Ta-Nehisi
Coates is amazing, take a break from what you are doing and go read
everything you can find by him, then come back. I have no love for Ross
Douthat; I think he is at best a clickbaiter and at worst a bigot. Coates
points readers to Eyal Press’ profile of Dr. Steven Brigham in the New
Yorker, which shows the readers what back-alley abortions would look
like because we live in a world where they already exist.
The profile gives a
scary look at what patients have to endure to have a medical abortion. It
presents the story of Dr. Brigham beginning in 2010. It lays out some rules physicians
have to follow if providing an abortion to a patient in New Jersey after 14
weeks, which is essentially, take the patient to Maryland. The piece gives an
example of a patient being driven from Delaware to Maryland with two physicians
where an abortion was performed in an unmarked storefront in Elkton, Maryland. There
were complications to the surgery where the woman’s uterus was perforated and
her bowel damaged. She was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. One of the
physicians was Dr. Steven Brigham, who as an Elkton detective would come to
find out was not licensed to practice medicine in Maryland.
The police got a warrant
and proceeded to search the premises where they found some truly horrifying
things. The dingy storefront had a freezer with red biohazard bags containing thirty-five
advanced advanced-gestation fetuses, which hadn’t yet been disposed of. Several
of the fetuses were past the viability mark. Dr. Brigham was arrested in
December 2011 with ten counts of murder; he was released a week or so later
after posting a half million dollar bail.
The story is a
horror show. Brigham claims to be trained, but the people he says trained him
don’t remember him. Additionally, he overcharged patients taking jewelry and
personal property as collateral. Finally, he hurt women. Of course this makes
us all think of Kermit Gosnell. Dr. LeRoy Carhart, 72, who worked with Dr.
George Tiller, says there is a huge profit margin for abortion services when a
clinic uses methotrexate. Dr. Carhart is based in Omaha and flies around the
states to perform surgery.
Dr. Tiller’s murder
left four doctors in the US who openly provide third-trimester abortions. Dr.
Carhart also said, “When George died, that was the last time I had time off.”
Abortion providers have declined, which Carhart attributes to the protestors.
Carhart says, “Now you have two types of doctors doing abortions—the doctors
who are totally committed to women’s health and are going to do them even if
they never get another dime, and the people that just want to take advantage of
the situation and milk everything they can out of it.”
Coates concludes
that sometimes terrorism works, the murder of Dr. Tiller has encouraged
physicians from practicing. Coates goes on to say that the murders in the 80s,
90s, and today are bad press for the anti-choicers, but I disagree. I think
that is exactly the kind of press these zealots want. They want physicians,
women, supporters to live in fear to believe you have to take your life in your
hands when you enter a clinic. They are aiming to convert more violent zealots
and what better way than to show the new/potential recruits how important they’ll
be by murdering people. Pro-life, shenanigans! Read the fine print,
Pro-life-if-you-live-the-way-we-deem-fit.
Of course, Douthat
had to reply.
@AdamSerwer @jbouie Or: Over time,
a profession that dismembers human beings tends to attract only misguided
idealists and monsters.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January
29, 2014
I find his response
particularly disgusting. I would argue that the anti-choicers are the people
attracting other misguided violent monsters and giving them cover. Also,
Douthat appears to be absolving people who murder living breathing people.
Sure, some zealots view fetuses as people who deserve more rights than the
women carrying them, but surely we can all agree that a grown man is a human,
yes?
I did read Douthat’s
article, which is garbage, per usual. He believes marriage will raise
people out of poverty, well son, we have about eighteen years of research on
welfare that disproves that theory. Because you know, two incomes will raise
people out of poverty, but only if both partners can find living wages. See, there
was this great article about a married couple who lost welfare benefits after
getting married. She had a low-wage job, and he, well he had a felony and
couldn’t find work. But sure, marriage keeps people with privilege out of
poverty.
Douthat pretty much
says women (I’ll expand to all birth capable persons) taking control of their
reproduction ruined marriage because men could choose to be included in the
family or not. He actually suggests a second-trimester abortion ban. This man
graduated from a ridiculous mockery of journalism to dangerous. He concludes
with a statement about moral absolutes being understandable.
