Abortion
The Hand of God?
March 26, 2009 | 119 Comments
Irving “Bud” Feldkamp, the owner of the nation’s largest for-profit abortion chain, lost nine family members when their plane crashed into a Montana cemetery — not far from the Tomb for the Unborn, dedicated to all babies killed by abortion. The victims, pictured below, were Feldkamp’s five young grandchildren, his two daughters and their husbands. One daughter was a pediatrician and the other a dental hygienist; one husband was a dentist and the other an ophthalmologist.
Pro-life activist Gingi Edmonds, writing in the Christian Newswire, had this commentary on the tragedy:
In my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, I helped organize and conduct a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outside of Feldkamp’s mini-mansion in Redlands holding fetal development signs and raising community awareness regarding Feldkamp’s dealings in child murder for profit. Every Thursday afternoon we called upon Bud and his wife Pam to repent, seek God’s blessing and separate themselves from the practice of child killing.
We warned him, for his children’s sake, to wash his hands of the innocent blood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture warns, if “you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.” (Ezekiel 35:6)
A news source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their 2 surviving children on Monday. As they stood near the twisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children.
I don’t want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual “I told you so” moment, but I think of the time spent outside of Feldkamp’s – Pam Feldkamp laughing at the fetal development signs, Bud Feldkamp trying not to make eye contact as he got into his car with a small child in tow – and I think of the haunting words, “Think of your children.” I wonder if those words were haunting Feldkamp as well as he stood in the snow among the remains of loved ones, just feet from the Tomb of the Unborn?
I only hope and pray that in the face of this tragedy, Feldkamp recognizes his need for repentance and reformation. I pray that God will use this unfortunate catastrophe to soften the hearts of Bud and Pam and that they will draw close to the Lord and wash their hands of the blood of thousands of innocent children, each as precious and irreplaceable as their own.
Professor PZ Myers of Pharyngula finds Gingi’s “hideous” and “evil” and declares her to be a “moral cretin.” He writes:
All I can feel is horror at the kinds of monsters who would find grim satisfaction in the death of 6 to 10 year old children, as if it were payback for abortion. At amoral pious hypocrites who would regard this as an opportunity to assault human beings broken-hearted by pain and loss, to proselytize for the bloody-handed god of their death cult, to compound agony with accusations of guilt. There is no humanity left in these sanctimonious creatures, it’s been bled out and replaced with fanaticism and dogma.
* * *
It’s a piece that reveals so much about the author: her own unconcern for human life, and her smug obliviousness of the fact that she is taking advantage of a tragedy to say her petty “I told you so”.
Once again, I am confirmed in my opinion that Christianity is a breeder of evil, a cesspit in which the most hateful and inhuman commitment to lies and delusions can ferment. Don’t ever preach at me about Christian morality: I’ve seen it, and it is empty of love for humanity, replaced with sanctimonious idolatry and commitment to dead, dumb superstition.
Myers later points out that one of the women on the plane was five months pregnant. It might also be noted that Feldkamp was a major donor and big supporter of pro-life obstetrician/gynecologist/Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
I will save the question regarding God’s will for last. I’ll start by identifying some reasons that I believe Professor Myer’s outrage is misplaced, whether analyzed from a religious or atheistic perpective.
(1) Gingi Edmonds is not a hideous evil cretin because she dedicates her life to saving lives. Without activists like her, countless people would lose the joy of parenthood and grandparentood to predatory, profiteering abortion mills. Affording counsel, comfort and assistance to women who are under pressure to abort can change their hearts and lives and I have countless pictures to prove it. I don’t know what charitable activities Professor Myers pursues but from a utilitarian perspective I would wager than Gingi has brought at least as much joy into this world as he.
(2) Myers has not identified what harm flows from Gingi’s words other than his own apparent irritation. Presumably he fears that the family of the deceased will be offended by her words (a possibility greatly increased by his own circulation of the story). But the family is a Christian one and the question of God’s agency in the tragedy has undoubtedly already occurred to them. At the funeral, the question of why so many beautiful people were permitted to perish, or were actively called to God, will be discussed. Were Professor Myers sitting in the pews, he could level his “bloody-handed god of their death cult” regardless of what precise conclusion were reached. Myers attack on Gingi’s theology is equally an attack on their own. He is calling everyone who believes in God’s sovereignty “hideous” and “evil.”
