posted August 29, 2008
I read the article on Chattanoogan.com about the abortion clinic not opening in Hixson and waited for someone to put in an opinion about it. It is with great reservation I speak out about the need for a clinic in Chattanooga since when going to work I had total support from other nurses and then heard "Pam Killen is going to get shot." Well....every dog has it's day and I never go down not fighting.... so here it is.
Let's talk about Charles Wysong, David Fowler and Toby Solberg who were mentioned in the article. Why are men fighting against the right for women to choose what happens to their body? The Bible always seems to be a good way to make sure the people you want to control has a reason behind it. And that is their basis for their argument. It can be interpreted a million ways.
When are these men going to realize that not having a clinic in Chattanooga only hurts women and holds them down. My argument is that women who have limited means need to be able to have a choice in their own lives and bodies and don't need to be harassed by Bible thumpers when they make a very hard decision.
Many people commented on the newscast I did, and most were in my favor. What stands out is that many had the opinion that pro lifers don't really see what happens down the road with these children who are born and may be not willing to really take a hard look at the life of a child and mother who didn't get a choice because there is no clinic here. They seem to have no problem showing shock videos etc., but do they really stick around to see what happens years later? Do they provide help and support beyond the decision to not have an abortion?
I believe you can go into any poor area of Chattanooga and find that answer. There is an agenda, based on religion, that pretends that all people in Chattanooga believe that pro-life is always the best choice. I argue that simply isn't true.
Why are we, as women, listening to men, who will never make this hard choice, speak out for us in a public arena, pretending they speak for Chattanooga? It is not true.
I personally want A Preferred Women's Health Center in Chattanooga. I think it's needed and wanted. And I'll personally stand against any man who thinks it's not, I won't stand behind my teenagers who have to wash cars to raise money for the cause.
Pam Killen
* * *
Ms. Killen,
As a man I applaud your right to speak your mind in America. It may be wrong-headed, but you have the right so no one should think you should be shot. That is crazy. Speak up and let people know your opinion.
However, abortion is not a women’s issue soley. There was a man involved and both of them made poor choices that conceived a human life.
You scream for the rights of the woman, but what about the rights of the child? You have to make that baby a non-human being in order to kill it. So, as a man, I am not trying to step on the rights of women. I am married to one for heaven’s sake, but I will stand toe to toe with you on the right that child has to live. No one should conveniently murder a human life because it will make partying on Friday night difficult. Too bad you have to baby sit and stay home.
If you are going to play the game, then you better be ready to pay the price. Pro-life is not against women; it supports both the woman 'and' the child.
I know you find the Bible to be archaic and boring, but it is the Word of God. It does not matter whether you believe it is or not - that does not change the fact that it is. We cannot as a civilized society condone the murder out of convenience of human life.
It is a mark of moral pride that one of these death clinics has been kept out of Chattanooga. I would rather stand with life than with rights.
Cliff Sarbel
* * *
Pam Killen's pro-choice argument that those who oppose abortion don't see "what happens down the road" is flawed at best. Nobody can say what will happen "down the road" for a child that is wanted or one that was unwanted.
What factors are under consideration here? Poverty? Lack of love for the child? Disabilities? No child born into any environment can be promised a life devoid of such things. People in the most wretched environments can potentially rise to greatness just as those born into the most ideal conditions wind up among the lowest ranks of society.
As for the argument that others are making a decision regarding the woman's body, most pro-lifers are fighting for the the child's body, not against the woman's. An unwanted pregnancy need not end in abortion. There are options a woman has to surrender the child upon his or her birth.
It would serve the pro-life cause well to work to support adoption and the ongoing care of children surrendered by women who wish not to raise a child.
Michael Rhudy
Rossville
* * *
It was September of 1995 and I was 25 years old; I was also in my first trimester of my second pregnancy. Unlike my first pregnancy, I was in pain all the time. My insides felt as if there was a knife lodged in them and every movement was excruciating. It hurt to stand, it hurt to sit down, it hurt to walk, it hurt to recline, it hurt to lie down. It hurt. All the time.
After the first month, I stopped sleeping. After the second month, I stopped eating. No matter what I did, the pain remained constant. I refused to take anything stronger than an occasional aspirin (I'm paranoid about things like that when I'm pregnant) and constantly badgered my OB/GYN about what could be the cause of such unrelenting, constant pain.
