Why I Perform Abortions: A Christian Obstetrician Explains His Choice

nj.com:

Willie J. Parker, an obstetrician based in Washington, D.C., didn't always perform abortions. He's a Christian from Birmingham, Ala., who initially refused to even consider the procedure.

Read the whole story: nj.com

Comments

[Hans Bickel]

07:19 AM on 05/31/2012

Whenever there is an unacceptable situation that affronts human dignity, whether it be the holocaust, killing fields, abortion, or any other form of tyranny and terrorism, there are those who find a way to justify their role in it. They are traitors to humanity and will be dealt with accordingly by karma, if nothing else.

[ChaCubed]

12:04 PM on 06/06/2012

Karma is wishful thinking.

[Hans Bickel]

02:12 PM on 06/06/2012

Karma is well documented in all scriptures. Therefore its denial is "wishful thinking."

[Micheal Anderson]

01:40 PM on 05/30/2012

I'll pray for this mans safety, because he just put a target on his back by making a public statement. Now they know how he is.

[onionboy]

12:40 PM on 05/30/2012

"King said what made the good Samaritan 'good' is that instead of focusing on would happen to him by stopping to help the traveler, he was more concerned about what would happen to the traveler if he didn’t stop to help."

Man, that's a wise quote.

[Hans Bickel]

02:09 AM on 05/30/2012

Fools rush in where angels dare to tread.

[tree456]

10:15 PM on 05/29/2012

He's NOT a Christian and claiming he puts shame on Jesus Christ.

[giftsthatpurr]

12:20 PM on 05/30/2012

Deepest apologies. He forgot to ask you if it was okay for him to be a christian.

[tree456]

07:48 PM on 05/30/2012

How is his actions Christ like? Please tell me. Then, if you can back up your defense with solid proof from the Bible.

[Ginny Waller]

12:45 PM on 05/30/2012

Who the heck are you to assert that someone who believes he is a Christian is not? He sounds very Christ like to me. You don't.

[tree456]

07:21 PM on 05/30/2012

His fruits say he is not. Christ said no good tree shall bear bad fruit and no bad tree shall bear good fruit.  God commanded thou shall not murder.  How much more clear can it be for your eyes to see? 

[strangerallthetime]

05:15 PM on 05/29/2012

Casey Anthony wanted an abortion, but her mother refused. So, she took care of that unwanted child her own way. Think an abortion might have been better? How many babies and children have to die, before so called christians get the message? Don't FORCE a woman into having a child,unless you godly individuals LIKE the battering and abusing that leads to the child's death.

[johfrewal]

06:32 PM on 05/29/2012

What is so wrong with giving the child up at birth if you don't want the child? Why is not being wanted a Death sentence? Child abuse will go on even if we kill 50 million more babies in the next 30 years. The only woman who is forced into having a child is the woman who is raped. Adoption is not a dirty word. Not that long ago a girl or woman who got pregnant would go to a home for unwed mothers and ether learn who to be a mother or make arrangements for the child's adoption. Whats wrong with that if you do something stupid and get yourself pregnant do the time for the sake of a innocent life. Why are prochoicers so selfish when it comes to the child they only think about their needs. Try to think about the innocent child first and maybe you will see the joy of being a giver instead of a taker.

[strangerallthetime]

07:03 PM on 05/29/2012

Abortion is the right choice for many women, and YOU do not have the right to judge ANY woman. Too many women are shamed into keeping unwanted babies, and they DO abuse the innocent lives. I think abortion is kinder than being beaten to death as a toddler.

[blue rylie]

09:43 PM on 05/29/2012

Homes for unwed mothers still exist, and adoption is certainly not a dirty word. Adoption, however, does nothing for a woman unwilling to carry a pregnancy to term, whether for health reasons, medical reasons, financial reasons, educational reasons, relationship reasons, or otherwise. Adoption is one choice, but it's not the default right choice. My biological mother chose to have me, and she acknowledges that it was an extremely difficult choice and one that has haunted her for most of her life, that said she wouldn't change the choice she made. Nor would she take choice away from another woman. She made the choice that was right for her, based on her life, her beliefs, and her situation and she thinks all women need to be afforded that same basic right.

[Micheal Anderson]

01:41 PM on 05/30/2012

Yeah, I support abortion rights, but that's a massive stretch.

