1996
Human Life Alliance of Minnesota Education Fund Inc. Advertising Supplement
American War Casualties
Each cross-mark represents 50,000 people killed. The war casualties represent all American combat-related deaths.
Revolutionary War (25,324) †
Civil War (498,332) ++++++++++
World War I (116,708) +++
World War II (407,316) ++++++++++
Korean War (34,246) †
Vietnam War (38,655) †
Gulf War (293)
War On The Unborn (33,588,888)
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Rape and Incest (Continued from page 8)
They said I was just another minority bringing a child into the world and there were too many already."7 Here is a woman who is being victimized not only because she is a rape victim, but also because she is black and a minority and she has a low income. That is one of the stories that upsetts me the most.
Childbirth can be a victory. For the majority of pregnant rape victims who wisely choose to forego abortion, childbirth is the choice of triumph over rape. It is a choice that says, "Rape will not dictate my life." It allows them to show their own courage and generosity. When the need of pregnant rape victims is carefully examined, it can be shown the abortion is not necessary and indeed is very likely to hinder recovery by increasing feelings of guilt, shame and low self-esteem.
Like Incest, Abortion Promotes Silence
Incest victims face similar problems. Incest is a very complex issue and it is hard to say much in a very short period of time, but the vast majority of incest victims want to carry their pregnancy to term. These are young girls for whom pregnancy is a way to break out of an incestuous relationship with their father, whom they may love despite their confusion and resentment about the way they have been used as sexual objects. Since they still love the father, having the child can not only help expose the incestuous relationship but also give hope of beginning a truly loving relationship.
In studies of incest victims, the vast majority choose to carry the pregnancy to term. Those in the minority who have an abortion do so only under pressure from their parents to conceal the incestuous relationship. Because incest is a family pathology that involves father, mother and daughter, all are involved in a conspiracy of silence.9
I interviewed Edith Young, now 38 years old, who was a rape and incest victim at 12 years of age. To cover up the incident, her parents procured an abortion for her without telling her what was to happen. The emotional and physical scars of incest and abortion still last to this day. She said, "I was being sexually attacked, threatened by him and betrayed by Mom's silence...the abortion which was to be in 'my best interest' has not been...it only 'saved their reputations', 'solved their problems and allowed their lives to go merrily on'.$^{10}$
Pro-life persons don't have any reason to be ashamed to defend a pro-life view in the case of rape or incest. The ones who need to be ashamed are the pro-abortionists who have been exploiting the problems of rape and incest victims, confusing the public and promoting abortion for their own social engineering goals. To my knowledge, pro-abortionists have never yet brought together a group of rape and incest victims who carried their pregnancies to term who said, "Oh, that was the worst thing I
ever did. Why didn't somebody give me an abortion when I needed it?"
We, on the other hand, can produce women who took the advice of the pro-abortionists, had the abortion and now say, "This abortion ruined my life. What were you telling me?" We need to join rape and incest victims in demanding that proabortionists stop exploiting the pain of innocent women's problems for their own political ends.
$ ^{1} $Pregnancy and Sexual Assault, Sandra Mahkorn, in The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, ed. Mall and Watts (1979), pp. 53-72.
$ ^{2} $Aborted Women: Silent No more. David C. Reardon (1987), pp. 206-210.
& Text omitted.
$^5$Outcome Following Therapeutic Abortion. Payne et al., Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 33:725-733 (June 1976).
$ ^{6} $ Supra,note1.
$^7$ Supria, note 2, pp. 276-278.
$^8$ The Consequences of Incest:
Giving and Taking Life,
Maloof, in *The Psychological
Aspects of Abortion*, ed. M.
Walton (1979), pp. 73-110.
$^9$Father-Daughter Incest — Treatment of the Family.
Kennedy, Laval Medical
40:946-950 (1969).
David C. Reardon is Director of the Elliot Institute for Social Sciences Research and author of the book "Aborted Women: Silent No More" (1987). For a copy of Post-abortion Review Newsletter, write to: P.O. Box 9079, Springfield, IL 62791. The majority of this article appeared in Association for Interdisciplinary Research Newsletter, Vol 2, Fall 1988
$ ^{10} $ Supra, note 2, pp. 212-218.
