The following excerpt comes from an interview published May 21 in the Washington Post.

Congress is weighing a law for the District that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks gestation. Willie Parker, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, is a doctor who has performed late-term abortions….

Sarah Kliff: What do these laws mean for abortion providers? I know the number of doctors who perform abortions has declined over the past few decades. Do you think that has to do with these kinds of restrictions?

WP: These laws put providers in a position where they have to turn away patients who have great need. I also think they create this impression that abortion providers are callous and allow people to conflate murder and abortion. People feel morally justified to say “this is wrong” because they’re led to think it’s close to murder. I think that jeopardizes us, by conflating abortion with an issue that would cause moral outrage.

To read entire story, Click here.

 

READER COMMENTS

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:32 AM By Ted
The idea that there can be “great need” of a late-term abortion goes way beyond absurdity. We’re usually talking a viable fetus, a baby. The survival of a child born at two pounds was once impossible, but medical science has made that possible. “Late term” needs to be redefined, and late term abortion in particular is a horror that can’t ever be allowed. Not that it’s worse than any other abortion, it isn’t. But it’s an easier step to outlaw it, and it’s already been ruled acceptable by the Supreme Court to outlaw abortion under those circumstances. While changing the minds and hearts of the people and government, we need to take what we can get.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:59 AM By Sandra
Abortion is Murder!

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 7:18 AM By MacDonald
“I think that jeopardizes us, by conflating abortion with an issue that would cause moral outrage.” Well, hello! Killing a human being in the womb SHOULD cause moral outrage. We’re not talking about a tumor here, or a facelift, or hair plugs.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 7:33 AM By WOODY GUIDRY
COULD cause moral outrage?

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:05 AM By Maryanne Leonard
“Led to think it’s close to murder?” As one who has been led, thanks be to God, I say it is very close indeed, so close as to be indistinguishable. One who has been aborted seems to be very murdered to me, as it certainly has died at the hands of another. Abortions are almost always a result of conspiracy to commit murder, and the offenders should be tried as co-conspirators, as they will be on Judgment Day.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:01 AM By Letty P
Willie Parker has a strong sadistic streak and a relentless greed.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:16 AM By JLS
An abortion counselor once told me that she realized abortion is murder, but said that it is necessary. Also, the leader of one of the abortion promoting groups, I recall it being “Catholics for Choice”, said she knew abortion is murder but that it must be done anyway. So, explaining to the abortion industry that abortion is murder has little if any effect on them. Remember that these leaders have weathered the baby saving community and risen to their positions at the head of the abortion altar of human sacrifice … extremely hardened souls. Idolatry is the last step before sodomy. This explains why this abortion crazed nation is also moving deep into institutionalized sodomy.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 10:42 AM By Elizabeth
Abortionists callous……..ya think so????? WELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!! With prayers everything is possible, pray that they cold, steely hearts will be made new.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:34 AM By k
Read the entire story. Click the link. Seriously.

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:40 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
From Webster’s Dictionary: Murder: 1 : the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought 2 a : something very difficult or dangerous *the traffic was murder* b : something outrageous or blameworthy *getting away with murder* THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT ABORTIONIST DO! God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:51 PM By Nightingale
K, I read the entire story. What’s your point?

Posted Wednesday, May 23, 2012 10:01 PM By Maryanne Leonard
Kenneth, you are so right. I wonder why we Catholics and some other Christians are some of the only people who seem to care about abortion anymore. I would have guessed, had I realized as a young girl that American social values would change so much, that doing away with the old and infirm would become acceptable sooner than the killing of babies. Once upon a time, before the birth control pill, we were thrilled when a woman was with child, seeing it as a blessing from above. People knitted little sweaters and embroidered little layettes, and loving hands made little quilts. Fathers built cribs and proudly passed out cigars (ugh!) to friends and strangers, and almost all married their children’s mothers long before children came along and supported their families with quiet dignity. Young people have lost more than clean air and birdsong everywhere; in fact, they have lost more than they can ever imagine, so sad to say. It wasn’t perfect back in the Olden Days, no, but it was so much better in terms of the simplest expectations of common decency and adult responsibility. Killing babies was such a shocking thought that the subject was closed before it was opened. Now I fear it is exactly the other way around with most people today. They even think they are not callous or murderous. Thank God for faithful Catholics and those who would never consider murdering their own children. Other than those right-thinking folks, we stand alone in our quaint, old-fashioned morality, keeping and caring for the blessings we are sent in the form of little ones and recognizing their humanity from the outset.

Posted Thursday, May 24, 2012 6:22 AM By MAC
See “ENDOWMENT for HUMAN DEVELOPMENT” on the internet. Killing of these innocent human beings is genocide. In the USA since 1973 there is an average of well over 1 MILLION abortions each year.

Posted Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:01 AM By k
Nightingale, the distorted thinking.

Posted Thursday, May 24, 2012 6:59 PM By Nightingale
K, again you’re not stating clearly what you mean. The discussion is about late-term abortions, that is an abortion done after 20 weeks. Do you think this or any other abortion is murder or not? I am of the mind that abortion at any stage is murder. But late-term abortion is frankly, inhuman. At 20 weeks a fetus is about 6.5 inches long; it fits in your hand, and is almost fully formed and MOVING. The late-term abortion entails delivering the baby feet first, and to quote NPR.org, “Using scissors or another sharp instrument, the head [is] then punctured, and the skull compressed…” Talk about distorted thinking! Look, life is messy; it’s unfair, and sometimes life is just plain tragic. Modern society wants life to be easy, fair, and neat. Abortion is used to tidy up mistakes. We might have the technology to get rid of babies that have bad timing or bad genetics, but it comes at a cost. When we treat human beings, not as those who bear the the image of God, but as a commodity (or worse, an accessory), we diminish all life, including our own. We also will answer to God. In this whole debate I never hear the question, “Where do aborted babies go?” They don’t disappear into the ether. They go before the throne of our Creator, and we all will face them at the end of time.

Posted Friday, May 25, 2012 11:14 AM By k
Nightingale, I am sorry. I took for granted that all who read here are pro-life. Yes, all abortions are murder. I said to read it because people should see how someone deludes themselves into thinking murder is an act of service or kindness. And to see the jargon that is used to euphemize the taking of a human life. Instead of posting the outragious comments I just said to read it. Every answer to every question is bizarre.

Posted Friday, May 25, 2012 2:26 PM By Nightingale
K, I agree with you completely. Words have meaning, and lately I’ve seen words twisted so mercilessly, it brings to mind the Scripture, Isaiah 5:20: calling evil good, and good evil. Even the description of late-term abortions: pro-life people rightly call it “partial birth abortion”; but pro-abortion people prefer the sanitized “dilation and extraction.” Extraction…like you’re having a tooth pulled! Really? And to think that deluded doctor went to medical school. I guess I shouldn’t be so shocked; Dr. Mengele went to medical school too. K, thank you for your comments.