Pro-Abort Decade Wish List: Repeal Hyde, Recruit More Abortionists

Pro-Abort Decade Wish List: Repeal Hyde, Recruit More Abortionists

Critic says, "People don't go to medical school with the explicit reason, 'I want to kill babies'

 

Forward-looking pro-abortion advocates hope soon to see abortion fueled nationwide with taxpayer money, explicit sex education implemented in every public school, and young medical students recruited to replenish an aging generation of abortionists, according to one columnist outlining a wish list for "the struggle for reproductive rights and justice" in the next ten years.  Pro-lifers responded with a very different ten-year scenario: a world without the legalized killing of unborn children.

RH Reality Check contributor Amanda Marcotte began her piece Tuesday by reflecting that, "after all, the past decade was a pretty bleak one."  "The pro-choice movement didn't advance the ball down the field, and even our defensive maneuvers didn't work so well at times," she wrote.

Top on the list was one well-known Holy Grail for the abortion industry: repealing the Hyde amendment, the provision on federal appropriations bills that bans taxpayer funds from going to abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother's life.  The amendment, which has stood since 1973, must be re-approved on an annual basis.

Pro-life analysts have widely speculated that Hyde may be especially vulnerable to pro-abortion lawmakers under the Obama administration, which has already taken active steps to undo restrictions on abortion in federal legislation.

Most recently, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill on December 17 that - per President Obama's urging - repealed a long-standing ban on taxpayer funding for abortion in the nation's capital. The move is expected to result in the deaths of thousands of more children by abortion, according to statistics on the effect of taxpayer funding availability on the abortion rate.

Marcotte called the Hyde amendment a "travesty of justice."  "We need to start taking action to pressure legislators to repeal the Hyde amendment, and create the public will to do so," she wrote.

The next goal on Marcotte's list was to "institute comprehensive sex education in all public schools."  "Abstinence-only is a zombie that keeps coming alive, and we keep valiantly fighting to kill it," she wrote.  "But getting rid of abstinence-only - with its retrograde attitudes towards gender, homophobia, and blatant lies - is not enough. We need to demand that our kids get real sex education that will help them make healthy choices while also respecting their autonomy and individuality."

Marcotte also hoped the next ten years would replenish the thinning ranks of abortionists.  Advocates on both sides of the debate have acknowledged in recent years that younger doctors have largely shunned the practice, causing the average age of abortionists nationwide to creep steadily upward as the forerunners begin to die off.

"The average age of an abortion provider in this country is soaring upwards, and many doctors who deserve to retire and spend their days playing golf stay in the business because there's so many women who need abortions and so few people to provide them," wrote Marcotte.

"We need to find a way to get people with the right attitudes and the right skills into the business," she continued.  "Programs encouraging bright, young pro-choice people into medical school to train as ob-gyns who perform abortions is a good start. ... Perhaps a scholarship program for medical students who train to be abortion providers, or a debt forgiveness program for those doctors that provide abortion? There are endless possibilities, and we should undertake them."

Commenting on Marcotte's abortionist complaint, Students for Life Executive Director Kristan Hawkins said the trend was revealing.  "People don't go to medical school with the explicit reason, 'I want to kill babies' - it's not something you aspire to be."

"There's a reason why people don't want to become abortionists, is because you're killing human life," she added.

When LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) asked pro-life leaders about their wish lists for the decade, the top answer was simple: "end abortion."

"In ten years, I'd like to see abortion ended by that point," said Hawkins.  "I want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, and all the states to pass laws to protect the unborn ... let's just end this now, and we can move on to other issues."

In lieu of that, Hawkins called for the codifying of the Hyde amendment into permanent law, and ending state taxpayer funding of Medicaid abortions.

Contrary to Marcotte's take on preventative measures, pro-life blogger Jill Stanek put the increase of abstinence education on the top of her wish list, to snuff out abortion and illicit sexual behavior altogether.

In addition, Stanek told LSN, "My wish list would include a return to honest, objective scientific research" - noting the need for increased recognition of the abortion/breast cancer link and other physical harms to women from abortion, as well as honest exposure of such issues as embryo research and the dangers of hormonal contraceptives.

"My wish list would include a return to honest, objective journalism, so, for example, Planned Parenthood would be exposed as the evil organization it is," said Stanek.

On the political front, she hoped pro-abortion politicians would one day meet with defeat "because Americans decided abortion is so ghastly as not deserving of support, no matter what reason."

Contact: Kathleen Gilbert
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: January 5, 2010
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