Planned Parenthood Ignores Own Advice
In 1963, a Planned Parenthood publication, Plan Your Children For Health and Happiness stated: "An abortion kills the life of an baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life an health." Yet Planned Parenthood now operates the nation's largest number of abortion mills
Carol Everett was involved in the abortion industry in the Dallas/Ft.Worth, Texas, area from 1977 until 1983. As director of four clinics, owner of two, Ms. Everett was responsible for the clinics' daily operation. Everett, who had an abortion soon after it became legal in 1973, now speaks out on...
"What I Saw in the Abortion Industry"
What is the governing force behind the abortion industry?
A. Money. It is a very lucrative business. It is the largest unregulated industry in our nation. Most of the clinics are run in chains because it is so profitable.
Q How much money were you making in the abortion industry before you quit?
A. I was getting a commission of $25.00 on every abortion I "sold". In 1983, the year I got out, I would have pocketed approximately $250,000. But, in 1984 we expected to be operating five clinics, terminating about 40,000 pregnancies, and with that projection I planned to net $1 million. Money, Money, Money — that's where my heart was.
Q Why do you refer to "selling" abortions?
A. The product is
A. The product, abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the woman at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective and wants to return it for a refund. But, it's too late. Her baby is dead.
Q In what way is the woman deceived?
A. In two ways — the clinic personnel and the marketers must deny the personhood of the child and the pain caused by the procedure. Every woman has two questions, "Is it a baby?" and "Does it hurt?" The abortion must answer "NO." He/she must lie to secure the consent of the woman and the collection of the clinic's fee. The women were told that we were dealing with a "product of conception" or a "glob of tissue." They were told that there would be only slight cramping, whereas, in reality, an abortion is excruciatingly painful.
Q What type of counseling was offered at the clinics?
A. In the clinic
A. In the clinics in which I was involved we didn't do any real counseling. We answered only the questions the woman asked and tried not to "rock the boat." We did not discuss alternatives to abortion unless the woman forced us to. We sold abortions.
O What method of abortion did your clinics use?
A. For the clinic use?
A. For the most part, the abortion industry stopped using saline and prostaglandin procedures because of the number of live births. A live birth means you have to let the baby die, or dispose of it in some distasteful way. Most second and third trimester abortionists use the D & E (dilation and evacuation) method. The abortionist uses large forceps to crush the baby inside the mother's uterus and remove it in pieces. The side effects of live births and the mother going through labor are avoided. But it is a horrible procedure in which the baby must be re-constructed outside the uterus to be certain all the parts have been removed.
Carol Everett
Q How did you dispose of an aborted baby?
A. In our clinic
A. In our clinics, we put them down the garbage disposal. We used the heavy duty model. Some second and third trimester babies' muscle structure is so strong that the baby will not come apart, so they must be disposed of through trash receptacles.
Q Abortion is supposed to be a "safe" experience. What complications did
Q Why did you get out of the abortion business?
A. Two this
complications did you witness? A. We were doing a one-day traumatic dilation, which has a higher rate of complication. In the last 18 months I was in the business, we were completing over 500 abortions monthly and killing or maiming one woman out of 500. Common complications that take place are perforations or tears in the uterus. Many of those result in hysterectomies. The doctor might cut or harm the urinary tract, which then requires surgical repair. A complication that is rarely publicized is the one in which the doctor perforates the uterus and pulls the bowels through the vagina, resulting in colostomy. Some of those can be reversed, some must live with the colostomy for the remainder of their lives.
Q How did you keep these complications and deaths from the public?
A. The woman would be loaded into my car (an ambulance outside an abortion clinic is terrible advertising) and transported to a hospital that would protect the doctor and the abortion clinic's reputation. The concern is not with the patient only in keeping an unblemished reputation. You have a built-in cover-up with the patients' family. They are dealing with their guilt and emotions over the situation and do not want to deal with the added pressure of exposing the truth through the media.
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A. Two things came into play at about the same time. I experienced a profoundly religious transformation--a conversion. At about the time I was having second thoughts a Dallas television station did an expose disclosing the abortions performed at my clinic on non-pregnant women all for money! I finally realized, "We weren't helping women — we were destroying them — and their children." By then my transformation was complete and I knew that I not only had to stop being involved with abortions but I had to help promote the truth.