[iamone3]

02:07 PM on 05/29/2012

Ecclesiastes 11:5
Just as you are not aware of what is the way of the spirit in the bones in the belly of her that is pregnant, in like manner you do not know the work of the true God who does all things.

Parker is a false christian.

[aljonanadjosmom]

04:02 PM on 05/29/2012

Why do people persist on following the old testament? Jesus was all about forgiveness and love and tolerance. Because you can quote one verse of scripture, do you also follow each and every verse? What about the verse - you who are without sin can cast the first stone? are you without sin? Just because he doesn't agree with you he's a false christian? I think you are as you should not judge others, yet you do.

[vrede]

04:21 PM on 05/29/2012

exactly..what is more against Jesus teachings then judging others? they are not christians. they are judgmental, deciding what they think God wants. doesn't it say something about judgement being made when you die?
How do they come by the authority of God?
this is why I am sick of so called christians. act like one then we will respect your belief. Go help the needy instead of cursing them.

[tree456]

10:46 PM on 05/29/2012

What about the verse? You seem to throw around verses with out giving site of where that verse is at and the meaning of that verse. Please explain to us "the verse" your pulling from and how it actually supports what God has already deemed a sin. Let me refresh you. Thou sall not kill. Exodus 20:13 That dosen't mean not to kill unless you feel your doing the right thing. God already established Murder was wrong regardless if we feel we're helping. Paul thought he was helping God by killing Christians before Christ blinded him in Acts chapter 9. The full scripture of Ecclesiastes 11:5 say, As thou knowest not what is the way of the sprit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. So what your doing is taking God's own word and using it against His own word. This Doctor is a false Christian and you are defending him now what does that make you. Christ is the Old Testament. Your fruit say's you were not aware of this nor other passages you seem to claim authority. Maybe try a bible study to bring you in understand of His word before you slaughter it and put shame upon our Lord Jesus Christ's head.

[synergie]

10:04 PM on 05/29/2012

As are you.

[kp1975]

01:56 PM on 05/29/2012

I have never chosen abortion for myself and am not a supporter of the practice. That said, I also do not try to force my views on others. Other women may have a good reason for choosing that path and if they are emotionally and physically prepared to deal with the post-abortion effects, then that is their choice. However, I have a friend who has had 4 abortions in her life. All were because her birth control failed. Her exact words to me were "Every time I have to go in for one of these, a piece of me dies." She has been in counseling and has attempted suicide on more than one occassion to "be with her babies". Granted, I can see an underlying mental health issue as well but her torment has served as a reminder to me of how devastating this can be to someone who is unprepared for the consequences. I personally feel a child is a child from the moment of conception. It does not ask to be conceived but once conceived it is alive in some form. And I respectfully disagree with this doctor on viability as there have been several documented instance of children as early as 22 weeks being born and surviving with no adverse effects. 25 weeks is a guideline but not a hard, fast rule on viability.

[kp1975]

09:04 AM on 05/30/2012

She now has a child that she adores and has really gotten her act together. However, as her friend, my job wasn't to judge her. My job was to be there and help her. I did not agree with her decision but she made a choice and it wasn't mine to make for her. I will say that she never waited until her 2nd trimester. All of her abortions were at 8 weeks of so. Not that it makes it any easier to swallow but I only hope since the brain is not fully formed that the embryo did not feel a thing.

[giftsthatpurr]

12:53 PM on 05/30/2012

Those men should stop having sex with a woman they are not willing to have a child with and start having sex only with their wives.

[beaniecapguy]

11:55 PM on 05/28/2012

I wonder what percentage of women in the US who have had an abortion identify as Christian?

[DailyAlice]

07:22 AM on 05/29/2012

I would not know, but you might be surprised. Not all Christians are fundamentalist. And do remember that abortion is virtually unmentioned in the New Testament.

[johfrewal]

07:49 PM on 05/29/2012

Airplanes are not in the Bible should we stop using them? Right is right, wrong is wrong. Abortion of a healthy child is Murder in the 1st degree, it that simple.

[melodisong2]

06:42 AM on 05/30/2012

I think you're right. Also some of them are actually intelligent but I think that number is shrinking.

