DCRTL Continuing to Warn About the Dangers of Telemed Abortions

This opinion piece was printed in yesterday's TH. Tim is the current chairman of the DBQ Co. Right to Life board of directors. The comments by the pro-aborts can get very nasty at times. Other times they are very illogical. I comment I read by a pro-abort was " The reality is the procedure is legal and if a woman chooses to do it, you have nothing to say." He went on to say " The protestors and their families should live their way and let the others do their thing (as long as it is legal)."

So I decided to call his bluff. I wrote the following as a part of my comment " So,are you saying legal makes it moral & thus right? Just because it is legal doesn't make it moral or right. NAZI Germany made it legal to kill Jews, Gypsies, gays & Christians in death camps. Slavery was legal just like abortion. a person could "choose" to own a slave. By your standards that meant it was OK for the NAZIs to do what they did & people to own slaves. & we shouldn't have tried to stop them?"

A while later the other person put up more comments about situations he says justifies an abortion as well as now saying he thinks there should be a panel to judge in those cases. So I have also called him on that. But he totally ignores my legal isn't always moral question. I suspect it is because he knows he can't justify his claim that legal is always moral & thus OK.

Tele-med abortions not safe and legal
BY TIM DUGGAN DUBUQUE COUNTY RIGHT TO LIFE

Jan. 22 marks the 38th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the United States Supreme Court. According to Human Life International, 53 million of our fellow Americans have been killed since that ruling.

The pro-life movement has managed some small steps toward gaining back the inalienable rights of pre-born children guaranteed under our Declaration of Independence. In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial-birth abortions. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, enacted in 2002, extends legal protection to an infant born alive after a failed attempt at induced abortion. According to a December 2010 report published by the Guttmacher Institute, 38 states prohibit abortions after a specified point in the child's life, 33 states have outlawed public funding of abortion, and 35 states require some parental involvement in a minor's decision to kill another human being. One of the most encouraging indicators that the pro-life movement is gaining momentum is a poll released by Gallup in 2009. For the first time since the poll began, more Americans consider themselves pro-life by a margin of 51 percent to 42 percent.Slowly, but surely, our nation is moving toward a culture of life.

Last year, more than 400,000 people traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life. As our local pro-life supporters prepare to make the annual pilgrimage to stand as a voice for the unborn this year, it is paradoxical that our community is threatened by the looming specter of chemical abortions. Lisa David, senior vice president of Health Services Support for Planned Parenthood, recently announced that the organization is implementing a broad new patient services initiative, which includes a requirement that every Planned Parenthood affiliate offer abortion services. The scheme involves remote-controlled dispensing of the abortion pill RU-486 (also known as Mifepristone). In December, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland confirmed the takeover of Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa. The merger will provide the means to easily expand Internet abortions, pioneered in the Des Monies area, into eastern Iowa.

As one who fully supports moral and ethical scientific advancement, I applaud the medical community for embracing tele-medicine as a means of extending their healing capacity to people in remote and outlying areas. However, I will not stand by silently and watch the curative affects of this wonderful life saving resource be mutated into a diabolical procedure wielded against the most innocent and vulnerable in our society.

Equally disturbing is that Planned Parenthood's procedures endanger the lives and health of women. A complaint filed with the Iowa Board of Medicine charges that Planned Parenthood's practice is illegal under Iowa law and is a violation of FDA protocol. A significant number of women taking RU-486 suffer an incomplete abortion, necessitating an additional surgical abortion. According to the FDA, this drug has injured more than 1,100 women in the U.S. since 2006. When complications arise with her "at home" abortion, Planned Parenthood's contingency plan is to tell her to go to the nearest emergency room. Young girls are abandoned by Planned Parenthood and left alone to deal with the physical, emotional and mental trauma, possibly for years afterward. How does this illegitimate and inhumane procedure improve women's health?

As thousands gather in our nation's capitol to bear witness against the infamous 1973 decision and commemorate the vast number of babies killed by convenience, indifference or out of misguided mercy, we pray that our nation will embrace a culture of life and respect the sanctity of the unborn. We will petition our public officials to protect the lives of women by enacting laws that prohibit dispensing the abortion pill over the Internet.

Duggan, a Dubuque native, is the father of three and chairman of the Board of Directors for Dubuque County Right to Life, Inc., a nonprofit, nonsectarian, educational organization dedicated to preserving and fostering a respect for human life from conception to natural death. His e-mail address is dugmeister2001@yahoo.com.