My husband walked around with bags under his eyes, worry gnawing at him. Then it happened - I collapsed at work one night. I couldn't get up. All I could do was lie on the floor and scream while fluid dribbled and pooled beneath. An ER visit and an ultrasound showed nothing wrong. Everything was still in place, nothing looked wrong, and they couldn't explain the pain. I saw my OB/GYN the next day and she told me that I wouldn't be able to work again until after the baby was born. Still, though, no explanation for the pain. I was put on indefinite bed rest.
My husband and I didn't make very much money, but the money that I made was necessary. If I couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to feed the daughter we already had. If I couldn't work, we wouldn't be able to make the house payments. If I couldn't work, we couldn't survive.
For a week, I cried. I knew what I had to do, but I did not want to do it. Not because some mythical extraterrestrial invisible being in the sky would pass judgment on me for what I was thinking at the time or send me to a mythical place of torment for all eternity after I was dead and gone.
I hold no truck with any tract that says it's OK to stone your children for being disobedient or that it's OK to sell your daughters into slavery because they're just girls and girls don't matter. I need no words of men long dead and forgotten that presumed to speak for some mythical sky entity to tell me what's right and wrong. That's like believing in the tooth fairy. I don't, by the way. No, I didn't want to do it because that life inside me, no matter how painful, was the result of the love that I and my husband share. It was special to me. Precious.
But I was in agony every second of every moment of every day. I'm not good with pain. I never have been. But I stuck with it, I kept going... until I just couldn't anymore. That was my failure. That failure coupled with the financial burden...
So, I made a choice. I talked to my husband about it, in depth and for a long time but, in the end, that choice was not my husband's choice. He supported me in it and he weighed in on it but, in the end, that choice was mine. And I made it.
He took me to a place in Atlanta that we could barely afford. He waited for me. And, when it was over, he took me home. And all I did was cry. I'm still crying, really. I look back on it and all I can see is my own weakness, my own inability to cope. I traded that physical pain for one much deeper, one much worse, one that will be with me always.
But I made the choice. It wasn't an easy choice. It had nothing whatsoever to do with partying on Friday nights. It had nothing whatsoever to do with my own personal freedom of movement or freedom to be whatever I wished to be. It may not have been the right choice, either. But it was 'mine'. It wasn't convenient, it wasn't pretty, and it wasn't dictated to me by a group of men that have been dead for two centuries that claimed to be speaking for "god". While I did not like making that choice, I will support the rights of any woman that is called on to make such a difficult choice.
Pro-life isn't about the woman. It isn't about the child, either. It's about fanatics. Fanatics that like to bomb abortion clinics because their mythical god told them to; in much the same way that other fanatics took two planes and drove them into towers in NYC because their god told them to. Pro-life is about telling other people how they should live. It's about control. It's about making other people do what you think is right, no matter what the circumstance. It's about sitting in judgment on others. My morals aren't your morals and my morals should not dictate what yours should be - no more should yours dictate mine.
The rights we cling to are what makes life precious. The rights we cherish are what makes us free. No one's rights should be trampled upon, no matter the circumstance. Even though that choice is a choice I regret and wish that I never had to make, I support the rights of other people to be able to make that choice for themselves. I fully support an abortion clinic for the city of Chattanooga. I will stand and march for such a cause if I am asked to do so. I would volunteer my free time to such a worthy and necessary cause.
And I quote the King James version of the bible, the Gospel according to Saint Matthew: "Judge not, that ye be not judged... For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
The mythical invisible sky being doesn't like it when you usurp his/her/its supposed job.
S.L. Minton
Chattanooga
* * *
It's extremely sad to see pro-life extremist using so much time and energy trying to prevent a place where women may seek abortion from coming to Chattanooga. Most of these pro-lifer's have never faced an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy or experienced life as a struggling single mom. Over and over I have seen anti-choicer's say, if you were irresponsible enough to get pregnant, you should face the consequences. But should a child really be a consequence.. a punishment? Then I hear over and over, just choose adoption.
Obviously it is not realistic to expect every woman with an unplanned pregnancy to put her child up for adoption. Adoption is a very difficult and wrenching process that takes a very special and strong woman to go through nine months of pregnancy, to then watch their child leave with another family. Like it or not, many times this is much harder than ending a newly discovered pregnancy before attachments are made. Even if all women with unplanned pregnancies did give their children up for adoption, there are just not enough adoptive families to take on the 1,000,000's of children that would be born every year from planned pregnancies.