[synergie]

10:27 AM on 05/29/2012

A rather high number. If you limit that just to anti-choice conservative Christian, it would still be a high number.

[ruthsdaughter]

11:02 AM on 05/29/2012

synergie, my last responses to your comments have been posted directly back to me. If you care what my response was (and I doubt it!) you'll need to check the thread.

[MarsAmbassador]

08:09 PM on 05/28/2012

Roe v. Wade isn't exclusivel­­y about abortion. It's about personal privacy and legal establishm­­ent of the fact that the government doesn't own our bodies. It's the ULTIMATE ruling regarding privacy, personal freedom, physical autonomy and liberty from tyranny of the government­­. It ruled that YOU own your body, not the government (or corporatio­­ns or individual­­s). THAT is where the legal basis for abortion comes from. It's amazing to me how many people don't understand this.

The plutocrats want to own everything­­, including us. They have employed the religious right to oppose Roe v. Wade on the abortion and religious grounds (while promising them power in return), and the corporate oligarchy attacks our privacy from the other side, but it's a smokescree­­n for their proxy war against owning us wholesale. Strike Roe v. Wade down and you destroy our personal liberty far greater than anything you could possibly imagine.

[andycooke]

11:39 PM on 05/28/2012

Thank you for your rational words on this subject. Other than saying that I will stay out of this one...with the exception of my vote.

[vrede]

04:31 PM on 05/29/2012

Thank you for reminding us what it is really about. You are so right on!!!!!!!!!!! F&F

[blue rylie]

08:16 PM on 05/28/2012

The woman's life, the woman's liberty, and the woman's pursuit of happiness are the ones that come first.

[goatini]

08:44 PM on 05/28/2012

The woman is the ONLY person in the equation.

[goatini]

08:37 PM on 05/28/2012

Forcing a person to continue an unwanted pregnancy, one of the most dangerous and risky health conditions that exists, against her express will and wishes, is NOT, ahem, what you so casually call "help available". That is putting a person through cruel and inhuman torture. What a way to dehumanize the innocent living, breathing WOMAN - to focus entirely on what is only potential and is NOT a person.

YOU think torturing someone is "help", which is why it is clear to anyone with a conscience that you do NOT "care about the women too" - with even your insulting afterthought of a "too" showing how YOU think the ONLY PERSON in the equation - the living, breathing WOMAN - is NOTHING compared to a non-person that is only potential. Sick.

YOU are the one perpetuating sad, undignified views of women, as you are the one who thinks women are nothing more than livestock. There is ONE PERSON in a pregnancy and that is the living, breathing WOMAN.

You fetus fetishists couldn't care less about ruining the life of the ONLY person in the equation, ruining her possibilities, ruining her opportunities, perhaps ruining her entire life forever, perhaps even killing her in a tragic pregnancy that went horribly wrong - ALL AGAINST HER WILL. You believe in torturing REAL living breathing WOMEN. The women have lives. Respect them. Stop trying to strip us of our civil, human and Constitutional rights and stop trying to impose your theocratic misogyny on our

[smduib]

10:15 PM on 05/28/2012

Goatini, I don't know why you are unable to have a civil debate. But I will try to maintain my respect. You don't know me, so you don't know that I support women through many avenues, which includes those with an unwanted pregnancy and post abortion healing. I have seen the devastating impact of women who regret their abortion. My goal is to see women be completely informed about such a permanent decision and my hope is that more hearts and minds are changed, legal or not. I wonder if you looked at the link provided which shows the fetus at different stages, or would you rather be in the dark.You do the woman no justice by completely ignoring what occurs during an abortion. I don't know whether you're a mother, but having experienced 4 pregnancies myself, I hardly think it would qualify as torture. You seriously misrepresent the facts when you say it's dangerous to be pregnant. As I said in a previous post, the maternal death rate is 0.016%
www.who.int/topics/maternal_health/en/
From your side I see a lot of rhetoric, but no facts.
 

[imfedup]

04:32 PM on 05/28/2012

Excellent interview.

See Cider House Rules.

[giftsthatpurr]

03:52 PM on 05/28/2012

To those who are against or would outlaw abortion ie: make it illegal, you do realize that it would not stop or even curtail abortion from happening don't you? Dr. Waldo L. Fielding has written about that. His writing follows:

Before Roe v. Wade

"Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off.