(3) The atheism promoted on Myer’s blog will cause far more pain to the family that Gingi’s words. Myers declares that there is no God, that there is no hope for life after death, that families died for no reason, for nothing, and that they are gone forever. The incessant blasphemy against our Lord and Savior will only compound the insult and injury.
(4) Gingi’s words offer to salvage some good from the tragedy. Contrary to Myers’ speculation, Feldkamp may very well remember her words and change his ways. Former abortionist explains the tragedy that transformed his life:
As a physician in Troy, NY, I performed abortions in
my office for eight years. I believed it was “pro-woman” to provide this option. While abortion was never a major part of my practice, as time went on it caused me more and more conflict.My wife and I were seeking to adopt a child, and all the while I was throwing other people’s children in the garbage at the rate of 9 or 10 a week. I began to think, “If only one of these women could give us her child.”
Eventually, my wife and I were successful in adopting a healthy girl, Heather. On June 23, 1984, Heather was hit by a car and died. When you lose your child, life is very different. Everything changes. That’s when things really changed for me regarding abortion. I realized as never before that the child I was killing in each abortion was somebody’s precious child. My own loss enabled me to value life even more.
I began to feel like a paid assassin . . . and that’s exactly what I was. My self-esteem plummeted, and so did my interest in doing abortions. In 1985 I stopped.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a founder of NARAL who was responsible for over 75,000 abortions and personally aborted one of his own children, had a similar change of heart. Feldkamp may seriously reconsider whether he wishes to continue to profit off clinics which kill grandchildren without notifying the grandparent and which encourage frightened young women to abort their children at the most vulnerable times of their lives.
(5) In other contexts, the non-religious willingly accept such “conversions” brought about by tragedy. Consider, for example, this story from last week about an opium dealer whose wife and three children were killed in drug-related violence. He may have believed that drug dealing was a victimless crime, that his family was innocent, that their killing was unjustified, but he nevertheless regretted his participation in the industry. It may be that we find this sort of “justice” offensive, and we may sympathize with both the drug dealer and his family, but we recognize that some good may come out of the situation. Myers may reject the notion that a God could have a hand in any such tragedies; but if that is that case there is no sort of justice at all. Just a random, meaningless accident.
(6) Note that Myers’ outrage is directed solely at Gingi and her words, which did nothing to cause the tragedy. No similar venom is directed at the persons who might be presumed to bear greater moral responsibility than she, i.e., the ground crew, the flight crew, the pilot, etc. In this connection, one might observe that there is no outrage in the atheist blogosphere over the liberal Associated Press accounts of the crash to label the victims as “ultrarich.”
Ultimately, what most bothers Myers is how an infinitely rational being could contenance the shedding of innocent blood for some ulterior reason. It is only fair that I address that question. And I will do so, below the fold, with the words of the secular God whose answer to that precise question so many have found satisfactory.
Daily Headline (Special Olympics)(Updated)
March 19, 2009 | 64 Comments
Washington, D.C., March 20, 2009
Special to The Raving Theist
Appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno today, President Barack Obama likened his bowling ability to the comical ineptness of physically and mentally inferior human beings.
The hilarious comparison was inspired by Leno’s sarcastic crack that the Obama’s recent score of 129 at the White House’s private bowling alley was “very good.”
Not to be upstaged, the President retorted “It’s like the Special Olympics or something.”
The uproarious remark recalled the bumbling, uncoordinated antics of disabled individuals with impaired motor skills and mental retardation — whose athletic ability is often so poor that they are forced to compete against each other in segregated, “special” sporting events for the bemusement of higher beings such as this country’s chief executive.
Obama’s humble, self-effacing quip was particularly humorous because everyone know that, as surely as sun glints off his chiseled pectorals, he could bowl a perfect 300 if he were so inclined to exert himself to that end. The joke further cemented Obama’s reputation as world-class intellect, confident in his abilities and possessing the maturity and judgment befitting the world’s most powerful head of state.
But the President’s wit also underscored the serious burdens imposed upon society by lesser people, whose unnecessary lives could be avoided through enlightened abortion policies. After the laughter subsided, Obama reminded the audience that public figures such as Sarah Palin demeaned their office by giving birth to afflicted children who were doomed to be made laughingstocks by future administrations.
