Does This Not Raise Some Questions? Journalistic Cowardice in the Abortion Debate

Artist Hanged Herself after Aborting Her Twins

As a woman, I find the above article insulting and infuriating for the questions it does not bother to ask.

Go ahead and read it. Then start breaking it down.

The headline in itself is enough to jolt your nerves. I don't know about you, but I hear "hanged" and something in me thuds. Then you read "Aborting" and "Twins."

We move on to the first line: "An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: 'I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum.'"

Conclusions a child (if God forbid they were exposed to this) could draw: This woman thought she wouldn't be a good mom, so she got an abortion. Getting an abortion ends your chance to be a mom. But the woman changed her mind about her qualifications and actions, and because of her consuming guilt, she killed herself. That raises up natural questions about the nature of abortion, such as: How many women feel this way after abortion? Do all women who go through it really want to abort their babies? Is counseling enough for women faced with this decision? Keep those questions in mind.

Then we move on to the third paragraph, also taken from the suicide note: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does."

For lack of a better way to say it: This line says it all. Or rather, the last three lines do. Those babies were real. The mother's grief following recognition of her act and its consequences is real too. There is raw emotion in those lines. And you have the image of what followed the note to validate it.

But the rest of the article does little to acknowledge this. The woman and her grief are practically moved aside. Instead, it focuses all of its attention on the first line: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital." Paragraph after paragraph follows from the institutions, discrediting the woman's claim. How does the hospital answer? That's not true - the hospital followed procedure. They gave her the amount of counseling given to everyone else.

To the reader: does not that raise some questions?

Her mother is the only one who identifies abortion itself as the problem, not the counseling or lack thereof; "I believe this [getting the abortion] is what led Emma to take her own life - she could not live with what she had done."

No one - no one else - in the article addresses the fact that logistics on English Abortion Counseling Policies are NOT the issue at hand: the issue at hand is that a woman decided to perform the action of an abortion on her twin babies and subsequently killed herself from the grief. The matter worth probing into not WHETHER she got adequate counseling, but that the supposedly adequate counseling was not enough. The emotional distress and guilt she experienced - because of the nature of what she did - were vaster than any counseling could support or mitigate. Does that not raise questions about what abortion does to women's psychological health?

All the hospital appears to be concerned with, according to its representative, is the following: "I am satisfied that everything was done to make sure that Emma consented to the operation."

The implied message of the hospital's statement, which mirrors that of abortion clinics across the globe, is as follows: It's the woman's choice, so she can live with it. She requests. She consents. The hospital complies and performs the "operation." Thousands of women consent to it every day. Notice how the hospital - nor the article - does not issue a a single statistic about whether women normally experience these feelings of guilt after the "operation." No, all they have to say is: the woman consents. The hospitals and clinics wash their hands. It's on the woman's - 'Unsupported, lives alone, ex-partner aware' - shoulders.

Another line also shows the pervading mentality; according to a hospital doctor, "She had a long history of anxiety and depression. Despite my best efforts, she was not willing to see a counselor after the termination."

Two questions: Then why did they give her abortion in the first place? And would counseling erase the action she already performed? No. This speaks to something greater, which the majority of persons quoted in this article refuse to acknowledge. Why? Because, as the last two lines reiterate:

"Recording a verdict of suicide, Dr Carlyon said: "It is clear that a termination can have a profound effect on a woman's life.
But I am reassured by the evidence of the doctors here."

This should make women across the world furious. That no one is probing into the deeper issues at the heart of this story shows a fear and complacency on the part of the media that is damaging and insulting to women's health. The facts are there, the questions are clear - why is no one demanding answers?

Spagna! Parte uno

Right after finals I took a much-needed trip to southern Spain, compliments (with a miniscule fee) of the Communications Faculty at my Universita! The trip could not have come at a better time. Finals left me frazzled, and I was more than ready to leave Roma and experience new places and culture. Our trek took us to Avila, Granada, Cordoba, and Fatima (Portugal).


There were quite a few blessings along the way. For instance, the airline catered to my heritage's needs:



And the scenery leaving Madrid was lovely . . .



. . . even though some of it did just look like a big pile of dirt.



