20 comments

• 

  ElmerPSO

  9 months ago

  Doug,
  
  You raise a timely and timeless question. However, your article missed an important component part, the father. It has always taken two, female and male, to fertilize the egg in the human.
  Forget the myth of the virgin birth. That myth existed in many religions long before christianity was conceived.
  
  What are the consequences for the father? Does the father not have personal responsibility for his decisions and actions? Do you execute the father along with the mother and doctor? After all, if the father was a willing participant in conception and the decision for abortion, is the father not equally culpable? Or is there a double standard?
  
  I’m reminded of a board agenda item when I was president of the Kuemper Catholic High School Board. A senior girl was obviously pregnant and the motion was made to deny her the right to walk with the graduating class during graduation ceremonies. I argued against the motion with all the common sense reasons I could muster. Motion passed. I then made an additional motion. If you deny the mother from walking with graduating seniors, then apply the same standard to the father, a senior boy. Motion died for lack of a second.
  
  Double standards are very common in politics and religions.
  reply
• 

  Peggy2

  9 months ago

  You were president of a Catholic high school board and you don't believe in the virgin birth?
  
  Are you a Catholic?
  reply
• 

  misterrogers

  9 months ago

  As always Doug, a very thoughtful piece. I have another angle for consideration.
  For abortions to be considered murder, with all of the penalties that go with that offense, the embryo must be legally endowed with the same rights as post-birth human beings. When a person is intentionally killed by another person it is called murder. When a person is unintentionally killed by another person it is called manslaughter. If an abortion, the intentional killing of an embryo, is murder, then is a miscarraige, the accidental or unintentional killing of an embryo, to be considered manslaughter? Right now we investigate every death of a human being to determine cause. Would there be "miscarraige police" who would investigate the reason for every miscarraige? What would happen if it was discovered that the mother of the miscarried embryo had smoked a cigarette, consumed a glass of wine, or engaged in some other sort of behavior that might be deemed "risky" to the embryo? Does the mother go to prison?
  It's simple: if abortion is murder, then miscarraige is probably manslaughter.
  Pray that this never becomes the law.
  reply
• 

  DianaHsieh

  9 months ago

  Thank you for your excellent questions to Sarah Palin. I do hope that she's forced to answer them at some point.
  
  In Colorado, the religious right is attempting to make Palin's type of strict anti-abortionism the law of the land via Amendment 48. It would give fertilized eggs all the legal rights of persons in the Colorado Constitution. If implemented, it would ban almost (if not all) abortion, outlaw the birth control pill and IUD, and ban most in vitro fertilization. If rights are granted at conception, that's the ultimate outcome.
  
  The Coalition for Secular Government (http://www.seculargovernment.us) just published an issue paper on it entitled "Amendment 48 Is Anti-Life: Why It Matters That a Fertilized Egg Is Not a Person" by Ari Armstrong and myself. It's available at:
  
  http://www.seculargovernment.us/docs/a48.pdf
  
  The paper discusses some of the horrific implications of this proposed amendment, including those effects on the legality of abortion, birth control, and in vitro fertilization. It also offers a strong defense of abortion rights based on the biological facts of pregnancy.
  
  Although it focuses on Amendment 48, it's a good resource for anyone interested to know what the true effects of Palin's views would be, if made into law.
  
  Diana Hsieh
  Founder, Coalition for Secular Government
  http://www.seculargovernment.us
  reply
• 

  Butterfly3

  9 months ago

  Palin said that having a baby out of wedlock was her daughter's choice. Choice? Palin gave her daughter a choice? What about the rest of the women in America, do they get to choose, too?
  reply
• 

  Peggy2

  9 months ago

  Or, since abortion has been legal in the U.S. for, what, thirty-something years now, maybe Sarah Palin was saying that her daughter could have chosen to run off to the local Planned Parenthood clinic to have her embarrassment 'taken care of' BUT Bristol Palin chose to give her baby life. Get it?
  
  Sarah Palin didn't provide anyone with the choice to kill their offspring - we have liberal Democrats like yourself to blame for that.
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  What about the rest of the unborn children, do they get to choose, too??
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  Mr. Burns, how about an honest response as to when life begins and if it is right to snuff that life out, and even have their brains sucked out before aborting them in the 3rd trimester as Obama has voted for? Mr. Burns, would answering this question be above your pay grade? This is a fair question.
  
  If the parents don't want the baby they conceived, let them adopt that child out. That is a far more humane way to treat an unwanted child. Murder can never be justified as a form of birth control any more than genocide can be justified. If real live abortions would be filmed and viewed by every person considering this ghastly procedure, there would be far less of them. And, NO, do not jail women who have abortions, most of them are being taken advantage of. YES, imprison for life the so called "doctors" who execute these little innocent babies as they have violated their Hypocratic Oath for the almighty dollar.
  reply
• 

  ScottPruden

  9 months ago

  When John McCain killed hundreds if not a thousand innocent people by dropping bombs on heavily populated areas of Hanoi, he no doubt killed pregnant women and babies; doesn't that make him an abortionist? Those kids died for no other reason than their parents may or may not have subscribed to Communist ideology.
  We're supposed to feel sorry for him when the relatives of his victims tap-danced on his broken bones afterward? I think he got off easy!
  Why don't Republicans give a crap about children AFTER they're born?
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  Scott, not all Republicans were for the war and most were not expecting a long and expensive, both in lives and money, occupation. Personally, I think Bush should have been patient and worked with other nations like his father did in the first Gulf War. Biden, Pelosi and many Democrats voted for the war, too, so maybe you missed this fact. Mistakes were made on all sides.
  
