“Partial-Birth-Abortion” Ruling Kills Women

By DAVID OKRENT

NEW YORK, November 1 — Congress is again debating a bill banning partial-birth abortions. This sweeping legislation would deny women their right to terminate their pregnancies within one to three months before birth. A fundamentalist Christian doctor from a prominent anti-choice foundation claimed before Congress that brain waves, a heart beat, and complete organ systems were clear indications that the fetus is its own human being, and that anesthesia given to the mother during the procedure is nowhere near the level needed to induce a painless death in the fetus. He further argued that if a fetus is a human being, it is entitled to rights under the Constitution. The passage of this ban would open the way for increased deaths of women seeking to curb the loss of their control over their bodies by visiting unregulated and unsafe back-alley abortion clinics for lateterm procedures. Several hundred women protested outside the Capitol during the deliberations. Some of the protestors displayed coat hangers, to indicate the risky measures into which legislators will force women needing to terminate their pregnancies. Others decried the current administration with chants referring to Mr. Bush as “repressive” and “fascist.”

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NJO: Originally printed on the cover of Issue 1 of the Centurion in November 2004. The cover design took the form of a mock New York Times with a bunch of parody articles like this one, which I single out for its exceptional ugliness of sentiment and the according ugliness of character which it reveals its writer to have. The pseudonym "David Okrent" is probably a reference to Daniel Okrent, the first "public editor" of the New York Times. Whoever wrote it, James was evidently happy enough with it to publish it on the cover of his new zine, so it can reasonably be taken as an expression of his own feelings on the subject.