Abort a Child, Be "Born Again?"

Folks, I am only posting as much of this article from the LATimes as I can stomach right now. I'll just add my opinion below in red (which is what I'm seeing right now, and I'm blinded by it!) Warning, this is VERBALLY and VISUALLY graphic and sickening, and everything I say is to be taken as it is presented... angry sarcasm!

Offering Abortion, Rebirth

Yes, an Arkansas doctor says, he destroys life. But he believes the thousands of women who have relied on him have been 'born again.'

By Stephanie Simon

Times Staff Writer

November 29, 2005

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Dr. William F. Harrison has forgotten how many children the woman had. He remembers she was poor and, most vividly, he remembers her response when a physician diagnosed her distended stomach as pregnancy."Oh, God, doctor," the woman said. "I was hoping it was cancer." This should have been his first clue this was morally wrong!

This was in 1967. Harrison was a medical student and his wife was expecting their third child. It had never occurred to him that a woman would be anything but happy to learn she was pregnant. The next year, he trained on a maternity ward. In a 24-hour shift, it was not unusual, he said, for four or five women to come in feverish or hemorrhaging from botched abortions. So that justifies his current actions?

Harrison opened an obstetrics and gynecology practice, but after the Supreme Court established abortion as a constitutional right in 1973, he decided to take on an additional specialty. Wow! What a lucrative new business from which he can make more money, now that it's legal! What an entrepreneur! Now 70, Harrison estimates he's terminated at least 20,000 pregnancies. I can't imagine anyone else being SO damned proud! His clinic has not been picketed for years, but Harrison feels very much on the front lines these days. And who puts you in that position, sir?

Debate over President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., has centered on abortion. Activists on both sides warn - or pray - that if Alito is confirmed, the court may one day reverse Roe vs. Wade. We can only pray that it DOES! At least a dozen states, and perhaps as many as 30, would probably continue to allow most abortions. But abortion rights activists predict that terminating a pregnancy would become a criminal act across much of the South, the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain region. Again.. the problem with criminalization of this is????

In Arkansas, for instance, the state constitution sets out "to protect the life of every unborn child from conception until birth." You gotta be kidding me? In Slick Willie Country? At least 10 other states - including Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Utah - have similar language in their constitutions or legal codes.

Harrison warns every patient he sees that abortion may be illegal one day. So what, you want to speed up their decisions and make your money while you can? He wants to stir them to activism, but most women respond mildly. "I can't imagine the country coming to that," says Kim, 35, in for her second abortion in two years. Second??? Whaaaa???? Must be a satisfied, repeat customer! Frequent fetus miles???

A high school senior says the issue won't weigh heavily when she evaluates candidates. "There's other issues I see as more important," she says, "like whether they'll raise taxes. "Patients asked to be identified only by their first names or, in some cases, by their ages to protect their privacy. What about the baby's right to live?

Harrison is beyond such concerns. Well, isn't this obvious?

For several years in the 1980s, his clinic was picketed, vandalized and once firebombed. I DO NOT condone the firebombing, but picketing and protests, YES! Protesters marched outside his home and death threats became routine. Well, he DEALT out death on a daily basis! Harrison responded by making his case.

He answered every phone call, replied to every letter in the newspaper and appeared at public forums to defend abortion rights. Eventually, the protesters in this college town left him alone. (Arkansas Right to Life focuses instead on educating women about alternatives to abortion, Executive Director Rose Mimms said.)

In the years since, Harrison has become more outspoken. He calls himself an "abortionist" and says, "I am destroying life."But he also feels he's giving life: He calls his patients "born again." What?? What kind of insane lunacy is this? "Born again?" What about "Never born in the first place" for the babies, you friggin homicidal maniac!

"When you end what the woman considers a disastrous pregnancy, she has literally been given her life back," he says. AAGGGHHH!!!! SOMEONE GIVE ME A TRANQUILIZER BEFORE I LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS!

Before giving up obstetrics in 1991, Harrison delivered 6,000 babies. Childbirth, he says, should be joyous; a woman should never consider it a punishment or an obligation. "Punishment?" "Obligation?" How about trying to keep your legs closed, learn some moral and ethical values from your parents or SOMEBODY, for crying out loud!!!! "We try to make sure she doesn't ever feel guilty," he says, "for what she feels she has to do." And who says she "has" to do it? Your doctor's fees?

It is a few minutes before 11 a.m. when Harrison raps on the door of his operating room and walks in. His Fayetteville Women's Clinic occupies a once-elegant home dating to the 1940s; the first-floor surgery looks like it was a parlor. Thick blue curtains block the windows and paintings of butterflies and flowers hang on the walls. The radio is tuned to an easy-listening station.

