RedState is running an Erick Erickson post that claims the Obama Administration has ordered a cover-up of abortion data. Erickson claims he has “confirmed” with the press office of the Center for Disease Control that “the Obama administration is deliberately playing ‘hide the ball’ on nationwide abortion statistics.”
For apparently the first time in 40 years, the CDC’s annual “Abortion Surveillance Report†was not published, and there are “no plans†for the data to be produced at this time.
According to the CDC website, they’re still working on the report. And the CDC has denied the allegation, saying a report will come out later this month.
I found no evidence that this alleged “deep-sixing” came from anywhere else but Erick Erickson’s imagination. Of course, it will now be added to the elaborate mythology (e.g., abortion causes breast cancer) the pro-criminalization mob has constructed around abortion. No amount of evidence, or lack thereof, will ever persuade them the allegation isn’t true. Just watch; even after the report comes out, they’ll find some reason to claim it isn’t the “real” report.
For several years, anti-abortion activists have been making all kinds of claims about the goings-on in abortion clinics. You’ll remember the late Dr. George Tiller was hauled into court several times on bogus charges. No amount of dismissals and “not guilty” verdicts ever convinced the Fetus People that Tiller was not breaking the law, however. Their reaction to the outrageous and illegal practices of Dr. Kermit Gosnell is the completely unsupported conclusion that Gosnell’s practices are somehow typical of how all abortion clinics are run.
In fact, the Gosnell case is typical of something else that’s a problem — every now and then some colossally incompetent physician will make the news for doing something stupid, leading to a lot of discussion about how in the world this fool was allowed to practice for so long. No one seems to have a solution to that one.
For example, last year a Baltimore cardiologist was found to have placed more than 500 stents in a patient who didn’t need even one. Turns out he’d been making a good living doing unnecessary procedures on mostly healthy people. I don’t see anyone making hysterical claims that every cardiovascular surgeon in the U.S. is doing the same thing, however.
Anti-abortion operatives have been trying to catch abortion clinics doing something illegal for years. So, the recent attempt by an associate of James O’Keefe to entrap Planned Parenthood clinics by posing as a child sex trafficker is just a long line of such attempts. After multiple tries at multiple clinics in six states the posers found one lamebrain employee who fell into the trap, and who was later fired. The resulting highly edited video was triumphantly released to the public as proof that Planned Parenthood enables child sex trafficking.
But the attempts to entrap clinic workers caused Planned Parenthood to alert federal authorities about a possible sex trafficking ring, which to a reasonable person would be solid evidence that Planned Parenthood does not condone sex trafficking. Naturally, the “reasonable person” criterion leaves out Live Action, the group that sponsored the video.
All this desperation is just evidence that the fetus people are losing the American people and they know it. They have to create these phony scenario’s to re-kindle interest in their cause. I don’t think anyone’s buying any of it with the exception of the side drooling dimwits that watch FAUX news and or read redstate,hate, worldnet, sludge report etc.
Erick son of Erick is projecting. It was Reagan the Great’s Surgeon Gen. Everett Koop who concealed a report that didn’t support his anti-abortion prejudices. As you point out, no such similar thing has been done by the current administration.
I think uncledad is spot-on about the desperation.
We’ve gone from the great, great Hunter S. Thompson’s “Gonzo” journalism, to “Gotcha” journalism. And, even if there’s nothing there to really show, well, show it anyway since it creates confusion in the minds of people.
It’s bad enough when Radio Rushwanda, and FOX drum up this BS, it’s another when CNN covers it. Like that Planned Parenthood nonsense. Yesterday, some woman reporter on CNN started to treat the Planned Parenthood situation from a FOX angle – on what one person said or did, and not on the fact that the organization notified the authorities and tried to deal with this incursion proactively.
Needless to say, I screamed, and changed the channel. This reporter had bought the BS hook, line, and sinker. Are there no editors there?
As for that horrible asshole Erickson, I don’t really care a bit what he says or does on RedState. That’s between him and his lemmings. But for CNN to have him on should be an offense to anyone who ever really considers themselves a journalists. He’s a propagandist.
