Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site tove.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!tove!liz From: liz@tove.UUCP (Liz Allen) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: An abortion story Message-ID: <44@tove.UUCP> Date: Fri, 23-Nov-84 16:33:13 EST Article-I.D.: tove.44 Posted: Fri Nov 23 16:33:13 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Nov-84 20:59:15 EST Distribution: net Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 85 Below is a narrative of the first known video sonogram of a suction abortion of a ten-week-old unborn child. The documentary was presented by Dr Bernard Nathenson at the 1984 National Right To Life Convention held in Kansas City and is narrated by Gary Bergel. I have not seen the documentary (I'm not sure that I want to...). ------------ The film began as we watched the living, delicately formed and minutely detailed ten-week-old human being enjoying the comfort and security of its mother's womb. He rested, cradled and comforted in his "inner-space-capsule," stretched and performed graceful exercises, easily found his mouth and sucked his thumb. Then, his sanctuary had seige laid to it by an invading suction curette -- a plastic vacuum cleaner-type instrument, just a bit larger than a ball-point pen. For many minutes the abortionist thrust the curette through the cervix, gateway to the womb, and violently tried to break the amniotic sac, the "bag of waters" which harbored the little one. We could see that the small boy instinctively knew that he was under attack. With each thrust he would quickly react and retreat to the farthest "corner" of the womb, trying to keep the maximum distance between himself and the invading instrument of death. After each attempt, he would lie on his back and suck his thumb. His tiny heart beat frantically, sometimes at more than 220 beats per minute. Finally the suction curette pierced the amnionic sac. In an instant the waters were gone and the instrument was sucking the child's body apart. The child's face turned toward us, then turned upward while the tiny body arched in agony, the boy's mouth opened and seemed to utter an anguished, silent scream. His limbs were ripped off and then a part of his spine disappeared. His heart began to slow and then stopped. We watched him die. Quickly the dismembered remains were suctioned out, all but his head. It was too large to pass through the vacuum tubes. A pliers-type forceps, with locking ratchet teeth, was inserted. The skilled abortionist "hunted down number one," as the head-removing procedure is euphemistically termed by abortionists, and crushed it. The pieces flew through the tubes. A life was sucked away. The womb contracted and closed. He was gone. There are three things from this awful film I will never forget: the agonized, silent scream; the child dying; the horrible sound of the ratchet teeth as his head was crushed. ------------ There are a few things in this narrative that I want you to notice -- partly because people are in the habit of posting things contradicting these things... 1. The child is well formed -- not at all a "blob" or just tissue. And, at ten weeks, this is not an "older" abortion; some abortions are performed earlier, but most are performed at 10 weeks or later. 2. The child is animated -- he doesn't just sleep unaware of anything but seems quite active. 3. The child is aware of the attack -- he moves away from the instrument and as far away as possible. 4. The child reacts to pain and seems aware of his death -- the silent scream... I didn't post this to be gross or emotional -- even though this narrative is both these things. I posted it because if there was a window to the womb, abortion would be as unthinkable as murder. I think it says a lot (negative) about our society that at a time in which we know so much more about fetal development than ever before, we still don't consider abortion unequivocally wrong... -- -Liz Allen Univ of Maryland, College Park MD Usenet: ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz Arpanet: liz@tove (or liz@maryland) "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" -- 1 John 1:5