AN INDEFENSIBLE STANCE ON ABORTION

In a decidedly ignorant editorial, "Frank Talk About Abortion," the New York Times overlooked reason and science in its myopic and irresponsible endorsement of abortion rights.

"But it must also be made clear that few understand its practical, heart-wrenching dimensions better than the doctors who perform the procedures," wrote the Times, "and the people fighting in a difficult political environment to preserve a woman's hard-won right to decide whether she will carry a pregnancy to term." This would dissuade some from restricting abortion rights because such decisions are ultimately made by medical professionals who know best, which couldn't be further from the truth.

Abortion is a multibillion dollar industry, and in abortion and women's clinics--where the majority of the procedures are performed--the only medical consideration necessary is whether the prospective patient can afford to pay for the abortion. The Times acts as if abortions are performed under sage medical counsel, when in fact they are elective procedures medically necessary less than 1 percent of the time.

Also unnerving is its perpetuation of the myth that a majority of Americans are pro-choice. In an August 2001 Gallup poll, 46 percent of Americans said they supported abortion rights, while an equal 46 percent said they were against them. These numbers may fluctuate by a couple percentage points, but there has been no seismic shift in public opinion. The Times is exploiting what must be a marginally slim difference in polling to mislead the world into believing all Americans are as libertine as New York Times editorial writers.

This blog minces no words when it comes to abortion, so the fact that it is a pro-life blog should come as no surprise. However, as an acquaintance of several rape victims, this blog understands the need for medical and moral exceptions. But by and large, abortions are both medically and spiritually unhealthy and morally abhorrent. Pro-lifers are caring, considerate people who immensely resent the uberjournalists at the Times portraying them as mouth-breathing, fist-dragging Neanderthals.

The Times has every right to disseminate its thoughtless propaganda culled from Planned Parenthood pamphlets in its editorial pages. What it is not justified in doing is deceiving its readers, which this shortsighted editorial has undoubtedly done.