Many children would be put into group homes with no stable parents or home environment. What an incredibly unfair thing to do to a child and a sad way to grow up. And what of the older children and teens waiting for homes? Would they be all but forgotten? We already have a huge number of kids waiting for homes, and fosters would be overrun and overburdened. The children not put up for adoption would be going home with parents whom many of which are going to spend the next 18 years struggling to keep their head above water emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially. How do you think this affect kids?
Pro-lifers need to realize that the fetus that they are fighting so hard to "save" becomes a child that will most likely one day need "saving" and who will be there then? Abortion is an ugly thing, it's a sad, difficult, emotionally and physically draining procedure. But for the majority of women who choose it, they are truly doing what's best for the fetus and them self.
No one likes abortion or enjoys such a thing, but there are things worse in life than death before birth.. and that's a life of suffering. Women are always going to choose how their pregnancies end, regardless of what the laws are. A life should be brought into the world because it's wanted, not because it's forced. I do not want to see families losing mothers and women losing their life to illegal abortions. Until their are better options for pregnant women, abortion will always be a necessary evil. I for one will keep my fingers crossed that we are able to open a clinic here for those women most in need.
Brittany Golden
Hixson
brittany.golden@yahoo.com
* * *
To Ms. Minton,
The purpose of this response is not to comment on the morality of abortion. My response is in defense of Christians. Not all people with belief in God and Christ are fanatical. Not all "sit in judgment" of your decision to exercise your right provided to you by the law of this country. You made your choice, and I agree that it was entirely your (with your husband) choice to make.
What I take issue with is your deriding remarks about Christians, the "extraterrestrial invisible being," and "mythical God." Believe what you like, Ms. Minton, regarding the existence of God and the salvation Christ provides us all; that too is a right provided to you by the law of this country; but please know that comments such as these are insulting and are not taken lightly by those of us who do believe.
Like you, we will defend our choices-- fiercely-- to the end. You asked not to be judged, quoting one of the Bible's most famous passages on the subject. By that request, I assume that you do not want your lawful choices morally judged, your beliefs mocked, and would prefer that belittling quips on the topic to be kept to one's self. I respect that. I ask the same courtesy of you.
Katy Hollingsworth
* * *
I'm so sorry that this Mr. Charles Wysong and whatever followers he's gathered, are intent on staying out of touch with reality. I have no dog in the abortion fight but I feel there's a voyeur on the loose and I'd like to point that out.
The American Rights Coalition has no web presence, so I can't find out much about them online. Anytime an organization claims to help women with "emotional, medical and legal problems after abortion", and it's headed by a man, I feel there's a voyeur playing some serious head games with people.
Here's the deal: The best numbers I can find say that there are about a million abortions a year in the U.S. There's somewhere around forty million women in this land that have had abortions.
Anyone trying to convince people that all forty million of those women are suffering emotional damage is a deluded nut.
There is a certain type of man who would sell sorrow to the weak minds among those women. Under cover of compassion such a man would try to draw these women near and gratify himself in a perverse way by validating their emotional turmoil.
Railing against abortion is a very fertile ground for sick minds. These sick minds play upon weaker and underdeveloped minds. Notice how they're gathering the teenagers to their cause?
You can ferret these types out when they start their rap about "killing babies" and "abortion is murder". Look, people, if abortion were murder it would be first-degree conspiracy murder, and the perpetrators (a woman and her doctor) would be deserving of the death penalty.
Is there one among you who thinks, if justice were served, forty million American women and their doctors should face execution? Only someone who can answer "yes" to that question truly believes abortion is murder.
Let the abortion debate continue forever. I have no dog in the fight. I understand the arguments on both sides.
My qualm is against the extremists and the voyeurs on the far right fringe of the issue who peddle guilt and try to inflame and harvest weaker minds while heralding themselves as saviors of women, babies and society. Sane people on both sides of the issue should be wary of these types and recognize them for what they are.
David Saluk
aluk22@yahoo.com
* * *
The reason for my support for an abortion clinic springs from a somewhat different place than most of you. I am almost 75 (born in 1934). I lost my mother at the age of nine months - as result of a botched backroom abortion. She was married at a young age, became the mother of at least seven children, and was pregnant yet again in 1935 (depression years). Her decision was not about partying - it was about survival - emotionally, physically, and yes, financially. Many ladies face the same situation today.
