Category Archives: Abortion

The Peterson Verdict: Truth Reclaimed

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

December 20, 2004

Twelve people, ordinary citizens, accepted the ultimate challenge of a civilized society.  They sat through five months of grueling testimony in the Scott Peterson trial in order to defend truth.

There is something immediate and real about sitting in the jury box, examining bits of concrete, clothing, and recorded phone conversations, searching for truth.  When the prosecution passed the peasant maternity blouse thought to have been worn by Laci shortly before her murder, one juror burst into tears.  Literally touching the truth can be painful.

The Peterson verdict makes me think back to another trial I witnessed firsthand in 2001, where Dr. John Biskind was accused of letting his patient die.  Like Laci, his patient LouAnne was pregnant.

In order to prove their case against Dr. Biskind, prosecutors needed to prove the age of LouAnne’s baby.  Twelve jurors focused on a description of the proper use of ultrasound to measure the widest part of the baby’s temple, slightly above the eyes.  The expert witness assured them further measurements of the baby’s waist and femur could be used to confirm an estimated age.

The jury listened intently.  The truth seemed to be that LouAnne’s baby had been 25 to 26 weeks old, at the age of viability, when, under ordinary circumstances the baby could have survived outside the mother’s womb.  But these were not ordinary circumstances.

Scott Peterson and Dr. Biskind were both convicted by juries.  Both prosecutors won their cases.  Two trials, two mothers, two babies, and four deaths.   But oh, the difference in truth.

You see, as tragic as his death was, at least Connor had a name.  He is remembered in the hearts of people who wanted him, and he is honored by a nation who grieved when his little body was found on the shore of San Francisco Bay.  Laci’s baby was a victim.  And Scott will pay the price for his murder.

LouAnne’s baby was measured and counted and aged.  But he…or she…was never named.  Prosecutors in the Biskind trial were under a strict order from the judge not to make the trial about the baby.  Just figure out how old “it” was…and then move on.

Later in the trial, when prosecutors described the death of “it”, they explained how the broken leg bone of the baby could have ripped a hole in LouAnne’s uterus as the doctor pulled it out.  And the metal tool that broke the leg bone…and crushed the skull of “it”…that sharp metal tool might have cut into LouAnne and caused the uterine wound that made her bleed to death.

The Peterson trial was about two people, Laci and Connor, who each died a brutal death.

The Biskind trial was about one person, LouAnne…and “It”.  LouAnne died a painful and undeserved death, and Dr. Biskind was convicted of this crime.  “It” never died, because “It” was supposed to die.

When “It” was measured at the trial…her little head, her tummy, her legs and arms…she was a fully-formed picture on an ultrasound with a beating heart.  But when time came to describe her death in the trial, she became a fetus…a linguistic charade that snuffed out her humanity, a life summed up by a medical examiner in three words of dispassionate science…a “Product of Conception”…or more simply said…“It.”

Is this the truth that we require of juries?  Is the truth a matter of declaring what you want, even if the evidence proves otherwise?  If you name him Conner, then he was killed.  If she was only an “It,” then she never was…and she never died.

This week, just as Americans work to make peace with the conclusion of the Peterson trial, the brutal truth we work so hard to avoid has been savagely resurrected on the front page of national newspapers.

Another mother, Bobby Jo Stinnett, was murdered.  Her fetus?  Her product of conception?  Her “It”?  It lived.

Bobby Jo died.   But because someone wanted her fetus enough to kill her for it, to take it by force from the womb, a grateful father has been reunited with his baby…Victoria Jo Stinnett.

In Kansas, another jury will eventually convene in another trial, with another long trail of evidence leading to the conviction of a murderer.  And as the jury weighs the evidence of this unspeakable crime, our nation will once again be faced with a serious truth that refuses to die.

The definition of life is not fluid…changeable from one trial to the next…based on whether we wanted to receive the life…or not.  Life, like truth, exists of its own volition…separate from our juries and verdicts…life is.  And truth is.

No amount of evidence and testimony will ever be enough to reach truth if we close our eyes and hearts.  The greatest challenge for a jury in a civilized society is not to determine truth, but to open its eyes to the truth in plain sight…and accept it.