UPDATE: Governor Sarah Palin’s address to the 2009 Special Olympics:
Collateral Damage
March 19, 2009 | 6 Comments
The House just passed legislation to recover, through taxation, the contractually-guaranteed bonuses granted to certain AIG executives and explicity approved through prior legislation. In passing this unconstitutional, confiscatory measure, the law-makers made sure to gin up plenty of phony, hypocritical outrage to distract the taxpaying public from noticing that AIG will still keep $169,835,000,000 of $170,000,000,000 of their money, that Rep. Barney Frank and others largely responsible for the economic meltdown will still keep their salaries and perks, and that Chris Dodd and President Obama will still hang on to AIG’s prior contributions to their campaigns.
Obama lapdog Lawrence Tribe of Harvard has predictably issued a fluffy, off-hand opinion that this peculiarly targeted money grab is legal. Time will tell, but commenter Elise over at Brave New Deal has suggested some interesting potential collateral effects of the Professor’s theory:
But based on what Professor Tribe is saying could we also “design a fully constitutional means” of imposing a 100% income tax on, say . . . all income derived from third-trimester abortions? Or on all abortions?
Actually, assuming the provision of Federal funds has something to do with making such a tax constitutional, the one on some or all abortions might be easier depending on the extent to which Federal funding for abortions is in effect.
I’m starting to warm up to this mob rule law-making. In addition to taxing away 99.99% of the income of every abortionist who takes a dime of public money, let’s recoup all salaries paid to Planned Parenthood employees. John Q. Public already gives $336 million per year to this alleged “non-profit,” and we all know that the only reward its dedicated staff really wants is knowing of the freedom it grants to all women.
A Botched Argument
March 6, 2009 | 95 Comments
Writing about the recent Florida botched abortion case, Gary Stein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel tearfully pleads for common ground:
Don’t turn this incident into a referendum on abortion
Those of us who are strongly pro-choice are every bit as upset as the anti-abortion crowd after what happened at the Hialeah clinic.
I agree with Antonio Fins, that the pro-choice leaders should be out vocally decrying all of this — that Belkis Gonzalez, who is already serving probation for unlawfully operating a Miramar abortion clinic, faces new charges over a botched abortion at her Hialeah Clinic.
But don’t paint the pro-choice people with the same broad brush. And don’t turn this incident into a referendum on abortion itself.
Most pro-choice people would want this clinic closed, would want any clinic where Gonzalez was involved to be closed, and for Gonzalez to face the full measure of the law. Just because we believe in a woman’s right to choose doesn’t mean we believe that botched abortions and unlawful clinics and babies being thrown out in plastic bags are OK. Please.
What people need to realize is that this case is the exception, not the rule. Because abortion is legal, women can get the procedure done in a safe way. You start taking away abortion rights, and that’s when you’ll see a lot more cases like this, with women going wherever they can to get an abortion. This case was indeed hideous, but it’s an aberration, not the norm.
Gary, I would love to find common ground with you if you weren’t both extremely stupid and sick in the head. The key to your degeneracy is found in your assertion that “[j]ust because we believe in a woman’s right to choose doesn’t mean we believe that botched abortions and unlawful clinics and babies being thrown out in plastic bags are OK.” Let me break it down for you.
I agree that your pro-choicetude doesn’t mean you believe in botched abortions. Of course you want them to be unbotched and successful. In this particular case, that would mean that the unborn child would be chopped up in utero rather than suffocated in a bag. To me it’s the difference between a beheading and the gas chamber. Your belief in the right to choose simply means you prefer the former over the latter.
I agree that your pro-choicetude doesn’t mean you believe in unlawful clinics. You want what goes on in abortion clinics to be lawful. That’s what being pro-choice generally means.
I agree that your pro-choicetude doesn’t mean that babies being thrown away in plastic bags are OK. You’ve expressed your preference for the chop-job. But the most likely reason for your preference is merely that the suffocation route is illegal, because the Supreme Court’s last abortion decision rejected pro-choice arguments that out-of-womb killings should be allowed. If the court had ruled otherwise, you’d favor both techniques. And you wouldn’t be calling what happened in Florida “botched” or “illegal” because you’d no longer be calling what was stuffed in the bag a “baby.”
Back to Eden
February 20, 2009 | 96 Comments
Today I have colonized The Dawn Patrol. Go there for my daily post.
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Speaking of the Patrol, I’ve realized that many of the posts that I contributed to that blog over the years as The Raving Atheist were not cross-posted here. Accordingly, for those of you who have read through the entire archives of this blog and might be hungry for more, below is the list. Note that many of them were posted under the pseudonym “Henrietta G. Tavish” (an anagram of “The Raving Atheist”).