Had legalized abortion been an option for my mother, I would have been blessed with having a real mother as I grew up, would have seen her lovely face, heard her beautiful voice, benefited from her guidance, and the lifelong void in my heart would have never existed.
People, please listen. None of us have the answer for other people's lives. Direct your judgement to your own life and let God handle all else. That's his job! An abortion clinic could also serve to save and even enhance lives.
Joyce Gann Fox
Redbank
* * *
Did you ever wonder why there are not enough workers to fuel the Social Security system? Why there aren’t enough men and women in the working force to support individuals who are retired or retiring and in need social security from a system that does not have enough money to support them?
It is because millions of potential workers were never given a chance to grow up, they were aborted. Ever wonder if one of those aborted babies might have been the one, who if allowed to be born and grow up, to discover a cure for cancer or AIDS? It is something to think about.
God in his infinite wisdom provides, but man in his ignorance creates laws in direct opposition to God’s will and in the end ends up undermining himself.
Marlyn Robinson
Brainerd
* * *
I feel that an abortion clinic should not be in Chattanooga, and for many of the same reasons that others have stated. I feel that I may be able to add some insight that has not been shared on this topic yet though.
I am adopted, as are my two sisters(neither are sisters by blood). I have heard it suggested that women who make poor decisions should live with their decisions, and I'm thankful that my birth mother was strong enough, and selfless enough to do this. There is no doubt in my mind that my birth mother felt tremendous pain. Not only because she was only 16 and I weighed 11 lbs. 5 oz. when I was born, but also because she was shunned by many in her community.
Yes, it would have been much easier to go to a clinic, and kill me, a living being that has turned into a man who is more than grateful for the opportunity I have on this earth. I am thankful that that "mystical entity in the sky" gave my birth mother the strength and courage that so many women lack, so that I could be typing this right now.
How foolish it sounds to me when people say things like, "You're not thinking about the child and the life they will have to live." So, let me get this straight, the people who kill babies are the humanitarians, and those fighting to save their lives are the ones not thinking about their well being? This seems to be the most senseless line of reasoning I've ever heard.
Now my birth mother did not know what would happen to me in my life, but she gave me the opportunity to live. I often hear people say, "I don't care if I fail, I just want the chance." And that's what having a baby is all about, giving the child a chance.
I have known many adopted children, as well as children in foster programs, and no matter how different the life stories are there is one common theme - "I'm glad I have this opportunity." I have been blessed because I grew up with great parents who loved me as their own child, but I have also known people who have not been as fortunate as me.
You know what though? None have said, "I wish my mom just would've had an abortion." I can tell you this much, I would rather be homeless now, living in extreme poverty, than I would be dead. From this I can infer that I would rather grow up in group homes and foster care than be dead. In fact, a gentleman that I just finished working with for 10 months grew up in group homes, and while he said it was obviously tough at times, it wasn't that bad. He is now a successful person, who gives back to the community. I'm jumping around a bit, but I wanted to get one point across - give the child a chance.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you're doing someone a favor by killing them. That is ludicrous. My birth mother admittedly considered having an abortion, and I'm so very thankful she didn't. My sisters feel the same way. As do at least 30 people that I personally know of in Chattanooga.
If you're out there, Patricia - thank you. Thank you for giving all the women who think abortion(killing innocent people) is some kind of entitlement, an example of what any person can do if they are selfless enough.
Tyler Fordice
* * *
I have to say first of all, I have absolutely no stake in this debate. I was honestly reading this just out of curiosity.
What amazes me is the response by Marlyn Robinson. Are you actually trying to pin the problems with Social Security on abortion? And these women having abortions are the reason we have no cure for AIDS or cancer?
If there was no abortion, maybe someone would have found Osama Bin Laden. If abortion was illegal, maybe the Mets would have a player to take them back to the series.
Basically, in Marilyn's eyes, all the world's problems could be solved by an aborted fetus if we just gave it a chance.
John W. Morgan
Hixson
johnwmorgan@gmail.com
* * *
Never have I read so many comments from misguided women who even contradict themselves in their own letters. There will never be an easy solution to abortion clinics until women get at least a thimble full of morals and spiritual conviction.
First we have a nurse whose afraid someone will kill her because of her views on abortion. My thinking is about the only way to get killed for saying what you think is to tick off a drunk with a gun in his hand, or pull one on a cop.
Secondly, they keep referring to "their body". Well, it's not theirs no more than mine is mine. The Bible says your body is the temple of the Lord, and you're to do nothing to destroy it (that also includes unborn children, by the way). Which includes smoking, drinking in excess, gluttony, and a host of other things we do to ourselves we will be accountable for.