 

See Archives for past editorials.

June 25, 2004:  Unplanned Joy

December 10, 2004:  The Best Part of Snuggling

 

The Best Part of Snuggling

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

December 10, 2004

It is black outside.  Soft pits and pats against the window…rain…and I pull the blanket closer, sinking back into the arm of the recliner.  A hot cup of tea rests at my elbow.  It is my favorite time of the day.

In the darkness, I think back to other special mornings, twenty years ago.  Wrapped in my green plush robe, rocking back and forth, it was many a quiet dark morning when I would slowly sense the presence of another person.  My son, a toddler of three, had padded into the living room, up next to my chair, with his small eyes fixed on me.

Wordlessly, in agreement that the peace of the morning was large enough for both of us, I would open my robe.  Knowing what to do, he climbed onto my lap, and I pulled the robe around us, a snuggling of two.  In many a dark early morning, so many years ago, we kept the peace together.

Snuggling…it’s hard to know the best part.  Is it the dark, the quiet, the soft touch of a hand on the shoulder?  Is it protection, comfort, acknowledgement, relationship?  Safety?  Is it the promised assurance between human beings that what happens to you will happen to me because I share your heartbeat?

I was jarred to attention last week.  I was asked to consider the first time I ever snuggled, my earliest snuggle of life, and the question brought me up short.

Was it inside the warm white blanket wrapped around me as I was laid into the arms of my mother in the hospital?  Or was it later…close against her as she nursed me, her firstborn?  Maybe my father was the first to snuggle me, peering intently, measuring the smallest eyes and lips of a baby…his…held in the crook of his arm.

Maybe…but the magic of science has opened the window on snuggling, and I think it must surely have been weeks, even months before my birth, when I knew I was safe, a knowing of safety available to all living beings even before they can explain it in words.

Surely, weeks before birth, wrapped into a bundle of baby, between my bursts of pushing and kicking against the walls of the womb…surely there were quiet moments shared with my mother where we snuggled and dreamt.  Already at this stage I had fine hair, teeth, and eyelash fringes around eyelids that opened and closed…and opened again…for infant eyes that looked around.  When she spoke, I knew my mother’s voice…outside…serenading me as I waited my time.

Certainly, even weeks earlier, when the womb was large enough for me to swim and stretch and turn somersaults, I took time to rest and sleep and snuggle.  Inside my mother’s quiet belly, worn out from my infant gymnastics, curling my toes, I would have stuck my thumb into my mouth and felt the safety of darkness…protected and safe.

One thing is certain.  I know I snuggled long before I made my first appearance under bright hospital lights.  No matter what some want to claim I was back then…a blob, a mass of cells, an embryo, a fetus…a product of conception…I was, without a doubt, a flourishing child of my parents, thriving and growing.

Today, cloaked in a battle of terminology, creating labels devoid of humanity, there are those who wish us to forget that we once snuggled in the womb.  They will not have their way with me.

I claim my existence, refusing to be dehumanized at any stage of development.  Supported by the miraculous development of four-dimensional ultrasound, doctors and parents can follow the development of babies like me.  At eight weeks, I was fully formed, a human of one inch in length, every organ present, with a strong beating heart.

At nine weeks, my fingerprints were already engraved, and my fingers were ready to grasp an object placed in my palm.

At ten weeks, my body was sensitive to touch. I squinted and swallowed. I puckered my brow and frowned.

And then I smiled…at eleven weeks.  And if I could smile, it is certain that I smiled because I felt safe, snuggled inside, nurtured and protected…my life ahead to be enjoyed and cherished.

So many years later, watching the dawn break on the mountains outside the window, I follow the beads of rain that trickle down the glass.  Another beautiful day outside, crisp and damp.  The garden will sparkle when the sun breaks through the clouds.  I take a sip of tea and pull the blanket up under my chin.

My son is grown now, and I must snuggle alone.  It’s enough, but it’s not the best there is.

If there really is a best thing to snuggling, this would have to be it…revived by thoughts of long ago…a bundle wrapped together, two of us sharing the morning…the best thing of all surely being the promised assurance between human beings that what happens to you will happen to me…because I share your heartbeat.

