at FR (Perhaps you've seen The Danae Blessing Story, The Smell Of Rain), but I didn't put it all together for publication in the way that Melinda has.
Children also have a way of asking questions they sense are off limits unless a guest is at the table. Hint hint ...
However, let's discuss Hentoff's thesis which is that abortion, like slavery, devalues human life.Hentoff, or Jackson, are not the first to make this connection. It's practically trite by now. That said, it's true. Defense of slavery ultimately depends upon dehumanizing the slave. There is no defense for it.
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