Planned Parenthood Announces Day of Prayer Against Parental Notification Laws (Satire)
Planned Parenthood to sponsor monthly “Call for Death” (Satire)
Abortion Blog Finds Abortion Display ‘Disturbing’ (Satire)
Planned Parenthood Offers Free Abortions to Miners’ Widows (Satire)
Planned Parenthood Seeks End to “Abortion” Discrimination (Satire)
Giuliani: I Hate Giving to Planned Parenthood (Satire)
Edwards: I’m Personally Opposed to Poverty (Satire)
Democratic Candidates Unite Behind Partial Birthday Abortion Act (Satire)
Typo Mars Planned Parenthood Press Release (Satire)
New Legislation Targets Elder Fraud (Satire)
Planned Parenthood clarifies clinic position: “One-third of Aurora’s population is Latino” (Satire)
Atheist Turns Catholic Blog into a Soapbox for Blasphemy (Satire)
Secularist Organization Cracks Down on “Cafeteria Atheists” (Satire)
License to Kill (Pro-Life license plates)
Out of Gas (Pro-Life License Plates)
Womenvchoice (Pro-choice difficulties with pro-life women)
Fake Story about Fake Clinic? (Planned Parenthood Hoax about Crisis Pregnancy Clinic)
Truthiness and Consequences (Planned Parenthood Hoax about Crisis Pregnancy Clinic – Update)
Planned Parenthood promotes debunked Palin rape-kit smear (Self-explanatory)
No Comment (Blog Censorship)
The Right to Lie (Undercover Investigation of Planned Parenthood)
Don’t Ask, Don’t Care (Critique of Volunteersfor Late-Term Abortion Clinic)
One Hand Slapping (Defining the “need” for abortion)
NARAL: Pro-Choice, Anti-Speech (Self-explanatory)
Aurora Roaring (Protests Against Illinois Abortion Clinic)
Killing Delayed is Killing Denied (Illinois Abortion Clinic Ligitation)
Let Freedom Ring (Verizon Censors NARAL’s Text Messages)
Second Opinion (Critiquing Physician’s Letter to New York Times on Partial Birth Abortion Decision)
Who Cares? (NARAL’s Abortion Report Card)
Choice 9/11 (Planned Parenthood’s Reaction to 9/11)
Thou Shalt Not Kill (Planned Parenthood’s Clergy Task Force)
No Argument (The Pro-Choice refusal to debate)
No Respect (Embryonic Stem Cell research)
Choosing Life, Consistently (Abortion and the death penalty)
Food for Thought (Chesterton vs John Stuart Mill)
Stand-Up Guy
February 17, 2009 | 7 Comments
Steven Crowder is a stand-up comedian who’s standing up for life:
I don’t expect him to be on David Letterman any time soon, but maybe they’ll put him on Saturday Night Live. His Obama impression is at least as good as the guy SNL is using now.
Haunted
February 13, 2009 | 106 Comments
The two carefree young women in the bar were roommates. One of them was pregnant. The condition was temporary. In a few days her late-summer drinking companion would drive her to a clinic for an abortion, just as she had driven so many other friends to “get theirs.” That appointment made way for a relaxing evening, for the aversion the pregnant woman briefly felt towards alcohol was relieved by a sensible reminder.
“You are going to kill it anyway.”
Her friend was indifferent to who heard this remark (and many did) because the observation was so ordinary. It was like explaining why it didn’t matter if paint splattered on a pair of worn, soon-to-be discarded shoes. After another round of drinks and cheerful conversation, the comment would be forgotten.
It would also be remembered, some 18 years later. The pregnant woman was Carla, whose cheer that night masked an anguish I related here. The occasion of the memory was the realization, early last month, that her long-lost bar friend (known here as “Jean”) had discovered her profile on Facebook.
“You are going to kill it anyway.” And they did, and moved on. But now Carla’s whole profile is about abortion and its consequences, and she felt “weird” that her old roommate might be puzzling over it. Puzzling over it because Carla had hidden her feelings so well back then, on that night in the bar that they drank, and on that day in the clinic that they killed Aubrey.
What would Jean think? People do not happen upon old friends on Facebook by accident. They are searching for some name, for some reason. Jean may have been seeking some pleasant reminiscences, only to find a changed and strangely haunted woman. Haunted for a reason Jean could not imagine, having forgotten the events of what was — at least to her — such an ordinary September afternoon.