 *************************************

DEDICATION 

This column is dedicated to the many committed educators who are not afraid to teach our children about their earliest days of life inside the womb.  May these faithful teachers be encouraged in their work.

 

See Archives for past editorials.

 June 25, 2004:  Unplanned Joy

Waxman Report: He Got What He Paid For

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

December 3, 2004

With great fanfare, this week Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca) released a report on sex education, “The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs.”  It purports to be an analysis of abstinence programs.

After poring through the 26-page document with a yellow highlighter, it became clear that “The Report” is the tip of an iceberg.  And as with all icebergs, the most tantalizing parts of the report lie under the water, out of sight, and unreported by mainstream news.  Get ready to take some depth soundings on what lies below.  It’s not a pretty sight.

Sounding One:  Henry Waxman ordered the report.  Why?  Because he wanted to.  Waxman’s own paid staff prepared the report…for their boss…who hires and fires them.

Sounding  Two:  Henry Waxman already knew what he wanted the report to say before he ordered it.  Since first elected in 1974, he has amassed a sizable and telling voting record.  Waxman receives a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW…earned for his steadfast support of abortion on demand and without restriction and of same-sex marriage.

“On the votes that the Planned Parenthood considered to be the most important from 1995 to 2001,” says Vote-Smart.org, “Representative Waxman voted their preferred position 100 percent of the time.”  Planned Parenthood has, from the beginning, stood vehemently in opposition to abstinence education funded by Congress and spends thousands of dollars each year lobbying against it.

Sounding Three:  As we dive lower into darker waters, reading “The Report” in the dim light…don’t expect any further information from Waxman or his staff.  They aren’t talking.  Well…you can call their media person…and IF she calls you back…well…I’m still waiting.

Sounding Four:  We are in the dark waters now, where it’s easy to hide an iceberg behind thick oily slicks of footnotes.  Indeed, at times in “The Report” there are more footnotes than report.  But we live in an age where it is possible to fill two pages with footnotes in defense of adults having sex with children.  We must keep our eyes on the berg.  What is “The Report” really about?

“The Report” claims a “scarcity of comprehensive sex education courses” and links this to lack of funding.  Hmmm.  What about the reported $254 million in government grants and contracts to Planned Parenthood for 2002-2003?  Or the $288 million in abortion/health clinic income for the same period?  Did the report attempt to identify funding streams that direct money to Planned Parenthood and others, available for their condom-based sex education?  I called Waxman’s office to inquire…and left a message…I’m still waiting.

“The Report” attempts to “prove” abstinence education is ineffective.  Yet, Douglas Kirby, the expert cited in their own footnotes gave a lengthy presentation in Phoenix last September which may surprise Waxman.  Dr. Kirby says we have no reason to conclude that abstinence programs don’t work.  Reiterating what he has said many times over the years, Kirby said, “The jury is still out.”  In fact, he said he expects in the coming years that studies will demonstrate the effectiveness of abstinence education.

“The Report” literally drips with research citations on every page.  Yet, they missed a few…the ones that demonstrate success of abstinence education programs in Denmark, SC and in Monroe County, NY.  Maybe they missed these and other studies…or maybe they wanted to miss reports on the successes of abstinence education.

“The Report” goes to great lengths to “explain” condoms.  Why?  In 2001, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in conjunction with the CDC, released a detailed summary report on a comprehensive review of condom research. The panel of medical experts finally demonstrated the lack of evidence for broad “safe-sex” claims based on condoms.  Anyone working to unravel the truth about condoms would do well to bypass Waxman’s obfuscation and check the NIH report.

“The Report” claims some programs are inaccurate in linking pregnancy to “touching another person’s genitals.”  However, they fail to note that abstinence educators have had to undo the long list of lies associated with some condom-based programs.  These programs have gone so far as to coin the term “outercourse”…versus intercourse…teaching students in contradiction to medical realities that any and all “outercourse” is fun and safe, including naked body to body eroticism, just short of actual intercourse.

“The Report” objects to abstinence programs and their views of “when life begins.”  Waxman’s staff might be enlightened by a text, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th Edition:  “Human development begins at fertilization.”  Of course, this might be a disturbing revelation for Waxman and his supporters who have no problem with partial birth abortion, the destruction of babies just nano-seconds from birth.

