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From: owens@gitpyr.UUCP (Gerald Owens)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: An abortion story  (what now, pro-lifers?)
Message-ID: <391@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Nov-84 11:19:39 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.391
Posted: Thu Nov 29 11:19:39 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Dec-84 07:01:50 EST
References: <44@tove.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 70


	Thanks, liz, for confirming the existence of that
videotape that I had heard only rumors about.  It was about
time somebody used modern technology to lay to rest some of the
preconceived notions of what goes on in the womb that early.
I hope soon that somebody will couple the sound picture with an
encephalogram (sp?) of the unborn child's brainwaves to decisively
lay to rest the question of fetal pain (although if a fetus tries to
scream in amniotic fluid and isn't heard, and someone then asserts
that the fetus doesn't feel pain, then I guess we know where they stand
on the old question of the tree falling in the forest with nobody to
hear it.)

	However, what facinates me are the mental and verbal gyrations
of the pro-choice netters.  If it wasn't so tragic, I would have requested
that the postings be moved to net.jokes.  The complaint about the
sensationalism of the posting (and indirectly, of the videotape that
it was a report of), was conveniently absent during the vietnam years,
when the faithful media brought the war to the 6 o'clock news.  My suspicion
is that they know what would happen if actual abortions were given equal
time with dead and dying GIs.

	Ok, pro-lifers.  What now?  If one wishes to compare the
abortion debate to a war (which is not too far off from the truth), then
we've got an H-bomb on our hands.  Unfortunately, I'm a pessimist on
it's utility.  A Nuke is no good if it can't be delivered to it's
target, and rest assured that the liberal media will show it right after
their report that it is snowing in hell.  It may do some good being shown
in some pro-life vans accompanying the picketing of abortion clinics, and
it may get some churches off the fence.  A national showing?  Outside of
cable TV, forget it.  I admire Reagan, but if he has the guts to call
a special news conference and can get the liberal-media to show it in
its entirety, in prime time, then he will rank with Lincoln and Washington
for sheer courage.  Short of that, the next best thing will have to be
a small booklet showing excerpts from the tape.

	We should, of course, consider ALL the consequences of showing this
tape.  Recent discussions about a certain famine in Ethiopia, and how
the children should be "taken care of", should alert us to the fact
that the more successfully we present our case, the more we force SOME
of our opponents to adhere more logically to their own arguments.  Especially
when they haven't come up with a blockbuster of an argument like this
videotape (Otherwise, they would have used it a long time ago).  Remember,
Shaeffer argued that a bad attitude toward the fetus, the weakest of humans,
will develop into a bad attitude toward the weak.  Should we accelerate
the development of this bad attitude?  Another worrisome problem is that
of the more violent of our following (there, I've said it!).  These
guys are not strictly pro-life, but pro-innocent-life.  The distinction is
crucial, since they distinguish between a murderer and one who kills
in self defense.  They then proceed to act on behalf of the ones who
would normally defend themselves, but are unable to do so for
various reasons.  Some of these guys have blown up a few abortion
clinics and Planned Parenthood clinics.  If this tape is shown, and
nothing gets done, then the situation is going to get very unpleasant,
very quickly.  It's one thing to BELIEVE that you are fighting for an
innocent human life.  It's another thing to SEE the poor kid fighting for
it's life and losing, getting torn apart by a method which, if used on
animals would call down the wrath of the ASPCA, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace,
and only Watt knows who else.

	This is getting long enough.  Flames will be answered in direct
proportion to their rationality, and inversely proportional to the
amount of emotional heat they contain.

				Gerald Owens

-- 
Gerald Owens
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!owens