  Republicans and Independents and some Democrats do "give a crap about children after they're born". They are, consistently, far more compassionate and generous towards others than most Democrats, like yourself. The saying, "Put your money where your mouth is" is very telling: UNTIL last year when Nobama and his wife gave a little over 5% of his over $4 million income, they consistently gave far less than 1% of their income . Biden consistently gave far less than 1% of his income. Last year he gave less than 1/3 of 1%: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/12/politic...
  
  Two years ago, when Nobama realized his tax returns would be scrutinized since he was running for President, he knew he'd better cough up a few more dollars since his tax returns were going to show what a miser he was. Obama, very obviously, gave for political reasons. Biden was caught off guard by being picked for VP candidate so you can expect him to give a little more this year than the few hundred dollars, of the hundreds of thousands he and his wife make, that he so "generously" has been contributing.
  
  John McCain gave 25% of his income, Cindy, over 7%, consistently. When Palin's tax returns are released, you'll see the same generosity. "Liberals" are hypocrites with Nobama-Biden leading the pack. You are only liberal with OTHER people's money. You hold onto your own with your grubby little hands while demanding everyone else's taxes get raised, contribute next to nothing to charity, the people who most need it, and expect to have things handed to you from cradle to grave.
  
  Unfortunately, there's not a cat scan that can determine, from the womb, whether someone's going to turn out like you. If there was, I think I'd be persuaded to allow your kind to be aborted so the world would be a safer place for the rest of us. By the way, isn't it a bit ironic the liberties that you liberals have taken with the English language? Not only have you twisted the word "liberal", you have done the same for the term "pro-choice". If life does begin at conception, and it does as Joe Biden honestly admitted (no, that statement wasn't one of his "gaffes"), then that life deserves a chance to have a choice to live. If, as a grown adult, that person decides to commit suicide, that's a choice that can't always be prevented but please, don't let us stop you from trying.
  reply
• 

  ScottPruden

  9 months ago

  Cindy McCain refuses to release her tax forms so you don't know what she's given to charity.
  Joe Biden's income over the last 10 years equals about 3-4 months of Cindy McCain's average Amex bill. I'm sure she's generous to the staff, though. When she's no stealing their Oxycontin.
  Republicans are costing future generations $10 billion a month in their war in Iraq, no to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocents killed because people like you seem to be gung-ho to kill little brown people, as long as Fox News doesn't show you the bloody results.
  That's not GOP money, that's "other people's money" their wasting on their killing spree.
  I'm sure any Iraqi parent of a child killed by YOU idiots would encourage you to kill YOURSELF.
  You guys are IMPOTENT murderers who feel powerful using other people's money to kill little brown people, but then you seem STUNNED when they fight back.
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  pruden, you're a stinkin liberal asshole with no sense of logic or any ability to think on your own. the smell of you is so strong it reeks through the Internet. Why don't you move to Canada where they'll welcome you with open arms?
  reply
• 

  tabbitha

  9 months ago

  Gee, nobama, when you lay the facts out in such a dispassionate and logical way, how can anyone question your arguments?
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  Tabbitha, It's futile and a waste of time trying to reason with fools so there's no need to continue this conversation. Always remember what I wrote to pruden as it goes for you, too: since your parents didn't exercise their "right" to abort you, suicide is always an option. The earth would be a much safer place and kinder place for the rest of us who value life and have intelligence.
  reply
• 

  nilo_cantonjos

  9 months ago

  There is such a thing called "Just War" but there is no "Just Abortion".
  reply
• 

  ScottPruden

  9 months ago

  If you define terminating a pregnancy, a medical procedure, as murder and therefore never justified; then you have to accept that others define splattering the brains of innocent people who happen to be unlucky enough to live in Baghdad or Hanoi as murder and therefore never justified.
  Either killing is always wrong or it isn't.
  reply
• 

  nilo_cantonjos

  9 months ago

  When you are sworned to a duty to defend your country and freedom...then you have authority to lay down your life to protect those under your jurisdiction. In war, there will be casualities, unfortunately. The foundation of freedom of this nation were never achieved by dialogue with the occupying forces that had no intention of giving up their grip on this country. Lives were laid down on the line for the freedom of this nation. That was a JUST war.
  
  If a madman runs amuck and threat is imminent to your family, you have the duty to stop that man whatever the cause. Killing is justified to protect the greater good of the family and society.
  
  Abortion is Murder. It is never justified. There is never a time when you can say that abortion is licit. This is the murder of the marginalized, voiceless, and defenseless sector of our society.
  
  Differentiate between Just War and Abortion.
  
  Killing is not always wrong, even the bible says so. But abortion always is EVIL and wrong.
  
  I hope you are enlightened.
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  Many innocent people have been killed and the taking of innocent life IS wrong, whether it's in a war where innocent civilians are killed, or whether it's the millions of babies that have been killed through abortion. Being "legal" due to one too many liberal Supreme Court justice doesn't make it right or ethical.
  
  It's a rare situation to be in but if you had to kill in self-defense or in defense of your children, parents, friends or anyone you loved, I believe that even you would realize that your statement, "killing is always wrong", is just one more statement you've made without any logic or thought.
  reply
• 

  nilo_cantonjos

  9 months ago

  Obama Bin Biden = Terrorists of the Unborn
  reply
• 

  nobama2008

  9 months ago

  It's futile trying to reason with a fool so there's no need to continue this conversation. Always remember what I said, since you didn't have the pleasure of being aborted, suicide is always an option.
  reply