Abortion and Recession "Linked" Together, Despite No Evidence [Serge]

What do they really teach in journalism school? This article from Reuters absolutely amazes me. Here is the big headline:

CORRECTED: Recession linked to more abortions, vasectomies

Get that? The current economic conditions have been linked to an increased number of abortions. The article begins with a story of a nurse who is employed deciding to have an abortion. Then, in a strange twist, the article reports:

The recession may be a factor influencing more Americans to opt out of parenthood with abortions and vasectomies, although there is no data available yet to suggest a trend.

What? There is no data available YET. So we have no data that would actually link the number of abortions to the economy, and no available data suggests a trend, but some belief that the data will be coming. Hopefully soon. Sheez. This is truly a faith-based initiative.

Of course a professional journalist is not going to let something like no data to support her headline divert her story, so she does offer some "evidence". Here it goes:

Even so, there is some anecdotal evidence that would-be parents are factoring the rough economic times into the most personal of reproductive choices, some experts said.

Yea! Anecdotal evidence from "experts"! This should be good.

In 2005, the last year for which data is available, the U.S. abortion rate fell to the lowest level since 1974, according to the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a nonprofit group focusing on reproductive issues.

Wait, this is not anecdotal evidence, but real evidence. And it seems to support the exact opposite of what her theory is. Maybe we should just keep reading.

But at the National Abortion Federation, a hotline for women seeking abortion information has been "ringing off the hook," according to the group's president, Vicki Saporta.

"We are currently getting more calls from women who report that they or their partner have recently lost their job, and we are also hearing from more women facing eviction," she said.

Who needs real evidence when Vicki has phones ringing off the hook! How can one even imagine stronger evidence! And we have have reports of as many as three women who have stated that the current economy have influenced their decision to have an abortion.

That's all we need. Go ahead and run the headline saying that they are linked.

Pathetic.

Links [SK]

William Saletan on China's 16 million missing girls. They were aborted

The introduction and first chapter of The Case for Life is now online.

Jivin J on self-defeating logic of abortion advocates and informed consent laws.

Pathetic Justice [Bob]

Though our new president's radical pro-abortion views are well-known, it is insightful to pay attention to those he nominates to carry out the administration's policies and the legal defense of those policies. To that end, I thought it would be interesting to note one of his nominees to the Justice Department that hasn't gotten much press in the mainstream media.

President Obama has nominated Indiana University Law professor Dawn Johnsen to head the department's Office of Legal Counsel. Among her qualifications, Johnsen is a Yale educated, ACLU trained veteran of the Clinton administration (nothing surprising so far) who also happened to work as Legal Director of NARAL. During her tenure there, Johnsen argued before the Supreme Court of the United States in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, a case that involved a Missouri law that restricted the use of state funds and resources for abortion (note: the law did not ban abortion), that any restriction that makes abortion less accessible is:

tantamount to "involuntary servitude" because it "requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest [in the life of the unborn] ... [a woman, therefore] is constantly aware for nine months that her body is not her own: the state has conscripted her body for its own ends ... such forced pregnancy" violates the Thirteenth Amendment. (Source: National Review, 3/9/09 p.17)

If you don't have your Constitution in front of you, you may have forgotten that the Thirteenth Amendment is the one that prohibits slavery.

But that's not all.

Along with equating pregnancy with slavery, Ms. Johnsen opposes: 24-hour waiting periods, parental consent requirements for minors, and all laws against partial birth abortion. In fact, Johnsen believes that agreeing with her on these issues should be a litmus test for judicial nominees because "the notion that legal restrictions [are] some kind of 'reasonable compromise' -- perhaps to make abortion 'safe, legal, and rare,' prove nonsensical."

Is this the Obama adminstration's version of moral neutrality in the law?

Early Reviews of "The Case for Life" [SK]

Reviews and/or Discussion:

Tim Challies

Justin Taylor

Randy Alcorn

Crossway Blog

Ian HughClary

Vitamin Z

Pastor Bookshelf

Library Thing

4/15 Update: Stand to Reason also has a review.

SK

The Smart Pro-Lifer: A Reading List [SK]

I'm often asked what books aspiring pro-life apologists should read, so I'm reposting links to my personal favorites. I begin with those titles most accessible to the newcomer. A few titles--like Kreeft's The Unaborted Socrates, Beckwith's Defending Life, and Koukl's Tactics should be devoured and mastered fully.

Relating to Pro-Life Apologetics:

1. Randy Alcorn, Why Pro-Life?

2. Peter Kreeft, The Unaborted Socrates

3. Greg Koukl, Precious Unborn Human Persons

4. Greg Koukl, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions

5. Ramesh Ponnuru, The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life

6. Scott Klusendorf, The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture

7. Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen, Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

8. Francis J. Beckwith, Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice

9. Hadley Arkes, Natural Rights and the Right to Choose:

10. Patrick Lee, Abortion and Unborn Human Life


Christian World View in General (defense of):

1. Ken Boa & Rob Bowman, 20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists

2. Nancy Pearcy, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity

3. Greg Koukl & Francis J. Beckwith, Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air

4. R. Scott Smith, Truth and the New Kind of Christian

5. Ken Samples, A Worldview of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test

6. James Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catolog:

7. W. Phillips, W. Brown, and John Stonestreet, Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview

8. Tim Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

9. William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

Reading Aids:

For an overview of of my book (The Case for Life)go here.

Koukl's Tactics is reviewed here.

George & Tollefsen's Embryo is summarized here.

Beckwith's Defending Life is discussed in the following links:

#1 Overview of major themes
#2 The nature of moral reasoning
#3 What Roe said and did, part 1
#4 Roe, part 2: Blackmun undercuts his own case
#5 Roe, part 3: Blackmun's viability errors
#6 Metaphysics and abortion debate
#7 Thomson's 'Equal Reasonableness' Isn't Reasonable
#8: Science and the Unborn

Update 4/4: How did I forget Steve Wagner's Common Ground without Compromise? Get it. Now.

Debate Preview [SK]

As a warmup to the debate between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens at Biola University (Sat. night), Melinda Penner does a nice job highlighting the flaws in Hitchen's overall case. Main problems: Hitch presents a lengthy catalogue of evils done in the name of religion, but he presents no real case proving God does not exist. At the same time, he provides no grounding for the moral calims he makes against religion.

LTI Podcast Episodes 8 and 9 [Serge]

Due to some computer issues, I did not provide a link for last week's LTI podcast episode 8. In that episode I interview Jojo Ruba from the Canadian Centre of Bioethical reform about the attempt to silence the pro-life message on university campuses in Canada. Jay also begins a new segment entitled "Common Sense Corner". You can download the podcast at this link (http://www.switchpod.com/users/serge13102/LTIPodcastep8.mp3)

Also, episode 9 is now available. I finish my interview with Jojo and respond to an editorial in the new England Journal of Medicine claiming that those with religious convictions regarding the intrinsic value of human beings should not practice in a field like women's medicine. You can download this episode at:http://www.switchpod.com/users/serge13102/LTIPodcastep9.mp3

As always, you can subscribe to all the podcasts in Itunes via this link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=30370997