News and comment: Christocrat attacks on a woman's right to choose
Continued from main page, "Christian fundamentalists work to deprive women of the right to choose" (Go back)
Court rules jury must hear abortion information case
By Tom Hester, The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), April 8, 2006
"In the latest decision in a long-running court battle over abortion, a state appeals court yesterday ruled a jury should hear a South Bound Brook woman's contention that her doctor didn't give her enough information when he advised her to end her pregnancy.
"Prominent anti-abortion attorney Harold Cassidy, who is representing the woman, said the decision is a landmark ruling that would allow a jury to tackle the thorniest of issues: when life begins. But the doctor's attorney and a medical malpractice expert disagreed, saying the ruling will not have a big impact on state laws on abortion." Click here to read the report.
 "Is a Baby Here Yet?" Doctors Must Answer Truthfully
New Jersey appeals court sends informed consent case to trial
News Release, Alliance Defense Fund, April 10, 2006
Alliance Defense Fund claims victory in the April 7th decision by the New Jersey Court of Appeals that a lower court must try a case in which a woman claims she wasn't informed that her 7-week fetus was "a baby." Click here
Kansas Abortion Measure Tacked Onto Schools Bill
Christian Post, May 5, 2006
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposal requiring sex education courses to discuss abortion methods and fetal development became part of a school finance bill Tuesday... The House voted 74-49 to add the abortion-related amendment to the school finance bill. Teachers would have to show photos or drawings of fetuses, discuss the medical risks associated with abortion procedures and provide information about whether the fetus feels pain.
Abortion opponents have pushed for such a provision, saying girls should know the risks involved in abortion. Continue
Abortion opponents going for 'fresh angle'
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY, February 7, 2006
In a new tack, anti-abortion activists are working on the state level "to emphasize the interests of fetuses and to create more hurdles for women seeking abortions. It's a strategy that has led to a range of restrictions on abortion and to proposals in 21 states aimed at requiring doctors to tell women seeking an abortion that their fetuses might feel pain during the procedure.
"'It's humanizing the unborn,' says Daniel McConchie, vice president of Americans United for Life, a group that opposes abortion rights. He says 'fetal pain' bills are 'a fresh angle on (what) a lot of people think is an old topic. It puts a new face on an issue.'" Click here for the report.
Abortion foes gain on new front
By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY, February 8, 2006
A new front in the debate over abortion is emerging in legislatures across the nation. Abortion foes are gaining ground with proposals to require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that their fetuses might feel pain during the procedure. Click here for the report.
Swing Away
by Stuart Shepard, Focus on the Family, March 29, 2006
In this baseball analogy that terms a national ban on abortion like South Dakota's a home run, Shepard writes: "Sometimes we can get so caught up in pro-life strategies to place more and more common-sense restrictions on abortion, it seems we can forget why we're here. The reason we pulled on the pro-life jersey and placed the cap on our head that brings us contempt and hatred from the other team is not because we wanted to make abortion safer. Not because we wanted abortion clinics to measure up to state health guidelines. No, we all had an eye on the last inning and the final out." Click here for the article
Alito Confirmed 58-42
By Pete Winn, Citizen Link (Focus on the Family), January 31, 2006
"Pro-family legal experts say they are excited by Alito's elevation to the nation's highest court." Click here for the article, which quotes representatives of several religious right groups.
See also: Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council, January 31, 2006
"Last night's procedural vote and today's final floor action [confirming Alito] demonstrate that a highly qualified nominee to the Supreme Court can have a pro-life record and still be confirmed. This is critical. The faint-hearted assumption that any nominee with a "paper trail" could not be confirmed has been disproved. The Roberts and Alito confirmations prove that elections matter." Click here for the article.
For Pro-Life Bloggers, a New Hubris
Esther Kaplan, The Nation, January 31, 2006
With Samuel Alito's acession to the Supreme Court, anti-abortion activists attending their annual march were discussing outlawing the procedure state by state. Click here for the report.
Excerpt: The Anti-Abortion Paradox
By Cristina Page, AlterNet, February 17, 2006.
"[I]t's not just pro-choice women who seek abortions, and it never has been. Most people would be startled to learn that even today, when battle lines are drawn, 40 percent of women who have abortions in the United States are Evangelical Christian or Catholic. They are your average morality voter, your above-average churchgoer. In all likelihood, they call themselves pro-life. Even though the great wish of pro-lifers is to cast those seeking abortions as irresponsible daters, the actual statistics are more forgiving. The majority of women in the United States (61 percent) having abortions are already moms. Click here for the excerpt of Page's book, on AlterNet's website.
