What is the truth about abortion today?

[Previous Publication: http://pemptousia.com/2016/05/the-new-battlefield-the-period-between-conception-and-implantation/]

This treatise was designed to help Orthodox Christians — and especially clergy — cope with those who demand that oikonomia be invoked to allow them to use abortion as a solution to various life crises. It was never the author’s intention to go into detail about abortion itself; such a study would require a book and perhaps several books. However, it may be necessary to point out at least a few facts about abortion that have been withheld from the American public by the pro-abortion media. For instance:

1] Abortion on demand for any or no reason is available up until the moment a child is delivered. The interest of the State in the unborn child after viability (the time when he can live outside the womb) is limited to legislating where an abortion can be performed and who may perform it; it cannot be forbidden although it can be made more difficult to obtain. Fully 160,000 late-term (2nd and 3rd trimester) abortion are performed annually in the United States. 1.6 million abortions are performed annually in America. The United States has the most unrestrictive abortion policy of any Western nation.

anmnews.com

2] Most abortions are performed between 10 and 12 weeks after conception. By that time the baby’s heart is beating, all its organs are present and functioning and it exhibits brain-waves little different from an adult human being. Experiments have shown that a child of that age feels pain.

3] Abortions are performed in the following ways:

• The D & C — a sharp curette is inserted into the womb and the contents — including the child — are scraped out;
• The Suction Abortion — a suction aparatus is inserted into the womb and the child is pulled apart; the skull is crushed so that it can be removed by forceps These two types are only used in early abortions. As the child matures, the bones become too hard for either to be used and the following procedures must be done:
• The “D & E” or dilation and evacuation — the abortionist goes into the womb with a forceps and tears the child apart much as a suction machine does. The child is then re-assembled to be sure that it has been totally removed.
• The D & X — This new abortion procedure was dreamed up by a “doctor” who specializes in late-term abortions. A forceps is introduced into the uterus and the baby’s leg is grabbed. The whole child except the head is pulled from the birth canal. A blade is then thrust into the base of the skull while it is still in the cervix, killing the child. The skull is then crushed and the child completely removed.
• The Saline Abortion — A very strong saline (salt) solution is injected into the womb through the abdomen and the child is burned to death both outside (skin) and inside (lungs). The child thrashes about in agony for hours before dying and then the “mother” delivers a dead (or dying) baby. This procedure has been outlawed in Japan because of maternal mortality; it is still practiced in America.
• The Prostaglandin Abortion — A strong dose of prostaglandings (a hormone) is injected into the mother to initiate labor. A living child is then delivered, killed or allowed to die. However, they are also shipped to labs for experiments. This method promises to be the one of choice when “fetal experimentation and organ harvesting” becomes a big industry in this country. Remember, organs can only be harvested and experiments done on the living — not the dead.
• The Hysterotomy — A child is delivered by a type of C-section, the only difference being that the mother doesn’t want the child and so it is killed or “recycled” in the growing industry of fetal experimentation.

Then there are other things to be considered in our present abortion climate. For instance:

1] For the first time, laws are being passed that are directed at the motives for people’s actions rather than their actions. Thus, pro-life activists counselling, praying, and otherwise demonstrating at abortuaries or practicing civil disobedience to prevent abortion are being punished with severe criminal and civil penalties for doing things that go unpunished by other social activists such as homosexual advocates and animal rights groups. This is totally diametric to the spirit of American jurisprudence, but no one seems to be particularly upset. In Buffalo, recently, a judge ruled on what two Protestant ministers could and could not preach from their pulpits — something unheard of in this nation founded on religious liberty.

2] Abortion as an act is protected far more than the women for whom it is supposed to exist. Thus, there are some states — with more considering it — who do not require an abortionist to be a physician. All fifty states require that an animal be treated by a licensed veterinarian, but the advocacy of abortion is so strong that it is considered more important for there to be abortionists than that they be qualified physicians.

3] The Attorneys General of several states, including New York and Texas, are waging war not only against pro-life demonstrators, rescuers (sit-ins) and side-walk counsellors, but also against so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” which offer women an alternative to abortion through help during and after their pregnancy. Since most women who have abortion have said that they did so because they had “no choice,” it seems strange that the government should work so diligently to remove what little choice they presently have.

                                                                                                                                     (To be continued)