Pro-Abortion Blogger Under Fire for Posting Abortion Methods on Internet

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 15, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Abortion Blogger Under Fire for Posting Abortion Methods on Internet Email this article
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by Maria Vitale
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
March 15, 2006

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The blogosphere is abuzz with a new debate: Should a blogger be able to detail explicit directions for a surgical abortion in cyberspace?

“For the Women of South Dakota: An Abortion Manual” gives step-by-step instructions for a dilation and curettage, or D&C abortion, and may have directions for a vacuum-aspiration abortion in the future.

The blog is reportedly the work of a 21-year-old Florida resident who goes by the pseudonym “Molly Blythe.” She says she posted the information in reaction to South Dakota passing a ban on virtually all abortions. The blogger has no medical background, according to the Seattle Times newspaper.

The blogger told the Seattle Times, “If anyone has a problem with this and they don’t think non-doctors should perform medical procedures, there’s a simple way to guarantee that won’t happen: Make sure Roe v. Wade is not overturned.”

The blog—known as “Molly Saves the Day,” is described as providing “feminist issues, liberal talk and news analysis from a former journalist turned phone sex operator.” The blogger says she’s received nearly 700 e-mails since the posting.

Olivia Gans, director of American Victims of Abortion, an outreach program of National Right to Life, said in the Seattle Times article that she finds it “terrifying that anyone could advocate creating a subculture in which this dangerous, potentially deadly practice would be performed.”

Gans, who regrets her 1981 abortion, said that such “scare tactics” are used by “pro-abortion groups whose agenda is more important than women’s lives.”

Meanwhile, Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation told the Seattle Times, “Women want to be treated by a medical professional, not by a friend. I don’t see Roe falling. And if it were to fall, there’d be enough states where abortion was still legal that women could get on a bus.”

The blogger said that President Bush’s recent appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court have made her worry that abortion will not be widely available in the future.

“I’m not advocating back-alley abortions,” the blogger told the Seattle Times. “But we need to make this information available. I firmly believe that abortion is something that can be done by someone who is not an M.D.”

Still, the blogger’s abortion instruction manual is hardly a new idea. From 1969 to 1973, members of the Jane movement of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union learned how to perform abortions and ran secret abortion centers in apartment buildings.

There is increasing evidence to show that abortion is a dangerous practice—whether it’s legal or not. For instance, the Elliot Institute, an organization which studies the after-effects of abortion, notes that women who have had abortions are far more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, to attempt suicide, and to be hospitalized for psychiatric illness.