Thursday, May 7, 2009

Party on, Garth

If there are two sides to Garth George - a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - then today's piece is back on form for the latter. No longer sated by those Raetihi pies, Garth wades back into the abortion debate, querying the lack of reporting of the Health and Disability Commissioner's finding that certain DHBs have been failing their responsibilities to consumers by not offering women considering an abortion a look at their ultrasound. From what I can tell, and I might be wrong, no one has been stopping women looking at ultrasounds - they just haven't been offering the choice.

The complainant is in this case was the anti-abortion lobby group Right to Life. Yes, you read that right, an anti-abortion group are concerned because women are being offered a lack of choice.

This decision will have national repercussions since a survey last year revealed that a number of DHBs do not offer women considering an abortion the chance to see their scans; they have to ask.

It is important, too, because studies in the United States have shown that inviting women to view their scans causes many, recognising the child's humanity, to decide against an abortion and to give birth to their babies. Pregnancy counselling services report that the number of women who change their minds after seeing an ultrasound scan varies between 62 and 95 per cent.

Pregnancy counselling services, you say? Such as? Why does it vary like that? Here's another explanation of that alleged statistic: 62 to 95 per cent of women are guilt-tripped by the anti-abortion establishment into doing something they are not comfortable with - keeping an unwanted baby. A silly generalisation, but no worse than the condescending claim that women can't make a decision about their bodies without the abortion equivalent of those gruesome warning pictures on cigarette packets.

Meanwhile, Right to Life are also pushing in court - fortunately almost certainly fruitlessly - to have a foetus considered as a person regarding the Bill of Rights:
The Crown, on behalf of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, will, of course, oppose that.
God damn Nanny State, telling me what to do with my body... oh wait. I wonder where Garth gets his philosophical, medical and logical arguments from? Public reason? Democratic consensus? An understanding of the neurological development of the foetus?
I thank God that this dedicated group of Kiwis is prepared to continue to fight the good fight for the sanctity of life, no matter what the cost. They deserve our fervent prayers.
As Monty Python used to say: "Oh, what a giveaway."

17 comments:

  1. Well the good news is at least the pro-choice movement will continue to have the advantage as the anti-abortion movement continue to wait for the omniscient sky-fairy to listen, then act on their fervent prayers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "the abortion equivalent of those gruesome warning pictures on cigarette packets.That's GOLD.

    I thought about mocking one up ("Abortion Causes Murdered Babies" or something) along with a picture, and photoshopping it to the side of a hospital and sharing the picture with everyone here but... have you seen what an abortion looks like??? God damn. Makes mouth cancer look like fresh strawberries. If they put those warnings on no-one would want babies, let alone abortions...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought the article was reeeeeasonably measured in tone. I mean, Garth George + abortion should = fire and brimstone rant. No surprise Garth George is anti-choice right? So I was expecting some hilarious bang for my fundamentalist buck.

    Main comments: 1) creepy use (by Ron Patterson) of the word 'consumer' in relation to women seeking abortions. I mean, it's still only de rigeur to eat the placenta, not aborted foetuses, right? And 2) the ruling that women should be informed of their right to view the scan gets transmogrified by Garthy to become 'inviting' women to see scans, which sounds a lot more like there's the accompanying inducement of a lollipop or similar for the good little murderers who accept the invite.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'll be sure to seek Garth George's well considered philosophical guidance and expert medical advice the next time i'm faced with a personal delimma. He doesn't at all sound like he's vomiting up rhetoric 'religious right' style of the kind which might gain him employment on the Fox News network. Praaiise the Lord!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry to change the subject for a moment but a new article is just in from Claire Trevett - "Key admits bungle over Maori visit to Fiji". Date and time is 4am, Friday 8th May. Hang on a minute! It is currently 6:51pm, Thursday 7 May. I realise this strange phenomenon has already been noted, but what really IS up with the clocks at the NZH?

    ReplyDelete
  6. EDITORIAL CRACKPIPEMay 7, 2009 at 7:13 PM

    I looked at my ultrasound and I still decided against keeping the peanut. I'm sorry, but at 6 weeks I'm not going to be swayed by the "humanity" of my peanut.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I woke up this morning even more enraged at this piece. It may not have the 'fire and brimstone' of classic Garth, but it more than makes up it in totally bogus arguments. It just blows me away that he still gets a forum like this.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gwan - at the HDC, 'consumer' is always used regarding the person who received/sought treatment and 'provider' is used to describe the person who provided health services. They're the terms used in the HDC Act, so it was hardly the intention for it to be 'creepy'...

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Omniscient sky-fairy"

    Nice...gonna have to use that one!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm sure it wasn't intended to be creepy. But it still was! And yeah of course I don't agree with Garth, I just wanted more of a rant out of him. Arguably it's worse if he's not ranting, because his arguments may seem more plausible... but not as much fun to read.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gwan, if you feel you're not getting your RDI of religious right ranting from Mr George, may I suggest a daily course of Mr Glen Beck courtesy of the Fox News Network.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I used to love Fox News back when I was insomniac and they showed it all night on Prime! Now I rarely get the chance to enjoy their comic stylings, alas...

    ReplyDelete
  13. yeah, there were back to back comedy shows, Letterman followed by Fox ;) Oh those were they days...

    ReplyDelete
  14. At least now there's the Daily Show... but sadly having to get up every day at the crack of dawn (well, practically) and go to work has sucked the insomniac right out of me & struggle to stay awake to watch it. Stupid work! At least it allows me much more than enough latitude to waste time on James's blog...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Whenever they suggest ultrasounds should be shown to women or that there should be cooling periods I'm reminded of a Sarah Silverman gag:


    (Talking about a 24-hour cooling off period before abortion)

    'I think it's a good law,' she said. 'The other day I really, really wanted to get an abortion. I totally did. But then I thought about it and it turned out I was just thirsty...'

    ReplyDelete
  16. Fisking Garth George is always fun. Been doing it for years: http://uroskin.blogspot.com/search/label/Fisking%20Garth%20George

    ReplyDelete
  17. Several times I visit this blog. Got many unknown information from this site. Thank you very much for your most excellent, well written article. Check Engine Light Fort Worth

    ReplyDelete