Abortion

Abortion

Issues and information regarding abortion

Welcome to Ireland's most informative abortion website. What you need to know about abortion can be found on this site.

There are six sections in this site - each of which explores in detail the issues surrounding the abortion industry

Use the drop down menu or these links below 

 

FAQ's on Abortion

Q1. What is partial-birth abortion?

Partial-birth abortion is a late-term abortion procedure. In 1992, the National Abortion Federation sponsored a presentation by abortionist Martin Haskell entitled, "Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion." In the presentation, Haskell graphically described the partial-birth abortion technique, known in the medical community as dilation and extraction (D + X).

The initial step in performing a partial-birth abortion involves two days of dilating the mother's cervix. Afterward, the abortionist uses an ultrasound probe to locate the lower extremities of the unborn baby. He then works large grasping forceps through the mother's vaginal and cervical canals and into her uterus.

The abortionist grasps a leg of the infant with the forceps and pulls the leg into the mother's vagina. "With a lower extremity in the vagina, the surgeon uses his fingers to deliver the opposite lower extremity, then the torso, the shoulders and the upper extremities. The skull lodges at the internal cervical os," Haskell explained.

While clutching the baby's shoulders, Haskell continued, the abortionist then "takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors. . . . He carefully advances the tip, curve down, along the spine and under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the tip of his middle finger. . . .

The surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull. Having safely entered the skull, he then spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening. The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents. With the catheter still in place, he applies traction to the foetus, removing it completely from the patient."

Q2. Why do we show the evidence of aborted children?
Why do we even publish such ugly pictures? For the same reason that people publish pictures of Nazi concentration camps. For the same reason that television stations used to broadcast pictures of napalm victims in Vietnam. Because these pictures are accurate depictions of what is going on 50 million times a year across the world. Because they are the evidence that a child did exist, a child who was brutally murdered and violated.

Part of the message of these pictures is this: before you decide your position on abortion, know what abortion does! If you decide to support the pro-choice position, you should know that this is what you are in favor of allowing women to choose, and doctors to execute.

Even if abortion were neat and clean, quick and painless, it would still be a horror, for any killing of an innocent human being is a horror. The ghastly methods depicted in these pictures add to the horror; and contemplating the results of abortions helps us to grasp the horror of any abortion.

Q3. What is post-abortion syndrome
Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS) is at present understood to be a type of post-traumatic stress disorder. Its outward manifestations such as postnatal depression, suicidal behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, marriage and family breakdown, child neglect and abuse, domestic violence, depression, anxiety attacks, compulsive disorders and other mental health problems are increasingly evident in our communities today.

Melbourne psychiatrist Dr Eric Seal, who defined PAS as "a delayed or slow developing, prolonged and sometimes chronic grief syndrome" stated: "The post-abortion syndrome is not like a more severe form of postnatal blues. It is far more serious, more delayed in onset, more lasting and more fundamentally involved in subsequent personality development."

He also said that "If the syndrome persists and is not treated adequately, personality changes will gradually emerge and affect one's family life, one's working capacity, and one's social and recreational potentials to say the least."

Symptoms of PAS can include

 

Q4. How can abortion ultimately cause breast cancer?
Almost all of the risk factors which are known to increase the risk of breast cancer are associated with some kind of excess exposure to the main female sex steroid hormone, oestrogen. The theory on how this works in an abortion is quite simple. The biggest surge of oestrogen occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Oestrogen goes sky high. That's okay because although it stimulates the growth of the breasts, toward the end of the pregnancy other hormones kick in that make the breast tissue mature, which also kills off cells that are not needed. Once the mature cells are (ready) to produce milk, they are not in a growing mode.

Consequently they are much less likely to be subject to the mutogenic or initiating effects of carcinogens, (the substances that produce cancer). The carcinogens will affect cells which basically can grow.

Q5. What is femincide?
It is no secret that many societies place a much higher value on male children than on female children. In China, baby boys are greeted as a "big happiness;" baby girls are a "small happiness." A traditional Hindu bridal blessing says "May you be the mother of a hundred sons." Indian parents blow horns, have big parties, and give the midwife a large tip if she delivers a boy. If she delivers a girl, she guiltily slinks out the back door. In China, India, and many other Eastern countries, there is far more emphasis on the extended family than there is in the West.

It is natural for children to care for their parents when they are no longer able to care for themselves. Therefore, boys are seen as an asset because they guarantee that the parents will not become destitute or be abandoned in their old age. Boys are also able to labor in the fields if they stay with the family.

On the other hand, girls are considered liabilities because they require a dowry and then leave the family to care for their husbands and children. The prejudice against women in these societies is pervasive and extreme in many instances. Women must endure conditions unheard of in the West. The result of this attitude is quite predictable.

In China, Korea, and India, the abortion of girls has exploded. In 1985, the world sex-ratio average for newborns was 102.5 boys per 100 girls; in Korea it was 117 to 100. The situation in Korea became so intolerable that it is now illegal for doctors to reveal the gender of preborn babies to parents in that country.

Q6. Should we allow abortion for babies at risk from HIV?
It has been said that an unborn baby contacting HIV whilst in utero should be aborted to prevent the "child suffering terribly later." Common sense should tell you that this is a ludicrous idea as nothing can compare to the horrific suffering a child goes through during an abortion. However, such questions do merit serious contemplation in order that we can develop a truly compassionate pro-life stance on the issue.

Firstly, let us look at the evidence. The risk of an unborn child contacting HIV virus from a positive mother is only 25% (Centre for Disease Control, USA, March 1987). However, all babies born to HIV positive mothers will test positive at birth, not because they themselves have the virus, but because they are passive recipients of their mothers' antibodies.

(Remember a diagnosis of HIV status is made on the presence of antibodies produced by the baby to fight the virus, not on the basis of the virus itself). In time, as the infant's own immune system develops, 75% of them will no longer need their mother's antibodies as they do not have the virus.

This is why it is especially important for women to be tested for HIV early in pregnancy. Research for the National Institutes of Health (1996) report that the HIV anti-viral drug AZT could keep a mother from passing HIV onto her unborn child. (Gorman, Time) In this study, three times as many HIV-infected babies were born to untreated mothers as were born to mothers given the AZT medication.

Preventing HIV in unborn babies is important because their immune systems are very immature when they are born. HIV makes them sicker than adults at a fast rate.

 



Twitter StumbleUpon Toolbar