Other Voices: When the Facts Need More Checking [Times abortion story]

New York Times ^ | 1/7/07 | Enid Klauber, M.D.

[madprof98]

Letters To The Public Editor

Re “Truth, Justice, Abortion and The Times Magazine” (Dec. 31):

The April 9 Times Magazine article about the criminalization of abortion in El Salvador is a very important document. What does the maternal mortality and morbidity rate mean? It is one way of measuring the health of a society in that dimension so that it can be compared with others.

It also implies that every time there is a pregnancy, wanted or not, a woman’s health and her very life are at risk. There is no comparable paternal mortality or morbidity rate. Therefore it should be only a woman’s choice to carry or not carry a child each and every time.

If Carmen Climaco performed infanticide, the lesson should be that abortion should be legal, which would have allowed her to abort the fetus earlier. It also seems possible that the so-called autopsy findings were manipulated or fudged for political, social or other reasons. Without photos and verified pathology findings, it’s hard to know.

I agree that “bulletproof” journalism is ideal. But it is also important to expose the effects of draconian laws on individuals.

ENID KLAUBER, M.D.
Tampa, Fla., Dec. 31, 2006

[madprof98]

In response to the pro-abortion magazine piece which finally, after much criticism, got a tepid "correction" from the NYTimes, the Times yesterday printed several letters, mostly effusive in praise of the Times. The competition was rough, but I'd say this was the most disturbing of the letters printed.

[The Blitherer]

"The Nazi's shouldn't have gassed the Jews but it was really the Jews' fault for being in Germany in the first place."

Does that about sum it up? The Times has hit a new low.

[wideawake]

If Carmen Climaco performed infanticide, the lesson should be that abortion should be legal, which would have allowed her to abort the fetus earlier.

So she admits it's purely a matter of timing.

Killing a baby one second before natural birth is totally cool, killing a baby one second after birth is legally problematic but probably cool.

[Kieri]

Has the "fake but accurate" defense come up yet?

[frogjerk]

ENID KLAUBER, M.D. Tampa, Fla., Dec. 31, 2006

Dr. Josef Mengele I presume. What a real sociopath!

[frogjerk]

But it is also important to expose the effects of draconian laws on individuals.

Infanticide is now a draconian law according to this "doctor".

[frogjerk]

Time for a protest in front of the good doctors office.

[Bigh4u2]

"If Carmen Climaco performed infanticide, the lesson should be that abortion should be legal,"

See, they should have passed a law to let her 'legal' murder her child.

How can all of us be so blind to the obvious? /sarc

[Bigh4u2]

legal = legally

[threeleftsmakearight]

Let me get this straight, the good "doctor" excuses the murder of the baby because the woman wanted to abort.
She was forced to kill the baby due to the "draconian" abortion laws? This makes no sense, as the punishment for the abortion would be much less than the punishment for murdering the baby. I'm sure once it is confirmed she killed the baby after birth, her defenders will move on to "post-partum-depression".

[Monterrosa-24]

El Salvador has all manner of hospitals from the clean and ultramodern to the "at-least-the-floor-gets-mopped" open ward hospitals. The peasant class in the hills often forgoes the use of hospitals and the infant/maternal mortality rates may not be the best but lets not say as this letter writer did that to be pregnant in El Salvador is to put one's life at risk.

[Deut28]

"It also implies that every time there is a pregnancy, wanted or not, a woman’s health and her very life are at risk."

I wonder if the good doctor would agree that every time a woman engages in sex she is putting her very life at risk.

That's the only logical outcome of the path the doctor has chosen.

[Smogger]

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