BRATTLEBORO — Elayne Clift has written numerous columns supporting abortion. In a recent one, she quotes Lucy Leriche, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, who claimed that “over 95 percent of women who have had an abortion report [feel] relief that outweighs any negative emotion they might have, even years later.”
Now, I couldn't help but wonder just how Ms. Leriche reached such an astounding conclusion and why in the world Ms. Clift would quote it.
If we are to believe the 95-percent figure, we must assume that Planned Parenthood interviewed all the people involved in the nearly four million abortions performed in this country in the past five years.
I believe that figure is self-serving and absurdly high.
There is an old saying: “Figures don't lie, but liars figure.” As somebody who has witnessed numerous women coming out of an abortion clinic, I can assure you that not one of them looked relieved or happy. Apparently, I was exposed only to members of Ms. Leriche's 5 percent.
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Supporters of abortion like to soften the reality of what it is by calling it “choice.” But what exactly is the choice? Is it not “Shall I kill an unborn child, or shall I not kill an unborn child?”
If it is something other than that, I would like to know.
Abortion is not a first choice - it is a third choice.
First, the woman decides to have sex. Second, she opts to have unprotected sex, and third, she decides whether to have an abortion. Victims of rape or incest have available to them the ability to prevent pregnancy.
Elayne Clift calls the attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade “Draconian.” By contrast, she believes killing unborn children is just fine. I wonder what Ms. Clift would write if she heard of somebody who killed a one-week-old child? That, too, is a choice.
She also wrote that ”current proposed and passed laws are about power and control, and men's fear of losing that power and control.” Now I don't know about anybody else, but that statement tells me that she has a serious problem with men. Maybe she will tell us in a future column just what that problem is.
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We live in a civilized country, and I believe civilized people do not kill children, born or unborn.
We all make choices every day. We choose to do or say the right thing or the wrong thing. Our laws say it is OK to have an abortion, but that does not mean it is right.
I have read most of the rhetoric supporting abortion and almost all of it is nothing more that thinly sliced bologna - but still bologna. An uncle told me that if we are not careful, we are going to ruin this big, beautiful country of ours. From where I sit, abortion contributes to that demise.
There are three ways that abortion can be avoided. First, choose not to have sex. Second, if you choose to have sex, have safe sex. Third, if you do get pregnant, have the baby and give it up for adoption.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, pro-choice rhetoric can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but it can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Let us all pray that we are not fooled.