Abortion Debate

RE THE editorial "Bush Would Give Us Little Choice" (Jan. 22): "The new governor has values . . . to do what's right. " If he thinks it's fine to dismember a defenseless, growing person in the womb and not care about the emotional, physical and spiritual aftermath the mother must face, why do you think he has the values to do what's right for you? Do you think Mr. Rendell will be available to aid the broken-hearted and suffering women after abortion? Doubt it. Dianna DeBarberie, Havertown Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003, is the day former Mayor Rendell became governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

MISINFORMATION and conjecture are the basis for Michelle Malkin's column of Jan. 14 ("The Abortion Empire Strikes Back"). We know that in Pennsylvania, crisis pregnancy center practices are suspect because we hear from our patients that they were not given complete and accurate information for an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. If they discuss abortion, it is presented as an unsuitable option. In contrast, a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy will receive full information from Planned Parenthood staff about adoption, abortion or parenthood.

Cowardly silent when physicians were being stalked, harassed and even shot for serving patients who chose abortion, the American Medical Association has decided for the first time to take a position on an abortion bill. It now supports a ban on a procedure medically known as intact dilation and extraction, which opponents term "partial-birth" abortion. This is the same AMA that last year condemned health maintenance organization guidelines that commonly prevent physicians from telling patients about costly medical procedures.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan found themselves dragged into a debate Wednesday over hot-button social issues and answering for differences between their personal positions on abortion, just days before a national convention aimed at showing a unified party. The discussion lingered while President Obama and Romney tangled from afar over issues such as education and the deficit. The GOP ticket dealt with a renewed focus on abortion in the aftermath of comments about "legitimate rape" from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, remarks that have caused an uproar and generated demands from Romney and party leaders for the congressman to quit the race.

In the war over abortion, much of the fighting is being done with language. Is it an "abortion clinic" or a "killing center"? A "fetus" or an "unborn child"? A "surgical procedure" or a "baby-killing"? When Operation Rescue pulled into town over the weekend, many abortion rights activists not only complained about its methods, but its name as well. What they were doing wasn't a "rescue," came the complaint, but "terrorism. " "Both sides are using language skillfully to have the debate seen in their terms," said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University who's the usage editor of American Heritage Dictionary and language commentator for the public radio show "Fresh Air. " "If you win the linguistic fight," Nunberg said, "you hold the high ground.

In an unguarded, apparently unscripted moment on a TV talk show last week, Vice President Quayle seemed to speak from the heart. The question on the table was what Mr. Quayle would do if his own daughter "came to you with that problem that all fathers fear. " Nice bit of delicacy there: We'd submit that the problem at issue (called pregnancy by the euphemism-impaired) is one that all daughters (and sons) fear as well. The Vice President said he'd counsel his daughter and "support her in whatever decision she made.

For six weeks, Dr. Kermit Gosnell sat largely impassive, like an invited guest at his murder trial, offering an occasional smile while taking prodigious notes with a spring-green pen. And yet Gosnell is the center of the "firestorm," as his defense attorney, Jack McMahon, put it in closing arguments Monday, the vortex of the reignited abortion debate four decades after Roe v. Wade . No matter what the verdict, Gosnell has become the opportunity...

SAN FRANCISCO - Instagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service now owned by Facebook, said Tuesday that it will remove language from its new terms of service suggesting that users' photos could appear in advertisements. The language in question had appeared in updated policies announced Monday and scheduled to take effect Jan. 16. After an outcry on social-media and privacy- rights blogs, the company clarified that it has no plans to put users' photos in ads. What had riled users and privacy advocates was Instagram's assertion that it may now receive payments from businesses to use its members' photos, user name and other data "in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation" to them.

DALLAS - Airlines give many reasons for refusing to let you board, but none stir as much debate as this: How you're dressed. A woman flying from Las Vegas on Southwest in the spring says she was confronted by an airline employee for showing too much cleavage. In a recent case, an American Airlines pilot lectured a passenger because her T-shirt bore a four-letter expletive. She was allowed to keep flying after draping a shawl over the shirt. Both women told their stories to sympathetic bloggers, and the debate over what you can wear in the air went viral.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan found themselves dragged into a debate Wednesday over hot-button social issues and answering for differences between their personal positions on abortion, just days before a national convention aimed at showing a unified party. The discussion lingered while President Obama and Romney tangled from afar over issues such as education and the deficit. The GOP ticket dealt with a renewed focus on abortion in the aftermath of comments about "legitimate rape" from Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, remarks that have caused an uproar and generated demands from Romney and party leaders for the congressman to quit the race.

NEW YORK - Americans, regardless of generation, are deeply conflicted as they wrestle with the legality and morality of abortion, with large numbers identifying themselves as both "pro-choice" and "pro-life," according to a sweeping new survey. While 56 percent say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, 52 percent say abortion is morally wrong. The detailed and nuanced findings were released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute, based on a survey of 3,000 adults - one of the largest to focus on Americans' views of abortion.

For the first time, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has acknowledged it is reviewing the case of a pregnant teenager who was denied permission for an abortion by a county judge. Pennsylvania's 17-year-old abortion law requires girls under 18 to get consent for an abortion from a parent or, if she wants to bypass her parents, from a judge. The high court's ruling could clarify how much discretion county judges have to refuse to grant a "judicial bypass" - but only if the justices bend the requirement that such cases be kept confidential.

The abysmal conditions of Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic strain credulity. A searing grand jury report charges that his filthy facility at 38th and Lancaster butchered babies and women for more than three decades. The problems were obvious to any visitor. The facility reeked of cat urine. Blankets and furniture were splattered with blood. One government agent described it as "a bad gas station restroom. " Fetal remains were discovered in milk cartons, jars, jugs, and freezers. Everywhere.

Kate Michelman was president of NARAL Pro-Choice America from 1985 to 2004 and is the author of With Liberty and Justice for All: A Life Spent Protecting the Right to Choose. In the breathless terms of our political discourse, contentious issues are often reduced to false and simplistic charges. So it is with women's rights. Ideologues like former Congressman Pat Toomey advance a hard-line agenda denying women and their families the ability to make critical decisions for themselves, free of government intrusion.

TRENTON - The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners on Wednesday temporarily suspended the license of abortion doctor Steven Chase Brigham, ruling that the Voorhees-based entrepreneur is "a clear and imminent danger to the public health and safety. " Brigham, the board said, "has consistently and repetitively engaged in manipulative and deceptive behavior . . . to eviscerate the protections afforded New Jersey patients. " The board sided with the state Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting that case, in concluding that Brigham initiated late-term abortions in Voorhees and completed them in his facility in Elkton, Md., because "he could not qualify to provide those abortions in New Jersey.