Life

Fifty years ago today, LIFE published Lennart Nilsson’s photo essay “Drama of Life Before Birth”.  The issue sold out within days.

The images publicly revealed for the first time what a developing child looks like, and in the process raised pointed new questions about when life begins.  All but one of the infants pictured were photographed outside the womb and had been removed—or aborted—“for a variety of medical reasons,” in a Stockholm hospital.

For fifty years, we've done our best to deny the humanity of the pre-born.  We've refused to acknowledge the interdependency of mother and child, that two lives are entwined, and that there are difficult choices to make while considering both of them.

Rather than inquire of science or ethics, pro-choice activists insist that there is no child until birth; even moments before, it is just a fetus and not a child.

The pro-life side has but few answers for the reality of an unintended or dangerous pregnancy and the burden of bearing that child.

How might the tragedy be averted?  How might the unintended pregnancy be avoided in the larger social venue?

"In time, it’s going to be impossible to deny that abortion is violence against children. Future generations, as they look back, are not necessarily going to go easy on ours. Our bland acceptance of abortion is not going to look like an understandable goof. In fact, the kind of hatred that people now level at Nazis and slave-owners may well fall upon our era. Future generations can accurately say, “It’s not like they didn’t know.” They can say, “After all, they had sonograms.” They may consider this bloodshed to be a form of genocide. They might judge our generation to be monsters."  ~ Frederica Mathewes-Green

Face it, or forfeit

Explaining things like abortion to children is difficult, yet we know they must be equipped for life with the information they need.

Even more, adults need full information for objective decision making. If we can't face it, our children may harshly judge how we turned away from that responsibility.  To turn away is to forfeit the moral high ground, of course.

This is the reality which many have yet to face:

2012 05-17 Dr. Anthony Levatino Statement

Transcript of Dr. Levatino’s testimony

"Chairman Franks and distinguished members of the subcommittee, my name is Anthony Levatino. I am a board-certified obstetrician gynecologist. I received my medical degree from Albany Medical College in Albany, NY in 1976 and completed my OB-GYN residency training at Albany Medical Center in 1980.

In my 33-year career, I have been privileged to practice obstetrics and gynecology in both private and university settings. From June 1993 until September 2000, I was associate professor of OB-GYN at the Albany Medical College serving at different times as both medical student director and residency program director. I have also dedicated many years to private practice and currently operate a solo gynecology practice in Las Cruces, NM. I appreciate your kind invitation to address issues related to the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R.1797).

During my residency training and during my first five years of private practice, I performed both first and second trimester abortions. During my residency in the late 1970s, second trimester abortions were typically performed using saline infusion or, occasionally, prostaglandin instillation techniques. These procedures were difficult, expensive and necessitated that patients go through labor to abort their pre-born children. By 1980, at the time I entered private practice first in Florida and then in upstate New York, those of us in the abortion industry were looking for a more efficient method of second trimester abortion.

The Suction D&E procedure offered clear advantages over older installation methods. The procedure was much quicker and never ran the risk of a live birth. Understand that my partner and I were not running an abortion clinic. We practiced general obstetrics and gynecology but abortion was definitely part of that practice. Relatively few gynecologists in upstate NY would perform such a procedure and we saw an opportunity to expand our abortion practice.

I performed first trimester suction D&C abortions in my office up to 10 weeks from last menstrual period and later procedures in an outpatient hospital setting. From 1981 through February 1985, I performed approximately 1200 abortions. Over 100 of them were second trimester Suction D&E procedures up to 24 weeks gestation.

Imagine if you can that you are a pro-choice obstetrician/gynecologist like I once was. Your patient today is 24 weeks pregnant. At twenty-four weeks from last menstrual period, her uterus is two finger-breadths above the umbilicus.

If you could see her baby, which is quite easy on an ultrasound, she would be as long as your hand plus a half from the top of her head to the bottom of her rump not counting the legs. Your patient has been feeling her baby kick for the last 2 months or more but now she is asleep on an operating room table and you are there to help her with her problem pregnancy.

