There are certain topics I can’t write about, and the trial of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell has been one of them. If I did I’d have to add a category to my blog “pure evil,” but that’s not the reason. I haven’t been able to write about it because I haven’t been able to read about it. There are certain actions that are so heinous, so vile, and being at heart an incredibly sensitive person I have to protect myself. It’s the same reason why I’ve never seen Schindler’s List. I don’t have to. I have studied the Holocaust and seen enough films, photos and first-hand accounts of barbarism to not need to see historically-based re-enacted horror. It’s the same thing with abortion. I know how the procedures are performed and when, and I have seen pictures of trash cans full of dead children in the past. I don’t need to subject myself to the torment of Gosnell’s actions to appreciate their heinous nature.
Yet I believe cases such as his need to be publicized and the fact the mainstream media had to be shamed into covering it by liberal columnist Kirsten Powers at the Daily Beast only plays to the Right Wing’s narrative that the mainstream media is biased against anyone who holds opinions counter to the liberal orthodoxy, particularly in regard to abortion.
I am Pro-Life, but I am also pro-choice when it comes to first term abortions. I find the old view of pregnancy known as quickening whereby there isn’t any definitive line between when a baby becomes a baby; instead it’s a process where with each passing day a life-form becomes a human being. Where is the line between being a life-form and a baby? There isn’t one, just as there is no line between when a person is a child and when she becomes an adult. So using Plan B to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting is much less of a moral issue to me than vacuuming out a 3 week old embryo with a heart beat, which itself is preferable to other methods used in the later stages of pregnancy. Some murders are worse than others, and those occurring in the second and third trimesters are particularly heinous.
A poor analogy would be the difference between killing a mouse in your kitchen versus a stray dog in your backyard. Where the irony comes in is how many people who champion abortion rights would be horrified to stomp a mouse in their kitchen and would seek out a “humane trap” at the local Home Depot to catch and release the mouse at a nearby park, and call the Dog Catcher to catch the dog and perhaps work to arrange its adoption to keep it from being euthanized at the animal shelter. These are the modern Janists, vegans, animal rights activists and others who can’t kill insects or animals yet have no problem killing children they cannot see.
Everyone has contradictory attitudes and experiences cognitive dissonance as a result to varying degrees, and I am no different. I love animals yet I eat meat. I keep chickens because they are interesting to watch and I don’t eat them, yet that doesn’t stop me from whipping up a chicken stir-fry for dinner as I did last night with dead bird I bought at a local butcher. But when I have had to, I have killed animals. I have wrung the necks of chickens who were dying a painful death after being attacked by hawks, and provided quick and relatively painless deaths for animals I have found dying in misery. I have blood on my hands, but not on my guns. Although I have them and it might be easier to use them to put down a suffering animal, I do not want the guns to “taste” blood. I have Irish and Slavic blood, and both ethnic groups are known for being superstitious, and I want my metal, inanimate but dangerous things to remain “pure” unless I absolutely have no choice but to use them. Yeah, go figure…
I could never perform an abortion myself, and if my daughter became pregnant I would raise the child as my own, just as I have taken responsibility and fixed the (much lesser in degree) mistakes my son has made. But I do not trust the government with laws. The government cannot even handle a stamp drawing contest, yet Americans expect it to write laws that can guide and prohibit human behavior. Just as every drug has side effects every law has unintended consequences and someone somewhere someday will pay a very high price for that law, which is why I believe laws should be as few in number and well-written as possible. Because of this I believe banning abortion outright is a very bad idea, although I support repealing Roe v. Wade, a poorly written law based on an imaginary constitutional right, and would rather see the states or even local municipalities decide on the legality of the practice. That solution doesn’t exactly fit my own personal world view, but it’s as close to consistent as I can make it and I am continuing to refine it as I go along.
Gosnell, a 72 year old black man, has probably killed more black people than any Klansman, Confederate soldier or slave owner in history. I don’t know how many abortions he has performed in his career, but judging by what I’ve been able to stomach reading, the number would likely be in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands. A true racist would treat Gosnell as a hero: in their way of thinking he has has prevented tens of thousands of criminals and welfare recipients. In fact had he been white I suspect that mainstream media would have delved into his racist intentions because a white man killing black babies would be too hard for even the liberal media to resist.
Why Gosnell did what he did only he knows. He did not testify on the stand but it’s clear that he profited handsomely from his abortion mill. Perhaps he was a self-hating black man who felt he was doing yeoman’s work ridding the world of his own kind one snip at a time. I suspect he enjoyed his work as evidence by some of the mementos (like a jar full of baby feet) he kept around the office, and by the fact that people do not last long in a position where they are doing something they do not enjoy doing that goes against their principles. Perhaps like many people he doesn’t have any principles. After all he was originally busted for dispensing pain medications to addicts, many of whom killed themselves or others while high. Perhaps in his defense he never killed spiders he found around his house, instead putting them in the basement as I do. But I doubt it. And regardless History is replete with madmen and dictators of the utmost brutality who nevertheless showed a sensitive side. Stalin was a devoted grandfather and checked his granddaughter Svetlana’s homework nightly, but that shouldn’t erase the memories of the tens of millions he ordered killed.
The children who died at Gosnell’s hands have been ignored for a very long time, but not any longer. I pity the prosecution who had to build this case and the jury of common people like me who had to sit through it. Thanks to their effort Justice may be ignored, but it can never be silenced forever.