The worst case I saw... was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord...as soon as we examined her, we realized...[that it] was... part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.

It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days.

What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such."

Dr. Waldo L. Fielding

[beaniecapguy]

12:02 AM on 05/29/2012

That's great information. Thanks for sharing it. There has never been any question about abortion for me so I haven't often looked very deeply at what others have said about it or into its history. From early on I have always just assumed that it was a woman's private matter and that was the end of the discussion for me.

[giftsthatpurr]

12:40 AM on 05/29/2012

It is always good to read a comment by a sensible person.  fav'd

[JanC86]

09:45 AM on 05/29/2012

Agree 100%. It's between a woman and her doctor.

[MTinMO]

03:34 AM on 05/29/2012

Agreed. Fanned and faved.

[lhoffman5]

03:49 PM on 05/28/2012

PAGE 2 merciful god would allow this to happen. What if the women is pregnant due to a crime, you know rape, or incest, SAVE the MOTHER, castrate the guy who did it, do NOT punish the innocent. It is well past time for all Organized Religions to step back and take a really good look at the world around them. Your 2000 year old rules, written by men, not god, are not working out so well. Religion in and of itself is a wonderful thing and has helped the world to grow and learn! It is just that religion has not grown and learned. Time gentlemen and clerics of all persuasions is NOT on you SIDE! Oh before you start deluging me with how I will have to answer to "HIM" on my judgement day, I will do that with pride. "LORD, I took the free will that you gave me, and used it to the best of my ability, to help not hinder!" I am more than willing to take my chances at the gate! .

[blue rylie]

04:59 PM on 05/28/2012

F&F well said.

[vrede]

04:43 PM on 05/29/2012

fanned ..excellent point about judgement and having free will. if almighty God wanted us all to think alike we would not have free will. This means to each his own. So many people police running around judging others. shame on them.

[lhoffman5]

04:59 PM on 05/29/2012

Thanks

[lhoffman5]

03:41 PM on 05/28/2012

As you can see, I am older, and I have had questions about religious positions on abortions for a really long time. So maybe now is a good time to ask it again. If I make any mistakes on interp?retation I have no fear, I'll be corrected (might even be told I am going to be warm in the hereafter l o l ) Is it not basically about the right to life? And, All life is scared? And, only God can take a life? Am I okay so far? I think so, so I will proceed. If all of the previous are true who decided that the not born yet fetus is more valuable than the mother? If, sadly, the fetus does not make it, in most cases the mother could have another child. If the Mother dies who or what is served? For the sake of discussion, take a family of four Pop, Mom, two kids, mom gets pregnant, had problems, and religions says and people do, save the baby! What benefit was there to the logic: now we have a single father, three children, one being an infant who NEEDS THE MOTHER, except she is dead! Why would GOD decide to punish the Father and the two older children with the loss of the Mother? Sorry ladies, gentlemen, and all you religious fanatics, and clerics who seem to NOT know what god wants. Because NO Great, , (see page two)

[cfisher000]

11:57 AM on 05/29/2012

Answers:
"And, All life is scared? And, only God can take a life?"

God delagates to the government to execute criminals and to individuals for self defense and even revenge killing.

"If all of the previous are true who decided that the not born yet fetus is more valuable than the mother?"

Triage is not the same as abortion. The goal should always be to save both. Never do you have to kill the baby to save the mother (you do not stop half way when removing the baby to kill it).

"Why would GOD decide to punish the Father and the two older children with the loss of the Mother?"

See above.

[lhoffman5]

01:56 PM on 05/29/2012

okay

[aljonanadjosmom]

04:06 PM on 05/29/2012

Did you actually read what you wrote? God delegates to the governemnt the execution of criminals? Please show me where that's written in the bible.

[vrede]

04:56 PM on 05/29/2012

hey your talking common sense and logic.. with sheep it goes in and out the same ear..

good example .. a friend of my mothers ..catholic.. had to go to the hospital for birth complications..she had all her other 7 children at home..they saved the baby and had to let her go because the baby had to be saved first by their belief. no mother 8 children living in poverty. they ended up being split up.

[lhoffman5]

06:01 PM on 05/29/2012

you should see the one or two responses i got that do not agree! whew really bad news. Truly sorry abt mom's friend. Not a necessary result!