Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

by
Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 1,
2009

addthis_pub = 'sertelt';

Washington,
DC (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates complain bitterly any
time pro-life people refer to them using the moniker pro-abortion.
However, US News & World Report contributing editor Bonnie Erbe
has written an editorial inviting the description as she is celebrating
the fact that the poor economy is causing more abortions.

As
LifeNews.com has noted, circumstantial evidence points to abortion
centers in some parts of the country showing more
abortions than the previous year or two.

And
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, the nation's
largest abortion business, confirmed in a recent email to supporters
that the poor economy is yielding abortion
increases.

That's
good news to Erbe.

"The
recession is driving American demand for contraception and for abortions.
The media have been riven this past week with stories about the rising
number of couples and single mothers doing the math and deciding this
is no time to bring a child into the world," Erbe writes.

"The
media have also been rife with stories portraying this trend as something
of a tragedy," she continues. "Let me propose a counter
view: it is not."

Erbe
focused on a heart-wrenching story of one mother in a recent Associated
Press report who indicated she decided to have an abortion of a baby
who would have been her fourth child because she and her boyfriend
can't afford to have the baby now that he lost his job.

"Can
we agree that this unwed couple's decision not to bring a fourth child
into the world when they are having trouble feeding themselves and
three children is no tragedy?"

She
called the abortion "no tragedy: it's a good decision.

Erbe
complained that raising children "is expensive" to raise
children and that the couple's abortion decision "benefits society."

Those
benefits? More time with the children who didn't become victims of
abortion and an assumption that the couple won't have to rely on public
support by having a fourth child.

Erbe
has a long history of promoting abortion.

In
January, Erbe complained
that the state of Mississippi saw the highest increase in the teen
birthrate only because pro-life advocates have enacted more abortion
limits than any other states and closed down abortion businesses.

For
the pro-life side, a rise in teen births leads to the obvious conclusion
that fewer teenagers are having abortions when confronted with a teen
pregnancy.

But
for Erbe, that wasn't good news.

"Hats
off to the religious right once again, this time for Mississippi's
latest honor—that of being the state with the highest teen birthrate
in the nation," she writes. Erbe complained that "religious
abortion foes (and most abortion foes are religiously driven) have
helped drive up the teen birthrate."

"I
attribute this honor, in great part, to antiabortion activists in
the state who succeeded in shutting down six of the state's seven"
abortion centers, Erbe added.

In
February she wrote an editorial column entitled "Antiabortion
Fanatics' New Invasive Attack: The Forced Ultrasound." The opinion
piece attacked bills that allow a woman to see an ultrasound of her
unborn baby before an abortion. The bills will help women and reduce
the number of abortions.

Erbe,
who also hosts the PBS "To the Contrary" show, slammed as
"fanatics" lawmakers in the states that are considering
such bills. She insisted she was not mad at "average, conservative,
pro-life voters," but those average joes are the very folks who
elect the state legislators considering these laws.

Ken
Shepherd of the Media Research Center responded: "If the right
to an abortion is really about a woman's choice, then it logically
follows that a fully-informed choice is a proper concern for public
policy makers on the state level. But don't tell that to Erbe."

"Of
course, a mandatory ultrasound in and of itself doesn't stop an abortion,
but it drives home the moral weight of the act of abortion, such that
it may lead some women to forsake an abortion procedure," he
added.

Email
your complaints about her new column to bonnieerbe@CompuServe.com