Another lady describes her pain, and financial burden, and I feel sorry for her, but she already had one child, knew about the pain, and knew her financial situation before she made the choice. Does that mean if the one she has comes in one day hungry wanting a snack or dinner, and Mom has a migraine or some other terrible pain, it's OK to call a neighbor or friend and ask them to kill this child because her pain is so bad or food is too expensive? They're both living beings the mother is commanded to care for by her mythical guy in the sky she doesn't believe in, yet she closes her letter with scripture from the Bible written by (her words) guys who have been dead 200 years. Then another speaks of the pain a mother would have watching another family drive away with a child she bore that was adopted. Was there any pain watching someone kill the child in her womb because it wasn't convenient?
For the life of me, I can't imagine a woman killing a child growing in her body when there are too many people wanting to adopt, people who will help out financially to the mother to get that child upon birth, adoption centers, children's homes and families who take kids in every day.
How many grandparents are raising children in Chattanooga today because parents didn't want them or can't afford them? There are folks out there if you just look for them.
My last comments come from a young lady I heard speak just a few months ago. Her mother was raped and wanted to have an abortion but didn't have the money. Her mother put her up for adoption and she grew up with a wonderful and thankful family. She is now a beautiful and successful young lady because her mother didn't abort her. Her last comment was "Why should I have to die for a crime my father committed?" That would also go with "why should I have to die because it wasn't convenient/"
Think about it. And, ladies, I don't dislike you and you're entitled to your opinions, just like me. But I just don't agree with you and I honestly wish you peace with the decisions you've made and make.
Arlos Dempsey
Walden
* * *
First off, we all have a choice in life with the exception of the life that is taken. You have a choice to use birth control or not use birth control. You have a choice to kill a baby or not.
The comparison of all Pro-Life believers to fanatics is another justification by Ms. Minton and others that because you believe a life begins at conception automatically makes you a crazed lunatic. The real truth is, the biggest supporters of abortion are feminists and women who live recklessly or have killed an unborn child at sometime during their life.
I, like many single parents, have had to face difficult decisions at one time or another. Something I learned as a child was that what separates the winners from the losers are the decisions we make and the way in which we handle adversity. I completed my education while pregnant and worked at the same time. I have friends who were adopted at birth. If their parents had chosen to have them chopped up and extracted with a vaccuum cleaner they would not be here today. I have walked in your shoes, and instead of taking the easy way out, I chose the narrow path. When I look into my children's eyes, I have no doubt that I did the right thing.
For those who say only men are Pro-Life need to open their eyes and see that responsible women, who are accountable for their body and their actions, represent a vast majority of those who believe abortion is murder.
While there are circumstances when this terrible, evil, procedure might be justified, I also know many women who have had abortions simply because their lack of responsibilty had caused an inconvenience they did nto want to cope with.
Giselle Denton
Chattanooga
giselle.denton@yahoo.com
* * *
This is in response to John's post:
Are you aware of how the Social Security system works? Retired people are supported by the working people who pay into Social Security. Are you telling me that it does not make sense that if the 40 million people who have been aborted since Rowe Vs. Wade were around working and paying into the social security system, that it would provide the needed funds for those who are retired?
I firmly believe that God's will is perfect and God has given man an instruction manual, The Bible. Abortion is against God's laws. God does not make mistakes and I have heard many people state that they do not understand how a kind and loving God could allow such horrible disease and from the very same people comes the statement, why doesn't He (God) do something about providing a cure.
So who are you or I for that matter, to judge whether or not one of the aborted human beings was going to be the one to come up with the cure for Cancer or AIDS? They just didn't have the chance to grow up and become what God intended them to be, because their mother made the choice to go against God's will and end their life before it began.
Now you may or may not believe in God, but you cannot dispute that the Bible does not condon abortion. It is definitely against God's will.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. No, abortion does not figure into God's plan for his children.
Marlyn Robinson
* * *
If God wiped away all of these tears, and flew me far, far away from here, in my heart you'd still near. Now, after many years and a lot more tears, you're still the dear to my soul.
Over this pain I have no emotional control. And though you'll never have a chance, no, not even a glance, of the life you were deprived of, I will remember you in all that I do, in this life and the next.
Johnny Hurst
Father who didn't have a choice
Harrison
johnnyhurst@yahoo.com
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