By Hilary White
NEW
YORK, January 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cleverly marketing legal
abortion as a boon to women’s emancipation has been the most important
task of the abortion industry and lobby for thirty years. In this
month’s edition, the gruesome procedure of partial birth abortion has
been given a style makeover by the world’s most influential fashion
magazine, Vogue.
The magazine offers the article’s description: "When Lori Campbell’s
second pregnancy developed complications, she was faced with a painful
decision. But she was thankful it was hers to make." What follows is a
paean to legalized late-term abortion and a series of long complaints
about the efforts of pro-life Americans to make it illegal.
In the article, "Private Lives," that appears in the January 2008
issue of the US edition of Vogue, Lori Campbell describes her decision
in 1998 to have a late term abortion by the method usually referred to
as "partial birth." In partial birth abortion the child is extracted
from the mother’s womb, until only the head remains in the birth canal;
he is then killed by suctioning out the brains and collapsing the
skull. This type of abortion is called "intact dilation and extraction"
by the medical community, and was banned in the US in 2003. In 2007, a
US Supreme Court decision upheld the constitutionality of the ban.
Campbell describes how her water broke at 22 weeks into her second
pregnancy, and doctors told her and her husband that the child would be
unlikely to survive. Campbell justifies her decision to kill her child,
saying she was sparing her needless suffering. Campbell’s life was not
threatened by the pregnancy.
"I chose what I believe was the path of least suffering, for myself,
my husband, our future children, and mostly for the baby inside me."
Campbell complains that the term partial-birth abortion "is also
inherently judgmental". "A partial-birth abortion, if you must call it
that. One born out of love."
"How can I agree to a partial-birth abortion and not feel like a bad
person? It preys on women in a weakened state – women who already
likely believe they are ‘bad’ because they have failed as mothers."
"In my case, an incompetent cervix threatened the life of a fetus
otherwise healthy and so close to meeting the world. All she needed
was another lousy couple of weeks, I kept telling myself. But I had
failed her. My incompetence, I felt, extended well beyond the cervix
into every fiber of my being. I didn’t need another person, or the
government, to confirm it."
With Vogue’s usual mastery of imagery, Campbell has been depicted as
an archetype of the beautiful happy young mother, with both her and her
daughter dressed immaculately in clothes strongly reminiscent of the
idealized 1950’s family.
The iconic magazine, a worldwide institution, was founded in 1892
and publishes editions in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany,
Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain,
Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States.
Vogue, owned by Conde Nast Publications, is a major engine of the
women’s movement, but is often criticized for valuing solely material
wealth, appearance and social position and is regularly accused of
creating an unhealthy weight-obsessed idealized body-image among young
women.
To contact Vogue offices:
Customer Service 800-234-2347 (within the US)
talkingback@vogue.com
Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion 
Leave a comment