Charlotte Ostermann

Lawrence Journal-World

March, 2001

Tuesday’s article about Kansas’ booming abortion business was an exercise for my children in critical thinking. We observed that although 12,363 unborn children were killed in Kansas last year, not once was the word ‘baby’ used in the article. We discussed the bias of using the terms ‘abortion rights supporter’ and ‘abortion opponent’ (instead of ‘prenatal citizenship opponent’ and ‘child rights supporter’), and the illusion of unbiased journalism. The kids wondered who chose the quote about the abortionist’s willingness to risk his life instead of quoting statistics which demonstrate the immediate and long term risks of abortion to women.

We explored the recommended Internet sites together. The Tiller site says his clinic is able to perform abortions until the fetus is viable, so we had to face the fact that no one is required to tell the truth on their web sites. It seems that if he were actually proud of providing abortions into the ninth month, he would be more forthright. We studied the KDHE booklet, “If You are Pregnant” with delight, though my children couldn’t understand how mothers could see these pictures of teeny babies and still let their own be vacuumed away. I had to look elsewhere (www.prolifeinfo.org - who knows why JW didn’t include this excellent resource) for diagrams of the actual procedure in which healthy, viable babies are terminated inches away from a chance at life.

We drifted into politics (children don’t get representatives, especially unborn children; the president can veto the majority opinion against infanticide), history (slaves used to be considered non-people, too, but reason finally prevailed); and medicine (viability, operations on unborn patients). I pointed out that an instance of violence against Dr. Tiller was included without any mention of the overwhelming pro-life abhorrence of such violence, or of the many women who have died at the hands of abortionists in recent times. “Not fair!” they cried, as children wisely do. “Life is not fair”, I replied, as parents sadly must.

I suppose I should thank the Journal-World for being a great educational resource, but somehow my heart is just not in it.