The first task is remove the laminaria that had earlier been placed in the cervix to dilate it sufficiently to allow the procedure you are about to perform. With that accomplished, direct your attention to the surgical instruments arranged on a small table to your right. The first instrument you reach for is a 14-French suction catheter. It is clear plastic and about nine inches long. It has a bore through the center approximately ¾ of an inch in diameter.Picture yourself introducing this catheter through the cervix and instructing the circulating nurse to turn on the suction machine which is connected through clear plastic tubing to the catheter. What you will see is a pale yellow fluid that looks a lot like urine coming through the catheter into a glass bottle on the suction machine. This is the amniotic fluid that surrounded the baby to protect her.

With suction complete, look for your Sopher clamp. This instrument is about thirteen inches long and made of stainless steel. At the end are located jaws about 2 ½ inches long and about ¾ of an inch wide with rows of sharp ridges or teeth. This instrument is for grasping and crushing tissue. When it gets hold of something, it does not let go. A second trimester D&E abortion is a blind procedure. The baby can be in any orientation or position inside the uterus. Picture yourself reaching in with the Sopher clamp and grasping anything you can.

At twenty-four weeks gestation, the uterus is thin and soft so be careful not to perforate or puncture the walls. Once you have grasped something inside, squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard–really hard. You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp whatever you can. Set the jaw and pull really hard once again and out pops an arm about the same length. Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.

The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush d own on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face will come out and stare back at you.

Congratulations! You have just successfully performed a second trimester Suction D&E abortion. You just affirmed her right to choose.

If you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, please think again."

________________________

Facing such things objectively and thoughtfully is difficult at best, yet we must.  We cannot relegate decisions about our values to the party, the government, or the media.

The issue is the details of the practice, and it is separate from a discussion of women's rights.

The self-assigned label of 'pro-choice' includes approval of the practice in detail.

See also Walking Away

Uppity

up·pi·ty

ˈəpətē/

adjective

  informal

§: self-important; arrogant."an uppity fellow"

synonyms:

arrogant, snobbish, hoity-toity, snooty, pretentious, bumptious, full of oneself, puffed up, conceited, pompous, self-assertive, overbearing,cocky, cocksure, impertinent, haughty, hubristic, self-important, superior,presumptuous, overweening, uppish, high and mighty, believes own press, self-induced idiocy

examples:

financial industry directors (Henry Paulson, Jamie Dimon, Robert Rubin), those with the 'right to rule' from above the law (lobbyists, political power abusers, IRS, NSA, FEC, Lois Lerner, Hitler), industry driven by profit rather than service (Enron, Exxon, Dutch Royal Shell, Goldman-Sachs, J.P. Morgan), materialists, the rich

There's a personal price that must eventually be paid, of course.

It's an interesting world.
  Every country is filled with folks who hope for better, to do well by their children and by others,
    and every country is infected with those whose goal is self-aggrandizement.
      And we get to pick a side, carefully.
         

If there were a world ballot to pick really good folks and really bad folks, how would that turn out?  
Then, too, there's that sheep and goats thing.

War on Women

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s director of research, Melissa Farrell, candidly admits (9 APR 15) that abortion procedures are routinely altered to ensure that whatever body parts have been requested by buyers are obtained intact:

"And so if we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this, that’s – it’s all just a matter of line items."

In other words, the organization that purports to focus on women’s health actually alters their medical procedures, not in the best interest of the patient, but for the purpose of getting and selling the body parts of the children they kill.  It's illegal for a variety of reasons.

War on women?   Yes.  And children.

Approximately 60% of young adults don’t even know that Planned Parenthood provides abortions.

Those who do may, because they have been told so, say, "...but only 3% of their services are abortions!"  You have to think just a bit to get through that statement.

In 2012, PP reported 329,445 abortions as 3% of their services.

