|
>>
>>
>>
Overview - Abortion
Incidentally, in case it isn’t already clear every word of all this goes for fathers too. We all know how many men there are who have zero problems being swept away by the passion of the moment, without bothering with their own contraception and little attempt to verify their partners’. When the specter of fatherhood (a blessing to many of us) rears its head, how many of these men either vanish into thin air (or to the bar to brag about their prowess) or demand that their partners make the consequences go away by suffering a difficult and emotionally damaging abortion? How easy it is to forget that it takes a couple to produce a pregnancy… and to assume responsibility for one.
EEG devices monitor static and variable voltage differences across any electrical dipole. They detect any and all such activity, including random voltage discharges within and external to cells, and ambient noise signals, which were a chronic problem in early EEG studies. It’s worth noting that of these three studies, the two most commonly referenced by Pro-Life advocates for the 6-8 week brain wave claim date from a time when EEG machines were made with vacuum tubes and one (Okamoto & Kirikae, 1951) was published only a year after color television first became available. The phrase keeping up on the latest science doesn’t exactly leap to mind.
As a child I would listen patiently while the women of my parents’ generation assured me that prior to “free love” people were chaste. “Good girls just didn’t do that!...” I was told. Only “bad girls” slept around and had unwanted pregnancies. Naturally, bad girls were few and far between. I heard even more speeches from the men of that era regaling their sexual prowess in the company of all those fun girls that “delivered.” Unless one out of every several thousand 50’s women had serviced several thousand men by the time she graduated high school or college, someone’s dog doesn’t hunt.
Official figures for India are also in the single-digits, but these do not include out-of-system abortions, which are thought to constitute the large majority there. Abortion is broadly permitted in India, but only in government facilities where they often come under harsh conditions, often including forced IUD insertion or sterilization. Government facilities are also limited in number and access to them is difficult for India’s large rural population. As a result, most women have extra-legal abortions that are not reflected in official figures (Guttmacher, 1999).
For more on the U.S. defunding of UNFPA and its consequences, see my June 2001 research letter to Congress on the issue.
In March of 1998, in an incident that bears striking resemblance to the 2001 UNFPA funding controversy, a Far-Right publication called World (www.worldmag.com) published a story alleging that World Relief (the relief agency of the National Association of Evangelicals) had been cooperating with the government of Honduras in coerced abortion programs (World, March 28, 1998). World, which is indirectly Further investigation revealed that the story had been based only on a small handful of very indirect links between World Relief and a few Honduran agencies that support contraception, but had never been independently shown to be involved with coercion. Defending World’s research of the story in another forum, World Cultural Editor Mindy Belz cited an anecdotal statement from a “World Relief health officer” (who of course, is never named) allegedly supporting “all forms of family planning” (First Things, 1999)—a claim that was then interpreted by World’s editorial staff in the broadest and most incriminating terms and of course, never independently verified.
In fact, there was never any truth to the allegations and no further proof was ever provided by World or anyone else. Despite widespread criticism of their scurrilous reporting and numerous demands for retraction, World has never made any attempt to correct the error or apologize to World Relief. For more information, see the correspondence between Ms. Belz and Wheaton Professor Alan Jacobs (whose wife works with World Relief) on this controversy in the Christian journal First Things (First Things, 1999).
In March 1995 World came out with an even wilder potboiler. In an article titled “Unspeakable Delicacy, Cannibalism Makes the Chinese Communist Crime List” World Cultural Editor Mindy Belz claimed that the black market in China was supplying aborted fetuses to restaurants as “health food” (World May 20/27, 1995). The story created quite a furor in pro-life circles after it was published. It was even picked up and widely circulated by Human Life International (HLI, 1996). Despite the furor, independent verification of the claims never materialized. A photograph alleging to show a man eating a fetus was later proved to have been faked (Taipei Times, March 23, 2001), and repeated inquiries among official and non-official sources within China produced nothing. Further investigation revealed that Ms. Belz’s only source was a Hong Kong based English language tabloid called the Eastern Express (Eastern Express, April 12, 1995), which went defunct shortly after the original story was published. Today it is widely regarded as an urban legend and is even written up at the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society’s Urban Legend Home Page (www.snopes.com) under their “Horrors” section (the article can be directly linked without the HTML Frames at www.snopes2.com/horrors/cannibal/fetus.htm). In fact, the Snopes write-up even includes the infamous photo of the man allegedly eating a fetus. A close examination of the image reveals that the “fetus” is most likely a doll head attached to a roasted duck.
To the best of my knowledge, as of this writing neither World or Ms. Belz has offered a retraction (much less an apology) for their amateurish investigation of these allegations, and neither has any Pro-Life advocacy group that circulated them.
The fact that Evangelicals and Catholics alike place so much faith in abstinence is perplexing. Being a “born again” Christian myself I’ve spent my entire life in these communities. For nearly half a century I’ve worshipped with them, shared the bread and cup, prayed with them, and enjoyed a level of honesty among sinners that is rare elsewhere in society. The large majority of them are caring, thoughtful people. They are not unaware of their own weaknesses, and their views on abstinence are sincere. Nevertheless, in more than 45 years I can count on one hand those that I know made it to their wedding days as virgins. A few of the more strident among them even lived together first. No less a man than St. Augustine bemoaned his own sexual weaknesses when he prayed, “[God], Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet” (Conf., VIII. vii 17). Given the transforming grace they've received (or claim to have received) from the hand of God, they of all people should know how important patience, empathy, and forgiveness are for moral growth. I appreciate their concerns about “encouraging” irresponsible behavior, but it is odd that they would place so much hope in a moral strictures they themselves couldn’t handle—particularly since most of them enjoyed far better childhoods and support networks than many of those they confront, and been blessed with years of Bible study informing them of their own daily need for tolerance and forgiveness of sin.
References
Anand, K.J.S., D. Phil, & P.R. Hickey. 1987. Pain and its effects in the Human Neonate and Fetus. N. Engl. J. Med., 317 (21), pp. 1321-1329.
Bankole, A., S. Singh, and T. Haas. 1999. Characteristics of Women Who Obtain Induced Abortion: A Worldwide Review. Fam. Plan. Persp. 25 (2), pp. 68-77. Available online at www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2506899.html. Accessed Feb. 4, 2007.
Top
|
Caring for our Communities
Environmental Justice
Poverty
Reproductive Health
Adoption
Female Genital Mutilation
Guns & Crime
Indigenous People
Christianity & the Environment
Climate Change
Global Warming Skeptics
The Web of Life
Managing Our Impact
The Far-Right
Ted Williams Archive
|