Abortion to Die by 1,000 Cuts After Wednesday's Supreme Court Unanimous Ruling
Christian Coalition, January 20, 2006
"It is expected that the heinous practice of abortion will begin to die by a thousand cuts by state legislatures and the United States Congress. The new conservative United States Supreme Court will go along with these legislative restrictions decided by the people's representatives." Click here for the report (at the middle of the page).
Politics of Choice
By Martha Brant, Newsweek, February 27, 2006
As the pro-life movement gains ground, abortion activists are holding an unprecedented summit to re-examine their strategies—and the ethical aspects of the debate. Click here for the report.
Access to Abortion Pared at State Level
By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, August 29, 2005
"Since January, governors have signed several dozen antiabortion measures ranging from parental consent requirements to an outright ban looming in South Dakota. Not since 1999, when a wave of laws banning late-term abortions swept the legislatures, have states imposed so many and so varied a menu of regulations on reproductive health care." Click here to read the report
More on the fight over a woman's right to choose
Required Reading: "Pro-Life Nation"
Ethan Heitner,TomPaine.com, April 11, 2006
As a cautionary, Heitner summarizes the New York Times Magazine article about abortion in El Salvador, "Pro-Life Nation." The procedure is illegal there, and doctors must report women whom they suspect of ending their pregnancies; the women are prosecuted, sometimes for murder. Click here
On Abortion, It's the Bible of Ambiguity
By Michael Luo, New York Times, November 13, 2005
The Bible does not once mention "abortion." This article explores the challenge the lack of a literal injunction poses to religious activists against abortion. Click here to read the report.
Tennessee Senate Candidate Plays Down Pro-Abortion Record After Criticism
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, February 7, 2006
"During a visit to Chattanooga last week, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman criticized the Democratic Senate hopeful [Democrat Harold Ford] for a '100 percent National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) voting record'….Though his voting record is overwhelmingly pro-abortion, Ford has slowly increased his pro-life voting percentage over the years….But that change of position hasn't expanded to other issues like taxpayer funding of abortions or embryonic stem cell research, which he supports." Click here for more
Life Digest: New test may mean more abortions of Down children
Thomas: confirmation fights are all about abortion
By Tom Strode, Baptist Press, November 21, 2005
"'I think we all should be honest with one another that the only issue, the central issue in all of this, is abortion,' Thomas told University of Alabama law students, according to the Associated Press. 'It's not the other things that people throw out. The whole judiciary now is being held, in a sense, hostage to that one issue.'" Click here to read the report.
Last choice
In the wake of Bush's re-election, a triumphant right is planning its assault on reproductive rights
Deirdre Fulton, The Boston Phoenix, November 26, 2004
"For many people, George W. Bush's re-election serves as both a wake-up call and a warning that women's reproductive rights are in grave danger. The next four years could well see a push to overturn Roe v. Wade; however, before mounting that assault, anti-choice activists will support a collection of legislative initiatives designed to chip away at Roe's legal underpinnings until it is too weak to withstand a court challenge." Click here to read the article.
Abortion Polls and California Senator Diane Feinstein's Theory of Relativity
Guest Commentary
Bruce Wilson, Agape Press, February 6, 2006
Columnist Bruce Wilson claims that California Senator Feinstein doesn't want to acknowledge what he contends is majority support for banning abortions. Departing from that premise, he says: "I hope you are now wondering why you've never read or heard a report from mainstream media that begins with the headline 'Poll Finds a Majority of Americans Oppose Roe v. Wade.' Do you think it's possible that reporters and editors consistently ask misleading questions and then apply Feinstein's Theory of Relativity to the data collected? I'll leave that up to you. But the next time you hear someone say that a majority of Americans support Roe, I hope it's as shocking to your ears as it is to mine." Click here to read more.
FIRST-PERSON: The left debates the morality of abortion.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., Baptist Press, February 28, 2006
"Why should pro-lifers pay attention to this debate among advocates of abortion rights? The answer to that question is simple -- the exchange between William Saletan and Katha Pollitt [which Mohler lays out in biased version] demonstrates the inherent weakness of the pro-abortion argument, or its pro-choice variant. Lacking any objective definition of human life and the status of the unborn, the pro-abortion movement is mired in a pattern of endless internal debates and confusions. Saletan's argument is less radical than Pollitt's, but his position is morally arbitrary, based more in pragmatic concern than in moral philosophy."Click here to read more.
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