An 18-year-old with braces on her teeth is on the operating table, her head on a plaid pillow, her feet up in stirrups, her arms strapped down at her sides. A pink blanket is draped over her stomach. She's 13 weeks pregnant, at the very end of the first trimester.


She hasn't told her parents. EXACTLY WHY WE NEED JUDGE ALITO ON THE BENCH!!!!!!

A nurse has already given her a local anesthetic, Valium and a drug to dilate her cervix; Harrison prepares to inject Versed, a sedative, in her intravenous line. The drug will wipe out her memory of everything that happens during the 20 minutes she's in the operating room. The hell it will! It's so effective that patients who return for a follow-up exam often don't recognize Harrison. I'd be embarassed to say I recognized this monster myself, much less go back for a second visit!

The doctor is wearing a black turtleneck, brown slacks and tennis shoes. He should be wearing a black hooded robe, carrying a sicle! He snaps his gum as he checks the monitors displaying the patient's pulse rate and oxygen count. "This is not going to be nearly as hard as you anticipate," he tells her. That's easy for you to say, jackass! She smiles wanly.

Keeping up a constant patter - he asks about her brothers, her future birth control plans, whether she's good at tongue twisters Maybe good "tongue twisters" is what her got into this situation in the FIRST place! - Harrison pulls on sterile gloves."How're you doing up there?" he asks. "Doing OK"

"Good girl." Sounds like a pedophile to me!

"Harrison glances at an ultrasound screen frozen with an image of the fetus taken moments before. Against the fuzzy black-and-white screen, he sees the curve of a head, the bend of an elbow, the ball of a fist. "You may feel some cramping while we suction everything out," Harrison tells the patient. Okay, how does this man sleep at night? Much less the 'reporter' who could actually report this bullshi*!

A moment later, he says: "You're going to hear a sucking sound. "The abortion takes two minutes. The patient lies still and quiet, her eyes closed, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. The friend who has accompanied her stands at her side, mutely stroking her arm. When he's done, Harrison performs another ultrasound. The screen this time is blank but for the contours of the uterus. "We've gotten everything out of there," he says. My God, you are a sick man, and I'm not sure you can even BE forgiven for the casual way in which you consider these things.

As the nurse drops the instruments in the sink with a clatter, the teenager looks around, woozy. "It was a lot easier than I thought it would be," she says. That's the whole problem with the practice.... too easy. Not like making wise decisions. "I thought it would be horrible, but it wasn't. The procedure, that is."She is not yet sure, she says, how she is doing emotionally. She feels guilty, sad and relieved, all in a jumble. And will hopefully continue to feel that way for a long time to come.

"There's things wrong with abortion," she says. "But I want to have a good life. Well, what the hell were you thinking when you laid down with that boy and gave him what is sacrosanct for a woman? And provide a good life for my child." To keep this baby now, she says, when she's single, broke and about to start college, "would be unfair." UNFAIR? DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GIVE THE 'UNFAIR' ARGUMENT??? AGGHHHH!!! ~ going insane at this point ~

Politicians on both sides of the abortion debate often talk up adoption as a better alternative. Harrison's patients do not consider it an option. Why not? Because it's not offered as an option probably.

A high school volleyball player says she doesn't want to give up her body for nine months. "I realize just from the first three months how it changes everything," she says. Folks, as a civilization, we are doomed if this is the product of the modern American family. ~BP rising~

Kim, a single mother of three, says she couldn't bear to give away a child and have to wonder every day if he were loved. Ending the pregnancy seemed easier, she says - as long as she doesn't let herself think about "what could have been." Hmmm.. yes, that's it... don't think about what you've done. Just think about yourself and how YOU can just throw away your "mistakes." Yeah, that's being grown-up and responsible!

By law, Harrison's staff must offer patients two pamphlets from the state. One lists adoption services and groups that provide free diapers, day-care subsidies and other aid. The second contains photos of the fetus at various stages of development. Patients don't have to accept either pamphlet. Most wave them away, their minds made up. Oh, says who?

For the few women who arrive ambivalent or beset by guilt, Harrison's nurse has posted statistics on the exam-room mirror: One out of every four pregnant women in the U.S. chooses abortion. A third of all women in this country will have at least one abortion by the time they're 45. "You think there's room in hell for all those women?" the nurse will ask. Um, yes.... Hell is rather roomy, I believe.