The income from those abortions is separately reported as $164,154,000, or 51% of their clinic income; not 3, but 51%.

From their annual report, Planned Parenthood provided prenatal services to only 5,398 women and adoption referrals for 841.  They performed 329,445 abortions, which means that 98.14% of the women seeking pregnancy related care at Planned Parenthood were sold abortions.

Abortion is Planned Parenthood's centerpiece both in time and money.

I Want to Tell You a Story

21 APR 15.- IRS Scandal - day 711

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam on IRS targeting 

“I want to tell you a story. I want to take you back to 1996. A friend of mine in Illinois, my former law partner, Al Salvi, was running for the United States Senate. He loaned himself some money to his campaign. The Federal Election Commission—different agency than we’re talking about—but stick with me. This is like a Seinfeld episode—it’s all going to come together at the end. The Federal Election Commission said, ‘You did that the wrong way. You violated federal election law.’ They placed him under investigation. World War II headlines in the Chicago papers. He goes on and he loses the election for the United States Senate. Now, political scientists can debate whether he would have won or whether he would have lost. But let’s face it: being under investigation by the Federal Election Commission generally does not help you in a political campaign.

“At the end of that campaign, the Federal Election Commission came and they made a very large settlement demand—I don’t remember off the top of my head how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they were demanding from him. But he said, ‘I didn't do anything wrong and I’m not going to pay you any money.’ Federal Election Commission said, ‘That’s fine. We’re going to sue you,' which they did. They filed a lawsuit in federal court. The federal judge reads the pleadings [and] dismisses the case against the Federal Election Commission—finds in favor of Al Salvi. You would think that this drama all ended there. No, no, no. No, the Federal Election Commission came back. They said, ‘Well, we know you won, but we’re still going to make a settlement demand of you. We’re going to lower the amount, but we’re still going to make a demand. Because if you don’t pay us we’re going to appeal the judge’s ruling.’

$120,000+ bonuses during the three criminal targeting years.
She was recommended for the increase by IRS commissioner
Steven Miller and Joseph Grant, the deputy commissioner of
the tax-exempt division; both men would later resign in
connection with the targeting scandal.

 “Al Salvi’s a pretty sophisticated lawyer and he talked to the lawyer at the other end of the line and said to that person, ‘Give me the person, and let me talk to the person who had authority on this case. Because you don’t understand—I won, you lost, I’m not going to pay any money. Let me talk to the person with authority on the case at the Federal Election Commission.’ That person got on the phone with Al Salvi and said this, ‘If you pledge never to run for office again, we’ll drop this case.’ Al Salvi said, ‘Put that in writing.’ The person said, ‘We don’t put that in writing and we never lose.’ That person was Lois Lerner.

“Now, you take that disposition. You take that attitude. You take that long arm of a bureaucrat and reach into the sanctity of the ballot booth. And you've got a real problem. And you up the wattage on that, and you move her over, and you give her the type of authority not that the Federal Election Commission has, but the Internal Revenue Service. To grab somebody by the throat and do whatever they want with them with the possibility of imprisoning them. That is a problem. And that’s a problem that Representative Renacci is trying to make go away.

“We had a hearing in the last Congress. And I hear a lot of testimony—we all hear a lot of testimony. But this testimony was inspirational to me. Because these were people that came in before our Committee. Committee members you’ll remember this. They told us how they had been targeted. But you know what was the most incredible thing? They kept faith with their country when it didn’t look like their country had not kept faith with them. And they said, ‘This isn’t America. My America doesn’t target me. My America doesn’t shun me out of the public square.’

“But you know the one that got the most attention in my mind was the pro-life group in Iowa, who was asked by the Internal Revenue Service, ‘Tell us about your organization. Tell us about your activity.’ And they gave a list of activities and one of the activities they said was ‘We have prayer meetings.’ And the IRS said, in writing, ‘Under penalty of perjury, tell us about your prayer meetings.’ The hair on the back of my neck is tingling at this moment as I am describing this to you because it is so scandalous.”

