Roundup: You Can All Be Shameful Next Year

by Robin Marty, RH Reality Check

January 5, 2010 - 10:33am (Print)

A new year means lots of things -- top ten lists, retrospectives, resolutions and some forecasting. For NARAL, it means voting on the 2009 Hall of Fame or Shame. And for some in the anti-choice community, it's a big deal.

After pushing hard to get Personhood Amendments onto ballots in a variety of states, Personhood USA is ready to celebrate a new victory: being one of the top four finalists for the NARAL Hall of Shame. According to the group, just being nominated is a "badge of honor."

Keith Mason, head of Personhood USA, says, "NARAL Pro-Choice America is one of the most liberal, rabid pro-abortion groups in the country, and so we're excited to be noted as on their Hall of Shame, and we take it as a true honor."

He believes the acknowledgment gives the personhood movement more credibility rather than tagging it with the intended negative connotation.

"If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one that got hit. And when we're working on personhood, the people who are howling the most are these pro-abortion people," Mason notes. "The people that look at abortion as a sacrament are the most furious and [are] going crazy that we would have the audacity to say that every human being is a person no matter how small."

And yes, by "how small" he does in fact mean 2 cells.

Operation Rescue, on the other hand, is obviously miffed about not being a finalist in the Wall of Shame:

The pro-life activist group Operation Rescue issued a statement on its Web site after the late-December posting of the nominations, calling NARAL an "aging feminist group" and recounting the successful efforts of Operation Rescue and three other pro-life organizations to have Carhart's abortion clinics investigated by the Nebraska attorney general's office and the State Department of Health.

“It is hard to believe that even radical abortion proponents would do anything but slink away in shame from Carhart and his disreputable and shoddy abortion business,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman in the statement. “It is shameful that NARAL would endanger women by misleading them about Carhart to advance their political agenda.”

"If they truly cared about women, they should be warning women away from him," Newman said.

Never fear, Mr. Newman! I am certain that you will not have to worry about Personhood USA stealing your thunder for two years in a row. Instead, perhaps you should watch out for American Life League's Judie Brown, who obviously is shooting to be next year's contender.

Ms. Brown releases her entire action plan for next year's Personhood push, with the motto "It's the Babies, Stupid!"

As a wise merchandising expert once advised us, "The day McDonald's decides to run one ad a year to remind the country of what it is all about is the day American Life League can start mentioning the truth about the act of abortion once a year. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition works!"

Along those lines, it has always been my contention that the reason assisted suicide, infanticide, euthanasia, prenatal genetic diagnosis, human embryonic stem cell research and the like have increased in recent years is because abortion has not been discussed nonstop in terms of the human person who dies from it. The following...examples illustrate this failure.

Pro-life Kansas state senator Tim Huelskamp is proposing a legislative effort to defund Planned Parenthood. Good for him! When he announced his goal, he said, "Organizations that perform abortions and fail to report sexual abuse of young girls should never receive taxpayer subsidies. This flies in the face of basic Kansas values."

Our educational efforts should eventually convince Senator Huelskamp that his point would resound with far greater clarity if he replaced the phrase "perform abortions" with "kill preborn babies." This is why we believe elected officials need our consistent affirmation and education. It isn't that they don't care; they simply don't think of abortion in the proper terms.

Here's another example: The Bronx News Network reported on a protest against Pierre Renelique. In the story, pro-life people themselves refer to Renelique as a "doctor." But doctors take an oath to protect the lives of their patients, not kill them. Renelique is a hired killer who executes little children in the wombs of their own mothers. Pro-life people should never refer to an abortionist as a "doctor." We must learn to call heinous acts by their proper names and to use accurate titles for those who perpetrate them.

Who will come out the winner in 2010? With so many possibilities, it's hard to tell.

Mini Roundup: We're with the Globe and EnpowHER. Please, let's make 2010 the year where we stop thinking of sex and especially sexual health as shameful. And on that note, is there really a G-spot?

January 5, 2010

New Year's resolution: raising awareness of human personhood now! RenewAmerica

Would Obama approve paying for abortions with tax money? Youngstown Vindicator

Senior GP flew pregnant teenage daughter to Spain for late-term abortion Telegraph.co.uk

NARAL recognition a badge of honor OneNewsNow

Anti-abortion bus trip to San Francisco planned Visalia Times-Delta

Indian city of Mumbai hit by condom thefts BBC News

January 4, 2010

Octomom's Kids Were In Peril, Med Board Says TMZ

Reclaiming Legal Abortion as a Fundamental Right AlterNet

Pro-Abortion Advocates Praise Abortionist, Blast Pro-Life Efforts CNSNews.com

Coakley receives pair of Senate endorsements Nashua Telegraph