A Good Journalist May Be Hard to Find, But
Not a Late-Term Abortionist
In the aftermath of the murder of late-term abortionist, George Tiller,
a number of media stories have reported that Tiller was one of only
three remaining late-term abortionists in the United States. However
the claim does not square up with numbers released by the Alan
Guttmacher Institute and further evidence that indicates that
late-term abortion has plenty of willing practitioners across the
country.
The Associated Press called Tiller “one of the nation's few providers
of late-term abortions” on May 31. The AP stated, “Tiller's Women's
Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation where
abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.”
According to the New York Times, “Some described Dr. Tiller as one of
about only three doctors in the country who had, under certain
circumstances, provided abortions to women in their third trimester of
pregnancy, and said his death would mean that women, particularly in
the central United States, would have few if any options in such cases.”
The Los Angeles Times called Tiller, “One of the few American
physicians who performed late-term abortions.” The Times added that
“the doctor had always overcome the daunting legal and physical
challenges of his work, terminating pregnancies of women and girls who
were in the 22nd week of gestation or beyond.”
However the fact is that statistics show that many doctors perform such
late-term abortions in the United States. Tiller, on the other hand,
was actually notorious for being among the few doctors willing to
perform very late-term abortions, way past the point of viability,
right up until birth.
Although no week demarcates the precise beginning of what is defined as
a late-term abortion, the procedure is regarded as beginning in the
second trimester, around the point of fetal viability outside the womb.
In general, viability begins 21 weeks – although advances in medical
technology and a number of cases show this number might actually be
lower. If this figure is taken as a benchmark, then the statistics of
the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood,
indicate that late-term abortion is a very busy industry indeed.
Fr. Frank Pavone yesterday drew attention to this data on his blog
where he wrote: “The Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of
Planned Parenthood) reports that abortions of pregnancies at 21 weeks
or later comprise about 1.1 percent of the nation’s abortions, which
that same institute also indicates are in the area of 1.21 million.”
A quick crunching of the numbers means that for the year 2005 (the
latest available data from Guttmacher), 13,310 late-term abortions were
performed in the United States. A corresponding CDC report (which does
not include data from California and several states) reported that in
Kansas – where Tiller conducted his grisly business - only 452
abortions of unborn children were performed at 21 weeks and beyond.
This is a mere fraction of the total number, despite the fact that
aborting children late in pregnancy was Tiller's avowed specialty.
The rest of these late-term abortions are performed at other abortion
centers and hospitals across the country, which pro-life columnist Jill
Stanek says are hardly an endangered species.
“The reality is late-term abortions are committed pretty much in every
pocket of the country, contrary to claims by the other side,” said
Stanek on WorldNetDaily.com.
While a number of abortion facilities and hospitals perform late-term
abortions, Tiller was among a handful who offered to perform very
late-term abortions, even right before birth. One non-exhaustive
listing of abortion providers listed at least six facilities that would
perform abortions beyond 24 weeks, which is twice the number of
late-term abortion providers the mainstream media have reported, whom
they define as those performing abortions beyond 21-22 weeks.
Guttmacher spokeswoman Rebecca Wind told LifeSiteNews that while she
had no specific information on Tiller’s abortion practice, she stated,
“the other two physicians who have been cited as performing abortions
very late in pregnancy are Dr. Carhart in Nebraska and Dr. Hern in
Colorado.”
That may explain the media misapprehension that Tiller was one of three
doctors providing simply late-term abortions, while in fact they were
very late-term abortions in very advanced pregnancies.
Despite Tiller's death, his abortion facility in Wichita will once
again be open for business. Dr. Leroy Carhart, a friend of Tiller and
the abortionist behind two Supreme Court cases, Stenberg v. Carhart,
and Gonzales v. Carhart, has said that he is leaving his abortion
practice in Nebraska temporarily to continue providing very late-term
abortions at the Tiller facility.
Contact: Peter J. Smith
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish
Date: June 3, 2009
Link
to this article.
Send
this article to a friend.
The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL.
|