8mm
Posted on 05/13/2007 3:09:47 PM PDT by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Laura Echevarria is the former Director of Media Relations and a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee and has been a radio announcer, freelance writer active in local politics. She is a new opinion columnist for LifeNews.com.
Last Sunday, the LA Times ran what can only be described as a chilling opinion piece by Dan Neil called "The Abortion Debate Brought Home." Neil writes the “800 words” column for West magazine, a publication of the LA Times.
He opens his piece with a sentence that is cavalier, if not bordering on flippant: "My wife and I just had an abortion. Two, actually." The reader immediately knows this is not likely going to be a mea culpa.
Neil describes himself and his wife as “pro-choice,” but writes that they “never expected to actually confront the Choice. . . .And yet there I was, holding [my wife’s] hand, watching the ultrasound as a needle with potassium chloride found its mark, stopping the heart of one male fetus, then the other, hidden in my wife’s suffering belly.”
How did this come to pass? We learn that on their third attempt at in vitro fertilization four of the five implanted embryos had survived. The two boys and two girls were thriving. But there were two too many, according to Neil.
He writes, “Beforehand, the fertility specialist asked us if we were OK with ‘reduction’ also known as selective abortion—in the event that too many took hold. We said yes, not really appreciating what that meant.”
This statement is as shockingly matter of fact as it is stunning. What do you say to someone who can hold’s his wife’s hand while coolly watching as his children, children he supposedly desperately wanted, are killed with his blessing?
Neil distances himself from accountability by insisting, “We didn’t want to. We didn’t mean to. We didn’t do anything wrong, which is to say, we did everything right.” Later, again in that morally tone-deaf manner that characterizes the entire piece, he adds, almost boastfully, “We don’t feel guilty. We don’t feel ashamed. We’re not even really sad. . .”
But they should be. Consider:
To determine which babies should be aborted, Neil and his wife had genetic testing done to see if any of their unborn children had disabilities, “reasoning that if we had to abort two, it would be better to abort any fetuses with genetic abnormalities.”
Why? Because children with disabilities are inferior? Less important? Less intelligent? Subhuman? All of the above?
How shallow.
But the test results apparently revealed no genetic abnormalities, so they decided to keep the girls. Asked how they came to this decision, Neil writes, “Partly, it was a matter of how the fetuses were arranged. Partly, it had to do with other factors. Some studies show offspring of older fathers (I'm 47) run a higher risk of autism and males are four times as likely to be autistic.”
According to Neil, if pro-lifers like me had "suffered" as he has, I would likely change my mind about the right to life of unborn children. He writes, “I would also point out that even the most fervent abortion opponents may one day find themselves suffering from infertility and may rue supporting the court's from-the-bench obstetrics [A reference to the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the federal ban on partial-birth abortions.]”
Not so. And I know from experience.
After suffering four years from infertility, my husband and I were blessed with a daughter, two years later I miscarried. Two years later--after coming to terms with the fact that our daughter would be an only child--we discovered that we were pregnant yet again, this time, with a boy.
We were ecstatic but our joy was tempered with the uncertainty of our son Peter’s health. We were told he might have Down syndrome which can cause problems with the development of the heart as well as a whole host of other health issues including a greater chance of leukemia. One perinatologist encouraged us to have an amniocentesis done because, in his words, “some couples prefer to terminate the pregnancy.”
I refused to do the amnio—Peter was our son, no matter what. Through repeated ultrasounds, Peter was later given a clean bill of health and we found out seven months after his birth that he was going to have a baby brother.
Nearly three years later, Peter and his younger brother, Nathan, were diagnosed with autism. But being autistic does not lessen our love for either of them.
Likely Neil would consider me naive, or that I come loaded down with a holier-than-thou attitude. Neither is true. I have my battle scars, thank you very much, and there are many other pro-lifers just like me.
We all may not have dealt with infertility but the pro-life movement is comprised of many of us who have. And we are joined in the ranks by those of us who have children with disabilities, women and men who suffer from the aftermath of abortion, former abortionists and abortion clinic workers and individuals of conscience.
I’m sorry the Neil’s could not see past their desire to have their children on their terms. Maybe one day they will see that their selfishness cost them something precious and irreplaceable—their sons.
I still believe the following...
The medical industry and especially the drug companies want abortion. They make money on the pre-natal tests. The tests that are used to “prophetize” birth defects. You eliminate the kids by abortion that are a result of bad drugs in the mother during pregnancy. This allows drug companies to start to cover-their-a** from all the problems associated with birth control and conception altering practices. Like fertility processes, morning-after pill, abortion induction, etc.
Isn’t there a brand new birth control drug that the FDA just approved without any lengthy study.
There you go.
/rant-over
Shhh! We aren't supposed to know about them, those who later realize what they've done and need to grieve and recover.
A former co-worker celebrated the fact that she 'volunteered' (even when ill, from her hospital bed by phone) to 'counsel' young college women faced with 'unplanned' pregnancies. My friend counseled these young women to have abortions, every time, she bragged and used the 'don't ruin your life' line. Yet she herself had 5 children, 2 of them quite young postponing her college education, living in poverty for quite some time. Which one would she give up? She fought to keep custody of all 5 when her 2nd ex threatened to take 3 of them away and later struggled to help one of her daughters, unable to have kids herself, find a woman willing to give up her own newborn to them. Still amazes me, that she never saw the conflicts of interest. She felt each of her children was precious (true) and raised right, but she didn't trust college girls to raise even one 'right'.
How many of us could pass the 'disabled' kids mantra ourselves, whether with our own children or ourselves? Could Neil, the 'dad'? Is he 'perfect'? Scary.
I wonder if Neil looks at his 'perfect' daughters and thinks of his sons at all? He was all freaked out about autism, being an older dad. I know two such young men, one a friend of my son's, one a student. They add richness to all our lives.
They should have only placed two embryos in to begin with.
But at that stage could they tell the gender of the embryos? He was concerned about autism because he 'heard' it was more prevalent in sons with older dads so they decided to target the male embryos for 'elimination' to 'prevent' autism. It was purely clinical for them, implant embryos, see how many 'take', and then eliminate the males. Very Hitlerian.
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