Pro-life blog buzz 8-12-14

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

Culture Campaign reports on a new study from Northwestern University which “compar[ed] the birth rates of abortion advocates to the rest of Americans” and “conclude[d] that the shift in public opinion from pro-choice to pro-life since Roe v. Wade is the result of a demographic shift: Pro-abortion women don’t have as many children, or perhaps none.”


Big Blue Wave says Canadian pro-life sidewalk counselor Linda Gibbons has again been arrested for standing on the sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic holding her sign and pamphlets. Apparently, this action warranted an over-the-top response from police, who arrived “in four cruisers, as well as three Garda World security cars and [with] two sheriff’s officers, to take the diminutive grandmother into custody at around 11:30 a.m., some two-and-a-half hours after she first appeared at the site, pacing back and forth with pamphlets in hand.” BBW responds to the arrest: 

That so many police officers and security were needed to arrest this little old lady is laughable. What, they expected a riot? Has she ever resisted arrest? Has she ever made a fuss? You’re a joke, Pro-Choice. Your injunction is a joke. Your fear of free speech is a joke. I’m glad Linda Gibbons is making a laughing stock out of you.

American Life League’s Judie Brown has some strong words for a society that would have the audacity to support a pro-abortion ad featuring a mother and her child: 

The young mother and her daughter look lovingly into the camera as the mother explains that she wants her daughter to have the same “choices” she has had in her lifetime. This young mother wants her daughter to be able to decide to choose the abortion of a child in the future because she, the mother, could have aborted her daughter if that had been her decision. The choice is what is important, she is saying, not what the result of the choice could be — life or death of a human being.

My question is this: How have we as a society come to a point in our cultural attitudes where aborting a baby is something so commonplace that opposition — even politically motivated, weak opposition — is viewed as radical, extreme, and out of step with mainstream America?…
If this is what we have become as a society, how can we rail against the atrocities of groups such as ISIL. Are we any better?

Live Action revisits Planned Parenthood’s “Take Care Down There” website in light of the new information about the organization’s questionable encouragement of risky sexual behavior and BDSM practices among teens.


Clinic Quotes shares remarks from abortionist and OB/GYN, Marciana Wilkerson (who apparently retired well; pictured above with husband Dwight Ford). Wilkerson reveals how she deliberately hid her abortion practice from people:
What we did to protect me in private practice was, if someone called and asked for an abortion on the phone and she wasn’t one of our patients, the staff politely told her that I didn’t perform that service…. But if they knew who she was, they bring her in and I’d speak to her face-to-face. There was a big need for it; women would usually come and say “can you refer me to someone?” And they were thrilled when they found out I could offer the service and not send them out.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition posts a timely anti-euthanasia commentary by Wesley J. Smith. To literally die of thirst – as in the case of the Yazidi in Iraq at the hands of ISIS, or in the case of Terri Schindler Schiavo – is, says Smith, “an awful, horrific death.” He quotes Washington Post health writer Larry Bernstein:
The body is about 60 percent water, and… if it’s not replaced over time and dehydration becomes severe, cells throughout the body will begin to shrink as water moves out of them and into the blood stream, part of the body’s efforts to keep the organs in fluid….
Changes in mental status will follow, including confusion and ultimately coma…. As the brain becomes smaller, it takes up less room in the skull and blood vessels connecting it to the inside of the cranium can pull away and rupture. Without water… [k]idney failure will soon lead to disastrous consequences and ultimately death as blood volume continues to fall and waste products that should be eliminated from the body remain.

Smith remarks that in light of this information, we should think of those like Terri Schiavo: 

Oh, and notice what [Dr. Jeffrey] Berns said about the size of the brain after dehydration: Terri’s shrunken brain was touted as proof she could feel nothing. Remember?

People in cognitively disabled conditions may not be able to cry out and beg for food–although I know of at least one case where that happened – because they don’t have the ability. But that doesn't mean on the inside, unless given powerful drugs – Terri Schiavo wasn’t given that courtesy – they aren’t feeling the same pain as those poor people on the Iraq mountain.

[Gibbons photo via LifeSiteNews; Wilkerson/Ford photo via Facebook]