A devastating response to a human abortion supporter

By Tom Quiner

“Everyone” in the human abortion business denounces Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

This is the claim Rick Smith made in the Des Moines Register, as this blog reported yesterday (“Quiner intentionally and incorrectly misrepresents human abortionists”). Mr. Smith was responding to my essay which appeared in the Des Moines Register earlier in the week.

Jenifer Bowen, Executive Director of the Iowa Right to Life, provided a devastating response, which appeared in the morning’s Des Moines Register:

“In his defense of the abortion industry, [letter, “Gosnell Isn’t Like Other Health Providers,” May 9] writer Rick Smith conspicuously omits the word “abortion” and instead refers to “women’s reproductive choice providers.” This is like referring to teachers as “adolescent comprehension providers” or auto mechanics as “transportation rehabilitation facilitators.”

The way to deal with the issue is to discuss it openly. It’s called “abortion,” Mr. Smith. A choice is made, but a child is killed.

Smith claims that “every major women’s reproductive health provider has condemned Dr. Gosnell and his practices.” Not true. Jill June, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, one of the organization’s largest affiliates, has been strangely silent. No word either from Planned Parenthood’s medical director here in Iowa, Dr. Jill Meadows.

Smith calls Gosnell an “illegal, back-alley, inhuman butcher” and distinguishes this from “caring, clean, legal, professional reproductive clinics.” Tell that to the family of 24 year-old Tonya Reaves, who hemorrhaged to death last September after an abortion at a caring, clean, legal, professional Planned Parenthood in Chicago.

The Gosnell trial has shown us that more light needs to be shed on this murky, unregulated industry.”