But the e-mail Carla received on January 7 showed that Jean was haunted too:
Hey Carla
It’s Jean. I was just on your Outcry Wisconsin website and watched your story.
My God! I never knew that was so hard for you. I was so young and completely oblivious to the ramifications of what was going on, but I have to tell you that the events of that day are carved in my brain and I have never forgotten it. I too remember that girl that was very pregnant and having to go home because she could not have the procedure until she was dilated more, and watching that stupid movie and how non-emotional all of the staff were. It affected me whether I wanted to believe it or not at the time. I have always tried to comfort myself with the false beliefs that it was the best thing for you at the time and that it did not matter that much to you. You covered it so well and we never really talked about what happened, we just came home and went on with life. I was so caught up in my own selfishness to notice the pain you were going through. I am sorry I was not a better friend to you at that time. Thank God Pat came along and was there for you.
Since having my own children I have definitely changed my attitude on abortion issues. I have gone from a liberal attitude to a very conservative one. My husband helped me understand what I was really feeling all along.
Anyway I can see how very important this issue is for you and I wanted you to know that I feel the same way. You are doing a wonderful thing by educating those that think this is not a big deal because it is a big deal and it’s wrong.
Keep on fighting!
Daily Headline
January 29, 2009 | 15 Comments
Front Royal, Virginia, January 29, 2009
Special to The Raving Theist
Baby care products manufacturer Johnson & Johnson has merged with Planned Parenthood, forming a partnership that will cater to the nation’s higher-quality infant stock.
Johnson & Johnson had funded the abortion provider for years. Corporate spokesperson Kirsten Chirper said the merger reflected J&J’s commitment to “upscale parents who have put as much thought into producing their children as we have into designing our products.”
The new entity, J&J&P&P, will sell Johnson’s Wanted Baby Oil in selected markets. “Wanted babies born into loving, affluent families deserve a healthy glow that says ‘I was intended,’” said Chirper.
J&J&P&P will continue its Unwanted Baby Oil line until June 30, 2009. “While we understand that some parents bear the legal obligation to care for end-products of unintended pregnancies that they can never love, J&J&P&P has the responsibility as a corporate citizen to discourage such unfortunate mistakes,” Chirper explained. The company’s program under which baby oil bottle caps can be redeemed for $.25 apiece toward the purchaser’s next abortion will continue until the end of the year.
Daily Headline
January 24, 2009 | 131 Comments
Washington, D.C., January 24, 2009
Special to The Raving Theist
President Obama ended the divisive national debate on abortion yesterday, declaring that “common ground” could be found in abortion industry-approved platitudes about finding common ground.
Obama stated that he had no desire to continue the “stale and fruitless” debate about rendering women fruitless by killing human beings in utero. Instead, the President Obama offered a “fresh conversation on family planning” consisting of cobbled-together snippets from thirty years of Planned Parenthood and NARAL press releases.
The administration’s new approach will consist of tracking down whatever impressionable pre-teens and adolescents have not yet figured out what a condom is despite unlimited internet access and 200 cable channels, and then discouraging them from having sex by educating them about every conceivable sex practice just in case they do, and giving them condoms.
Obama also ended the politicization of abortion by signing an executive order to release billions of taxpayer dollars to fund millions of abortions overseas. Although the President has allowed all other important signing ceremonies to be photographed, and the New York Times even published a front-page photograph of photographers photographing the Presidential pen, the press was barred from the abortion-order signing ceremony. Instead, the President signed the measure in a darkened room late Friday afternoon after the close of the week’s news cycle, quickly scurrying away like a filthy, disease-ridden cockroach.
Anything Goes
December 18, 2008 | 7 Comments
It’s hard to catalogue all the ignorance, confusion and illogic in this op-ed by Jane Hunt about finding “common ground” on abortion. The author believes that the abortion debate was conclusively “settled” by Roe v Wade (how about Casey? Gonzales?), and that all presidents since 1973 have somehow ignored the issue and not one “has made a dent” in Roe (Scalia, Roberts, Alito?). She further contends that Obama has “honestly” stated his position on the issue by saying “he wants abortion to be ‘rare’.” Not surprisingly, Hunt’s “common ground” consists of “responsible stewardship of family, national and global resources” with no restrictions on abortion whatsoever. And why even try, she argues: “Laws don’t change behavior; laws against murder don’t prevent it; theft is commonplace despite laws against it.”
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