         From roskam.house.gov, reported in Forbes, USNews, WashingtonTimes, and others who continue to track the IRS scandal.  It's not over yet, apparently.

I think we passed our turnoff ...

It's disappointing to realize the highway you wanted is a hundred miles back.  Continuing along that nice road is easy, but without benefit.

Welcome to Christendom.  It's huge, expensive, and off course.

Decades ago, a teacher described the lifecycle of such things.  From a legitimate beginning, a pure concept with tremendous power and purpose, often the history reads like this:

'Paintbrush Warrior' by Mark Hanson, 2009

• Man with a vision - he makes a wonderful, purposeful impact that changes things for the better
• Men with a mission - those among the hearers who rise up to formalize the changes, but no vision
• Mankind with a monument - the institutionalized legacy, the speeches and rules and micro-details, but no more changes and no vision

Christendom's curse began in the fourth century with the state establishment of institutionalized religion.  Church became government and big business.  Church politicians played for power, and visionless spokesmen fought furiously over inconsequential details.  And heretics were tortured and killed.  Church became something you attend instead of something you are, and worship became something you watch instead of something you give.  Along the timeline, serious attempts to get back on the highway risked being swallowed up by the same sequence.  

What's obscured in it all?
The short answer; the Author and the vision's purpose.

There was more than one man carrying the vision, of course.  John the Baptist was early on the road, later Paul and Peter, John the Apostle, and more.  None were looking for followers.  They were encouraging folks to connect with the Author of the vision for themselves.

Before them, Elijah, Isaiah ... there's a long list of folks who were pointing the way to the vision's source.  They found themselves struggling against stagnant institutional thinking, much like today, I suppose.  Not every religious leader stayed in that manmade box, but enough did and do to make matters difficult.  Their constituents live under the burden of it, yet the vision lives on despite the mess in the 'upper ranks'.

Today, there are still such folks who encourage us, not to join and be members, but to connect with the vision's Author for ourselves.  Perhaps these are the "apostles and prophets," we're told about.

The emerging church, the one that has turned to pursue the Author, is growing at an extraordinary pace.  In Africa particularly, it's encouraging.

Our hope in it all is not for institutional growth, but for a new awareness and a broad sweep across the nations of those who truly want to know the Author for themselves.  It's happening now, it seems, mostly a divergence from the mainstream.  Many have found the highway.  The high way.

We live in interesting times.

Economic Solutions: Exile?

Perhaps every corrupt politico and business exec should be permanently exiled to the world's poorest country... with just the clothes on their back.

Those who took multimillion dollar bonuses for crashing the world marketplace, those who defrauded investors, those who lied when they created worthless mortgage instruments, and those who let big business buy the laws they wanted ...

There are so many fair-minded folks in the world, willing to work hard and earn their way.  Then there the greedy ones who have everything and want more even if it is at the expense of another, or a million others.

I've been to some of the world's poorest countries.  Most of the folks I met were gracious and hospitable.  It wouldn't be fair to send them our maggots, I suppose.  They deserve better than to have a gaggle of JP Morgan players in their midst even if it would be humorous.  I have to admit, though, I'd love to see Deeb Salem and a flock of Goldman Sachs execs down at the river doing their laundry.

Napoleon was exiled.  Twice.  
He'd unified Europe, brought an end to feudalism, established legal equality, and religious toleration.  He made an attempt at ending slavery.  He gave Europe the Napoleonic Code which forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified.  The code influenced the world thereafter.

Despite such auspicious beginnings, things didn't work out well for Napoleon.  Too many power players, too much closeted wealth, and stunning avarice.  Perhaps we exiled the wrong leader.

Today's empire builders wage economic warfare, extracting wealth from the developing world with impunity, manipulating the entire world's marketplace for their betting table.  Here's hoping their Waterloo doesn't take the rest of us down.