What, CNN, after you let Glenn Beck leave from CNN Headline News, you needed another propagandistic conspiratiorial moron to give airtime to?
CNN, if you want to try to be FOX, just let us know. But you’ll NEVER beat FOX. Just like Democrats who try to run as Republicans, people will vote for the real one, just like they’ll watch their real deal, and not some wannabe. You used to be a really good news organization. Break out the video’s from the ’80’s to the ’90’s when you set the pace, and not the semi-FOX wannabe you’ve become. Go back to doing straight news. Leave FOX to the rabid right, and leave the few people on MSNBC who give a liberal view, their own channels. Try covering the news straight. And maybe add a “Media Watch” segment where you do some “Media Matters” type of analysis of news given around the country, fact-checking others. Those would be far more worthwhile than giving the Erickson’s and Pam Gellers of the country air time to spout their BS. Especially if you don’t call them on it.
As for Gosnell, and the Baltimore MD, there have always been doctors who do malpractice, or over-extend themselves too much, or try to do procedures they weren’t fully trained on.
Eventually, most of them get caught. Usually because of a preponderance of malpractive lawsuits, which, if the conservatives have their way, will be more difficult, which will make these people even harder to catch. DUH! But that’s what passes for conservative logic these days.
Slightly OT, and on a lighter note – I seem to remember, and maybe you do too maha, back in the ’80’s there was this Dr. who had ads for rectal and hemmorhoid laser surgery on damn near every subway car . He opened clinics all over NYC.
He basically ran an asshole mill. And he mangled enough asses and sphincters that eventually he had the shit sued out of him by former patients, was arrested, sent to jail, and lost his license. This happened in the late ’80’s or early ’90’s. I can’t remember his name (And no, it wasn’t Dr. Seymour Butz, wiseguys!). Believe it or not, I think he called himself Dr. Tush, or Dr. Tushy, or something along those lines. I googled, but I couldn’t find him. I felt awful for his patients, but I remember having a few laughs at this doctors expense, bad as that sounds. Maha, do you, or anyone else remember, or am I losing my mind?
Like I said, OT…
Fabricating evidence? Given high unemployment and the loss of manufacturing jobs, at least America is finally fabricating something. However, don’t rush to the right-wing looking for a job. The market is glutted and even bobbleheads have their bubbles.
A little correction: The article about the guy in Baltimore says he put 500 stents in patients who didn’t need them–not in a patient who didn’t need them.
Did anyone else read that Planned Parenthood is, in particular and specifically, advocating abortion to pregnant women who are black? And where is this odd wingnut accusation headed? Planned Parenthood is a racist organization.
Which leads me to the following: Obama’s mother, to escape the clutches of Planned Parenthood, snuck off to Kenya to give birth to Obama. A week later she snuck back to Hawaii with a forged Hawaiian birth certificate (courtesy of some clever Kenyan) and managed to get it ‘planted’ in the Hawaiian County Clerks Office. (I’m surprised that Birthers haven’t figured this out yet.)
Well your comments were closed on the earlier post, so I followed your trackback here to say that you make a really good point here:
“And, frankly, if you want to abort because you don’t want to go through the pregnancy, which I understand, waiting until the third trimester makes no sense. At that point, you’ve pretty much gone through the pregnancy.”
I’ll add something purely personal, not a political argument. Even in the earlier weeks, that little fetus is still awfully baby-like. I remember the sonogram at 11 weeks gestation, showing my little guy moving his arms and legs like a baby in its crib. He was 3 inches long at the time. I marvelled, a bit morbidly perhaps, at the fact that I was allowed snuff him out if I so chose to do so.
Maybe we could take the political aspect of this topic down a notch, and just agree that no babies get have their spinal cords severed with scissors after being born alive.
Abortion is about life and death, and it’s very personal, so everyone gets awfully defensive.
cheers
oops, should have their spinal cords severed. pardon the typo