Partial Birth Abortion

Partial Birth Abortion - Finding Comfort in a Huge Myth
Partial Birth Abortion was the topic in a recent Wall Street Journal article. The following is a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal responding to the article (source: Wall Street Journal; May 14, 2001).

Partial Birth Abortion - Letter to the Editor
The Journal has informed its readers that partial birth abortion is a "rare" procedure, "typically performed when the life of the mother is at risk, or the fetus is determined to have severe abnormalities" ("Drive to Ban Abortion Procedure Slows," April 27.) But those claims, fabricated by pro-abortion advocacy groups in 1995, had been thoroughly discredited by early 1997.

The Journal said that "critics . . . contend the procedure sometimes is used in less dire circumstances." Actually, it was abortionists and their paid spokespersons who admitted that partial birth abortion is routinely used for purely elective abortions, usually in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy. For example, Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, told The New York Times that "in the vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus" (Feb. 26, 1997).

Mr. Fitzsimmons elsewhere estimated that 4,000-5,000 abortions annually are performed by the partial birth method. He expressed regret for his own role in previously propagating what he called a "party line," stating, "I lied through my teeth." The claim that partialbirth abortions are used only or mostly in unusual medical circumstances was also disproved by reporters for the Hackensack (N.J.) Record and the Washington Post, among others. These reporters interviewed numerous abortionists, who readily acknowledged that they routinely use the method for purely elective abortions.

In January 1997, the PBS media criticism program "Media Matters" treated as a case study in bad reporting the news media's earlier, uncritical dissemination of the abortion lobby's lies about partial birth abortion.

For a respected national newspaper to resurrect such blatant misinformation four years later may demonstrate how attached some journalists are to comforting myths about abortion.

Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee
Washington

Partial Birth Abortion - Don’t Fall Into Complacency
Partial Birth Abortion is utterly grotesque. If you don’t know how the procedure works, or when it’s happening, then find out. For us to sit back and allow partial birth abortion to slip into mainstream acceptance – to say this is a political issue, not a moral/ethical/religious issue is ridiculous and sad. Educate yourself – then speak up!

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