Benjamin Sumner's Website

Abortion is one of the few topics that people on either side of the debate are applauded by enablers for shouting mantras, announcing flawed arguments, and name-calling while holding their fingers in their ears toward opposing views. And as expected, extremist pundits have come out to discuss Kermit Gosnell, a Pennsylvania abortion doctor who is accused of delivering live babies and murdering them with scissors, as well as other charges.

On Google, I’ve subscribed to news alerts for Dr. Gosnell and tried to read every last article that came across. What I found were opinions that were so flawed that anyone who can set aside their views on abortion for one minute and dissect them would realize that these folks have no business in these discussions. Free speech is one thing, but dumb speech is another, and dumb speech on abortion is too often accepted as if it adds anything to the discussion.

Let’s look at the extremists on both sides of the debate.

The most extreme antiabortion folks are blaming the Roe vs. Wade decision for Gosnell’s horrors. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Gosnell’s actions would be multiplied if it weren’t for Roe vs. Wade. That’s not to justify the decision, but ‘back alley’ and illegal abortions are just as much a cause for concern for the antiabortion movement as ‘clean’ and legal ones.

The most extreme pro-abortion rights advocates are blaming the antiabortion folks for Gosnell, which is just as silly. They claim that it’s restrictions on abortion that enabled Dr. Gosnell to operate. After all, if abortion were cheap and/or publicly funded, and easy to get, women would do it earlier in the pregnancy without resorting to going to Dr. Gosnell.

This argument is absurd to the largest degree possible and folks who even uttered these words clearly didn’t read past the second paragraph of any news article announcing the facts of the case. Dr. Gosnell made millions doing what he did, charging women an arm and a leg (no pun intended) for the procedure. Women often went to him because other abortion doctors turned them down since they were too far along in their pregnancy. If anything, the women ended up spending far more money to get rid of their late-term pregnancy. Seems to me that: The woman (and man) often bypassed using contraceptives (cheapest alternative), bypassed an early-term abortion (relatively cheap), then paid thousands of dollars to Dr. Gosnell for what they knew was an illegal procedure, only to suffer the consequences. Obviously, circumstances differ for each woman but it’s hard to see someone as a victim if they willingly entered Dr. Gosnell’s office. And somehow, this is the antiabortion movement’s fault?

The antiabortion folks need to work on changing the hearts and minds of people who feel there’s nothing wrong with abortion. Legalized abortion or not, no sensible person wants unsafe abortions to happen. Overturning Roe vs. Wade won’t help that cause, but only lead to more people like Dr. Gosnell.

The abortion rights advocates, particularly those on the extreme left, need to recognize that regulations on abortion, like in any industry, are put in place for a reason. It was politically-driven regulation failures that allowed Dr. Gosnell to operate for decades. Many argue that Bernie Madoff operated the same way as his connections with the SEC led to decades of illegal activity. While regulation in any industry often slows down progress, we’ve clearly seen the consequences of its failures in the banking industry and now the abortion industry.

But we’ve also seen the most unhelpful of them all: Those who refuse to see the obvious and only blame their opponents, while capturing the minds of drones who don’t think for themselves. Fortunately, in the case of Dr. Gosnell, the Grand Jury actually explored how this happened and who is to blame, and justice will be served. Then, those with extreme and foolish views will be back to spouting their absurd arguments.