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The devaluing of human life (Nat Hentoff!)
The Washington Times ^ | June 12, 2006 | Nat Hentoff

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: babykillers; euthanasia; hemlock; jessejackass; jessejackson; nathentoff; prolife
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Gotta love this guy.
1 posted on 06/12/2006 5:05:29 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Maybe the kid will change Mom's mind about exactly what she's doing.


2 posted on 06/12/2006 5:08:04 PM PDT by Emmett McCarthy
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To: Mrs. Don-o

He is right. So was the child.


3 posted on 06/12/2006 5:08:04 PM PDT by therut
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To: Mrs. Don-o

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.


4 posted on 06/12/2006 5:09:42 PM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Nat Henthoff, who writes for The Village Voice, {not the most conservative voice in America}, and with whom I often disagree, has been one of the clearest pro-life voices in the country. As a result, I read him as often as I read Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell.
5 posted on 06/12/2006 5:11:43 PM PDT by 9999lakes
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To: therut


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.


6 posted on 06/12/2006 5:18:31 PM PDT by Paperdoll (.........on the cutting edge)
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To: 9999lakes; dead

Exactly. Nat Hentoff, a pro-life atheist, is a thinking Liberal with whom I could have debate and feel all the more enlightened.


7 posted on 06/12/2006 5:18:55 PM PDT by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

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.


8 posted on 06/12/2006 5:23:26 PM PDT by Paradox (Removing all Doubt since 1998!)
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To: Incorrigible
Exactly. Nat Hentoff, a pro-life atheist, is a thinking Liberal with whom I could have debate and feel all the more enlightened.

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.

9 posted on 06/12/2006 5:30:31 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: Mrs. Don-o

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.


10 posted on 06/12/2006 5:31:41 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker

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.


11 posted on 06/12/2006 5:34:17 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Emmett McCarthy
Being for abortion on demand is a much deeper issue -one of the soul, alive or dead- so it isn't likely this woman will awaken to the wrong she's committing mere;y because her child questions her position on the issue, unless the Holy Spirit of God opens the deadened cockles of her heart.

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.

12 posted on 06/12/2006 5:34:30 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: jwalsh07

bump


13 posted on 06/12/2006 5:34:36 PM PDT by Tribune7
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To: GovernmentShrinker
However, let's discuss Hentoff's thesis which is that abortion, like slavery, devalues human life.

Do you agree or disagree with that thesis?

14 posted on 06/12/2006 5:38:44 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: MHGinTN
unless the Holy Spirit of God opens the deadened cockles of her heart.

That can happen. It is possible.

15 posted on 06/12/2006 5:45:59 PM PDT by Bahbah (Democrat Motto: Why not the worst)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Free abortions for all liberals!


16 posted on 06/12/2006 5:46:03 PM PDT by opinionator
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To: jwalsh07

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.


17 posted on 06/12/2006 5:48:38 PM PDT by maro
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Hentoff is awesome. Thanks for the post.


18 posted on 06/12/2006 5:51:22 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: maro

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.


19 posted on 06/12/2006 5:56:23 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jwalsh07

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.


20 posted on 06/12/2006 6:05:42 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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