We had a breathtaking view as we approached Avila, which made me fall in love with the city at first sight. Nothing really prepares you for a medieval castle town with cool jagged rocks on top popping up in your bus window. Those are the things that your child self-edition draws in the background of your wedding to Prince Charming, not stuff that you actually plan to see. I was able to take it in stride. We had a lovely visit in Avila to the convent that St. Teresa of Avila originally entered, as well as the first one that she founded when she began reforming the Carmelite order. Blogger is being tempramental so I'll have some more photos from the convents in a later post.



Monika (best travelling and bus partner ever!) and I outside of Conception Convent, the convent that St. Teresa entered and then left.



Late afternoon view from the ramparts of Avila to the valley below.



Monika with the "mono" (that one's for you, dude!).



And finally, enjoying yet another carved Alhambra Palace doorway with Monika. Situated overlooking the city of Granada, the Alhambra is known for its intricate and mysterious stucco carvings in ivory, blue and green. We were appropriately wowed by the level of craftsmanship and the countless number of patient hours it must have taken to cast and chisel such detailed designs. The best part were the ceilings; they looked like honeycombs!



Alas, that's all the pictures for now. More coming soon with even better descriptions! On a side note, today was my first day of the new semester, and I'm praising God on my knees for how well it went. Thanks to actually studying and reading my textbooks during Finals, and spending 5 days hearing and speaking lots of Italian and Spanish, understanding my teachers was a breeze and I have have fantastic notes from my first classes. I couldn't be happier!

Primaries on this side of the pond and other tangents

What debates may come down to.

As the only American in my class, several of my classmates sporadically try to pick my brain on American politics. They want to know if all Americans really like Bill. If racism is an issue with Obama in the race. This morning, I had a good friends ask if individual Americans stick with their parents' party or commonly switch. All of them are good questions. They very often reveal the underlying political priorities in their own nations, and shed a brighter lightbult onto what's truly important to the American people. Or, more often than not, they accurately demonstrate just how many stereotypes are floating around about us.

So. They ask, I explain, and then I laugh at how out-of-the-loop I am as a current D.C. expatriate (it is an entity into itself, lemme tell ya). I did get excited, though, when I got an email today from the Federalist Society advertising their "Originally Speaking" Online Debate, this time with Presidential Candidates airing their views on Judical Philosophy. I'm fond of the program because I think it's a fantastic idea, and I always enjoyed following them while I was on staff there (hounding the debaters to follow their deadlines was another story).

Debates in general are a wonderful thing, if conducted properly. You have two opponents openly presenting their positions with an entire audience ready to inflict a fact-checking mentality upon them. You have education, enlightenment and some good old fighting going on at the same time. And it's all legit! What could be better?

In general, I've found the structure of Debates to provide an entertaining and fairly painless way to learn about the intellectual threads of a political issue. Unlike one person on a soapbox spouting out views, you have live interaction and clearly drawn battle lines (depending on how much interest and how many pacemakers are at the podiums or on the bleachers). You feel as if you're part of the human quest for truth while you're chasing after their trains of thought. After all, the practice in itself is as old as humanity (Adam and Eve were married; don't tell me they didn't debate). You see it continued with much success in Socrates' Dialogues and continued throughout philosophical and political history, with newspapers and podiums serving as the political, moral, and educational battlefields of the day.

The practice continues to the present moment, this time with Blog Comment Fields and online postings of content. So, with that tangent, you'll find directly below a link to Fed-Soc's posting of the Presidential Candidates' thoughts on the Judiciary Branch's role. To my disappointment, there is no element of debate in this one. With the exception of Ron Paul (surprise, surprise), most of the responses mimic each other in content (surprise, surprise). But there is no shock in that. They know their audience. The question is whether the audience really knows them.

The Federalist's Society's "Originally Speaking: Presidential Candidates on Judicial Philosophy"

At any event, do keep Judical Issues in mind when weighing presidential candidates. In many frightening ways, The Powers that Matter these days have shifted from the People´s hands to those of the nine in black.

Buona Festa of Fasting

Buongiorno from the caffeinated American! Santa Sabina this morning was beautiful. The trek from Santa Marinella took us on a early morning walk past the hazy Circus Maximus field (think Ben Hur Race without a racetrack or stands) and the misty Palantine ruins that overlook it. Gorgeous scene, but I was in too much of a hurry to pull out the camera. Ah well, there will be mornings with more mist to come.