If the woman remains troubled, the nurse tells her to go home and think it over. "If they truly feel they're killing a baby, well, what else are they doing? Playing Twister? we're not going to do an abortion for them," says the nurse, who asked not to be identified for fear protesters would target her. And probably for fear her friends & family would disown her!

The 17-year-old in for a consultation this morning assures the nurse that she does not consider the embryo inside her a baby. "Not until it's developed," she says. "That would be about three months?"

"It's completely formed about nine weeks," the nurse tells her. "Yours is more like a chicken yolk." WHAT THE F&*k???????????? A DAMN CHICKEN YOLK? The girl, who is five weeks pregnant, looks relieved. "Then no," she says, "it's not a baby." !#$!%%!#$#$^^ Her mother sits in the corner wiping her tears. Then why doesn't she get up and march her daughter out of there???? She is NO MOTHER herself!

Harrison draws his own moral line at the end of the second trimester, or 26 weeks since the first day of the woman's last menstrual period. Oh, how ethical of him. Until that point, he will abort for any reason. Wait, I retract my last "ethical" comment about you. "It's not a baby to me until the mother tells me it's a baby," he says. Oh, and a 13-year-old can tell you when her fetus is a baby?

Amanda, a 20-year-old administrative assistant, says it's not the obstacles that surprise her - it's how normal and unashamed she feels as she prepares to end her first pregnancy. This is truly very sad....

"It's an everyday occurrence," she says as she waits for her 2:30 p.m. abortion. "It's not like this is a rare thing." Amanda hasn't told her ex-boyfriend that she's 15 weeks pregnant with his child. She hasn't told her parents, either, though she lives with them.

"I figured it was my responsibility," she says. She regrets having to pay $750 for the abortion, Somebody better bring me some BP medicine, I'm about to stroke out!!! but Amanda says she does not doubt her decision. "It's not like it's illegal. Oh, so that makes it okay? It's not like I'm doing anything wrong," she says.

"I've been praying a lot and that's been a real source of strength for me. Honey, if you've been praying to God, you've been praying to the WRONG God. I really believe God has a plan for us all. Yes, but I think another entity much further south has a plan for you, too! I have a choice, and that's part of my plan."

Before, after and even during an abortion, Harrison lectures his patients on birth control. Oh, how humanitarian of him! He urges them to get on the pill and to insist their partners use condoms. They promise. But Harrison knows many will be back. Of course! He probably really "sternly" lectures them, seeing that next $750 fee he can get, and the next person he can make "born again" for the 5th, 6th & 7th times... yeah, right!

His first patient of the day, Sarah, 23, says it never occurred to her to use birth control, though she has been sexually active for six years. When she became pregnant this fall, Sarah, who works in real estate, was in the midst of planning her wedding. "I don't think my dress would have fit with a baby in there," she says. Well, I'll be a sonofabitch... wouldn't that just suck if you spent all of your Macy's credit on a dress, and now it won't fit? Darn the luck! Not to mention, your dress probably won't be white!

The last patient of the day, a 32-year-old college student named Stephanie, has had four abortions in the last 12 years. She keeps forgetting to take her birth control pills. Abortion "is a bummer," she says, "but no big stress." Guys.. it's time to call 911... I'm having an aneurysm... "forgetting" to take her BC pill? pregnancy is a "bummer?" "No big stress?" Gee, honey, I wonder how your baby felt as it was SUCKED out of your uterus and disappeared from the ultrasound image!

Harrison does not get frustrated with such patients. He has learned to focus on the facts he considers most important: This woman does not want to be pregnant. He can give her back control of her life and keep a child from coming into the world unwanted. He believes in this so strongly, he waives his fees for women who can't come up with the money. %$$^$%#*$&*$$%^!$%^

Last February, Harrison injured his head in a fall. I'm really hurt over this. I feel so sad for his injuries... He underwent three surgeries and spent months in rehabilitation. Obviously didn't work. His wife urged him to retire. Smart lady! "There's no one to take my place," he told her.

As soon as he felt strong enough, Harrison was back in surgery. He'll keep at it as long as his stamina holds, or as long as it is legal. Three abortions before lunch and three more after: The appointment book is always full. Oh, what a proud man you must be... that's $2,250 for you for the day! Not too bad for an evil day's work.

Sir, you are one evil sonofabitch... I found your picture on the internet, and posted it here (right). Closely resembles what I've read about your beliefs and who you truly are inside (and it sounds like YOUR "inside" has also been "sucked out."...) Not even Father Merrin can save you now.

Story also linked at Political Teen, Real Teen-Right on the Right, Obligatory Anecdotes, and Right-Wing Nation.