Reading Kathleen Parker's column in the Press-Republican on Feb. 28 reminded me of a statement made by Bernard Nathanson, M.D., in a speech in Montreal.
Nathanson, a co-founder and member of the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws, presided over or performed about 70,000 abortions before he became a pro-lifer.
Nathanson said that NARAL and Planned Parenthood simply repeated lies so often that the lies became believable when they went unchallenged. Parker's statements seemed to fit that framework.
Parker wrote on a variety of subjects. She wrote about rape, the extinction of the Republican Party, the presidential race and even mentioned, perhaps sarcastically, the Pope and kissing the backside of voters. One can easily ask, where was Parker coming from and where was she going?
In reference to rape, Kathleen Parker said that a woman involuntarily submitting to a probe inserted into her vagina was a victim of rape. She said that this procedure, called trans-vaginal ultrasound, was in a proposed statute in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The problem is that there was no such language in the proposed statute, which calls only for a customary abdominal ultrasound.
The reason for the proposed statute is to require that an ordinary ultrasound be performed prior to a woman having an abortion. This procedure is, in medico-legal terminology, "informed consent." Twenty states have ultrasound-related abortion restrictions, six of which closely resemble the one Virginia is debating.
The National Right to Life Committee reported on Feb. 23 that trans-vaginal ultrasound was not ever part of the proposed statute. The governor of Virginia submitted an amendment to the proposed law that specifically states there will be no mandated trans-vaginal ultrasounds.
As mentioned above, Dr. Bernard Nathanson had been an extremely active proponent of abortion before his conversion to pro-life. It was while viewing an ultrasound that he became convinced that abortion destroys human life.
He saw in an ultrasound a baby trying to escape the abortionist's apparatus.
David Gorman, M.D., a well-known local gynecologist/obstetrician, also became a convert to pro-life. In his own words, he, who was once the most active abortionist in the North Country, became a pro-life advocate. Dr. Gorman gave the credit for his conversion to an ultrasound when he was learning to do selective abortions. Gorman made the statements publicly at an Honors Forum held at Plattsburgh State.
Maybe Kathleen Parker just failed to check her facts about the proposed ultrasound statute in Virginia. The pattern seems to be very consistent with the common practice of the abortion industry. Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia would seem a creditable source for rebuttal of Parker's description of what was never in the proposed Virginia statute.
The co-founder of NARAL, Bernard Nathanson, who himself said that he had either performed or supervised the killing of 70,000 babies via abortion, would be a relevant source of information regarding abortion industry practices. Dr. Nathanson became a well-known international advocate, author and lecturer and was the author of "The Silent Scream." a documentary film on abortion.
— Claire Middleton is co-founder of Champlain Valley Right to Life