Mass this morning - well, the part after the Agnes Dei that I was there for (silly early train) - was gorgeous. English is a glorious language to pray in when it 's your own. Gathering with two Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, cool laypeople your age, and a fun Sacramento priest for bracing coffee and cornetto in a crammed little caffe is priceless. Seeing people and NOT studying day and night is beautiful. So I admit it. I'm hooked on the early morning Station Churches. This means getting on a train at 5.38 AM. Stop laughing. Stop nay-saying. It's Lent. I'm strong. (Nevermind the fact that I couldn't even give up cheese for 40 days in college). It's Mass in ENGLISH. And it gives you a task. You can pray for fortitude and naps for me.

Up above this rambling is a picture of Santa Sabina. The windows are, without a doubt, the most distinctive part of the church. Each one is unique, shedding jagged patterns of light patches on the wall opposing it. Overall, Santa Sabina fits within the category of ancient Roman churches that effortlessly capture simplicity and antique rusticness and toss them together to make reverent and joyful architecture. Their rough randomness beautifully sets them apart from the other baroque opuses of gold that pepper this city. What they lack in polished ornateness is compensated by their honesty and genuineness.

Sadly, I cannot take credit for the photo of Santa Sabina. All kudos goes to Great Google Discoveries.

Since I missed most of Mass this morning and the ash distribution, I'm taking advantage of the Opus Dei ashes at my Universita in 15 minues. A presto.

Mardi Gras!!

Ah, I have such fond memories of Ash Wednesday at Christendom, where we would have The-Friend-With-the-Car at Wendy's at 11:55 PM to pick up the cheeseburgers, fries, and junk food we had been fantasizing about all day. Why is it that you never crave meat until you cannot have it? It's Ash Wednesday already here in Rome, and already I'm having anemic cravings.

But, thanks to my friends in the 'Nella, there was feastin' goin' on earlier today. Here's me doing Vannah White with my offering of Camembert Cheese (think Brie):



And me with our awesome host, who made real pancakes with maple syrup and whipped cream for us! Mmm-mmm good. It fell under the beloved category of ABP (Anything But Pasta), a rare food group in Italy.

The dearest freshness

Spent my late afternoon today with JPII and the glories of a Santa Marinella sunset. Perched on a nicely-smoothed boulder on the Tyranean Sea, with the waves crashing in the tide and a local fisherman casting his 12 foot pole, the eve was saturated in beauty.









GOD'S GRANDEUR
Gerard Manley Hopkins

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

The Strife is Over . . .

Exams, my friends, are pretty much done! Yay! And I don't think I failed anything. I know. I KNOW. I never, ever thought that my one goal at the beginning of an exam period would be to not-fail. Not like I've ever been Miss 4.0, but I've usually gone into Finals knowing that I'll come out with A's and B's. But that was America.

When you're learning material in another language, and when you haven't looked much at the material for three months, you fight for what you can get. So with that being said, I think I did pretty dang well for my first semester. Got two A's, a decent grade on my freaky-hard oral exam, and I have a good feeling about the rest. We'll see in the next couple weeks when the grades start rolling in!

So: many, many thanks for the kind souls who said prayers for me, sent text messages and random Bible quotes that had nothing to do with the Bible, put up with spastic phone calls, and all other sorts of goodness. The distractions saved my sanity.

The agenda for this week is pretty exciting. Tomorrow kicks off Lent, which means tomorrow I start kicking myself regularly for forgetting about my Lenten penances.

This year, I'm doing it with a bang (the penance, not the kicking): I'm going to go to Mass at the Roman Station Churches* every night, class allowing.

*What are the Station Churches? Back in the day the Pope used to travel to a different church in Rome every day during Lent to celebrate Mass with the faithful. It was a way for the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome, to reach out to all of his "parishes" during this time of penitence. The Pope no longer says Mass every night, but the tradition of church-hopping continues, aided by Cardinals and Bishops and a slew of the faithful who gather. Apparently there are special prayers to go along with the practice, too. The North American College (affectionately known at the "Knack" here) has a pretty nifty website with info on the churches, starting with tomorrow's, my favorite ancient Roman Church of Santa Sabina:

Roman Station Churches: Santa Sabina

They've got some cool picture and trivia on the site, if you'd like to virtually follow along. Infuse some Catholic culture into your life.

Friday morning I break my Lenten addition and go to Spain and Fatima, Portugal for 5 days! I get back on the 12th and start the second semester that afternoon. Busy times! I'll be praying for y'all while I travel.

So what are y'all doing for Lent?