“The Report” objects to information about “the physical and psychological effects of legal abortion.”  Hmmm.  Waxman’s staff gives no credence to any negative impact of abortion discussed by abstinence educators. So…are the only effects of abortion positive?  I’d like to talk with his staff about that one…if they ever call back.

“The Report” objects to abstinence program efforts to discuss male/female differences and marriage.  And here is where we hit the crux of many an objection to abstinence education from people like Waxman.  Linking healthy sex, with healthy male/female relationships inside of marriage, where having babies is a joyful occasion…planned or unplanned…this is an affront to those who would want our children to embrace same-sex sex and same-sex marriage.

In a report that claims to seek and destroy “errors and distortions”, this short list of errors and distortions is unforgivable.  Somehow, though, I doubt Waxman or his staff are seeking forgiveness.

I think they are seeking what they got…“The Report”…a mass of errors and distortions constructed by people who knew what they wanted to find before they looked.

No wonder Waxman is touting “The Report” with such enthusiasm.  He got what he paid for.

 

See Archives for past editorials.

March 26, 2004:   Abstinence: The Real Deal

April 2, 2004:  Sex Education: Spinning the Truth

 

Breaking the Silence

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

October 8, 2004

“I can’t take it.  This is too much to handle.”  As Kelly talked with the distraught woman on the phone, rescue workers were racing across the city to reach her before she could pull the trigger of the gun in her hand.  She had just had an abortion.

Kelly has seen it all in her twenty years of work counseling women who are considering abortion.  Her voice is gentle as she describes the women she has met…women who choose to come back to Kelly when they are hurting.

Why do women choose to talk with Kelly about their abortion pain?  She is an openly pro-life person.

When we break the silence about abortion, there is a lot to learn, not only about what abortion is, but about what it is has done to millions of women.  And these are the women who talk with Kelly, the women Gloria Feldt fails to acknowledge, both in her leadership of Planned Parenthood and in her editorials defending the new Planned Parenthood t-shirt campaign promoting America’s abortion-on-demand policies.

If Ms. Feldt is truly sincere about breaking the silence on abortion, she has a lot of explaining to do.  Women who have had an abortion and who wish to break the silence would welcome her support.

Silent No More is a national campaign giving voice to women who regret their abortions.  They wish to break the silence about abortion.  It hurts.  They hold press conferences and testify at legislative hearings.  Yet, they are treated with disdain by members of Planned Parenthood and the media.

There are others who have worked to break the silence about abortion.  In her book REAL Choices Frederica Mathewes-Green sought out the involvement of abortion providers to talk with women who had had abortions.  “I got either cold shoulders or cold feet. Usually there was no response at all.”

Mathewes-Green penned the famous quote embraced by both pro-life and pro-choice advocates.  “No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche.  She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg.”

Her research confirms testimony from Silent No More women.  They “uniformly talked about pressures in relationships; the abortion was done, each told us, either to please someone or to protect someone.”

If Ms. Feldt is truly sincere about breaking the silence on abortion, I invite her to join me in a call to the nation’s universities.  Stop promoting abortion and start teaching about abortion.

Where are the college courses that open the window on partial birth abortion procedures, forced abortion in China, and sex selection that is aborting a generation of girl babies in India and China?  Where are the college panels that include Silent No More women sharing the long-term aftermath of their abortions?

Will Ms. Feldt herald courageous suffragists like Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony who denounced abortion?  Does she agree with feminist Naomi Wolfe that pictures of aborted fetuses should be brought to the table?  As Ms. Wolfe points out, how can feminists truly support “a choice” they refuse to look at in real life?

If Ms. Feldt truly wants to “throw off that mantle of secrecy”, I suggest she redesign her own Planned Parenthood website.  In a search under “fetal development” the top 2 of 31 listings shout:  “Why do guys have nipples?” and “Donating Fetal Tissue.”  Where are the pictures of real fetal development…the living, thriving babies in utero?

And if Planned Parenthood is willing to talk about “donating fetal tissue,” what do they say about selling fetal tissue?  What should we know about the doctor who worked out of a Kansas abortion clinic and and was filmed on “20/20” negotiating separate prices for pieces of babies: feet, eyes, brains and spinal cords?

If it takes a t-shirt to break the silence, I hope Planned Parenthood sells millions of them.  And when the talking starts, I encourage Ms. Feldt to join hands with the women of Silent No More to tell both sides of abortion.  I hope she implores the press to open its eyes and ears to all the truth.

All the truth?  If Ms. Feldt will join in a campaign for all the truth about abortion, I will buy a t-shirt.  It’s a small price to pay to break the silence.

Unplanned Pregnancy?

June 25, 2004:    Unplanned Joy

See Archives for past editorials.

 

Unplanned Joy

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

June 25, 2004

The road to success and happiness is paved with planning…and more planning.  This is the modern mantra of American culture.  If you want to be happy, plan for it.

Tasha’s life was a model of planning.  Born Natasha Danvers in 1977, she is one of Britain’s “brightest Olympic hopes” in track and field, a consistent medalist in hurdles.  As a junior, she was the 1995 European Junior Silver medalist, moving on to sixth place in the World Juniors in Sydney the following year.

In 2001 she took the Gold medal in the 400m hurdles in the World Universities held in Bejing.  On an objective numerical basis, scoring the best British all round hurdling performers, Tasha is ranked third.  Against world hurdlers, she is ranked sixth.

If anyone knows about the planning it requires to be successful, Tasha knows.  Looking ahead to the 2004 Olympics, she told Sporting Life in 2003, “I’ve been able to train hard.  I’m different mentally, more dedicated.  The results are showing now.”

And she knows her training is paying off.  “The way I’m running right now, the times I’m putting down, I think I should be aiming for not just making teams or finals.  What I should be aiming for right now- I’m at the point where I can go in and expect a medal.”

Tasha’s determination and dedication to her goals is the stuff parents and teachers thrill to see.  She is the shining light we hold in front of students to inspire them.  “Here,” we tell our young people, “this is what planning for success looks like.  You can be just like Tasha.  And you can succeed.”

But Tasha has another lesson to teach our young people.  She can teach them one of the most important lessons of planning for success, a lesson about what happens when the best-laid plans take an unexpected turn.

Right in the midst of her intense training schedule, Tasha noticed a change in her body.  “I was in the shape of my life.  I was more focused than ever before….Then things didn’t feel quite right.  I was feeling tired all the time, feeling flat for no reason.”

A trip to the doctor surprised Tasha and her trainer/husband Darrell Smith.  They were facing an unplanned pregnancy.

“The timing could not have been worse” she told reporters.  “If I had run at Athens it would have meant greater financial security, more recognition.  There is nothing negative that can happen when you have a shot at an Olympic medal.”

Like millions of women and couples around the world, Tasha and Darrell faced “The Choice.”  Even the term “unplanned pregnancy” seems to suggest getting rid of the pregnancy and getting back to the plan.

And like millions of women, Tasha is truthful, “I cannot lie, I considered an abortion.  On the one hand you look at the situation and say, ‘I can have a baby and incur more costs, more problems.’ We don’t even have a house yet, we are staying with Darrell’s parents.  And I am the major breadwinner.”

But this is where Tasha can teach us the ability to plan for the unplanned.  Considering her options, she realized the path to happiness is paved with more than plans.  “Even the thought of it [an abortion] depressed me.  I cried thinking about it as I tried to convince myself this is what I should do.”

Tasha is still facing an unplanned pregnancy, but she is happy now.  She looks forward to giving birth in early 2005.

Darrell reminds everyone that her career is bigger than one competition.  “We will definitely prepare for the Commonwealth Games in 2006,” and if things go as planned, they hope to participate in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Tasha’s picture is up on the refrigerator in our house right now, a reminder that some of life’s greatest moments come from planning to accept the unplanned.  A heart that is open to life as it comes is a more certain key for happiness than anyone has dared to admit in the past thirty years.

Tasha is a witness to the unexpected path to happiness.  She has new plans that seem to change daily.  On her website she tells her fans, “It’s six months before I give birth and already baby is dictating the pace.”

One suspects that Tasha will succeed no matter what happens in her life.  She has embraced the magic of unplanned joy.

 

 See Archives for past editorials.