Roundup: Follow Up Friday – More on Carhart, Twitter, and The E-Book

Robin Marty

Here's a quick roundup with some additional news for stories we reported on earlier this week.

The anti-choice activists in Iowa are preparing to try and push for new, tighter restrictions after news that Dr. Leroy Carhart plans to open a clinic in Council Bluffs. 

Via the Des Moines Register:

Iowa abortion opponents say they will work to block a Nebraska abortion provider from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart has been the center of controversy for years because he performs late-term abortions. This week, he told reporters that he intends to open clinics in Council Bluffs, Indianapolis and the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Nebraska has a new law banning abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. Iowa law allows abortions after the second trimester if a doctor believes the procedure is needed to “preserve the life or health” of the woman.

 

“Obviously, Carhart sees that as a big loophole or he wouldn’t be planning to come here,” said Jenifer Bowen, executive director of Iowa Right to Life.

Bowen and other abortion opponents say they will renew their push for tighter Iowa restrictions on late-term abortions. They note that Iowans voted last week to add more anti-abortion politicians to the Statehouse. Those include former Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who was elected to resume his leadership of the state.

Current Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, supports abortion rights, as did his predecessor, Democrat Tom Vilsack.

“We have a real opportunity this session, as opposed to past years,” said Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Iowans for Life.

Also of note in the article is that Carhart says he is not actually closing his Bellevue clinic, but is simply opening new clinics because of the likelihood of a prolonged battle over the constitutionality of Nebraska’s “Fetal Pain” bill.

The conservatives are still reacting to the “#ihadanabortion” twitter thread, now lamenting the fact that no one appreciates the women who regret having one.

Many women have come to regret their abortion, a fact that even the Supreme Court has acknowledged. Why is it that the pro-abortion groups that claim to be the voice of the women in America and say “listen to the voices of women” won’t acknowledge the voices of the women from the Silent No More Awareness Campaign? Those groups would like the Silent No More women to remain silent about their regret, but these women want to reach out to those considering abortion and say, “Listen to our stories.”

Experience trumps rhetoric. So many who now regret their abortion were once saying the same thing as the women who are tweeting that their abortion was a good decision. Eventually, one’s true feelings surface. Abortion is not an empowering decision for women. It causes the death of their child and – like it or not – a part of them also dies.

So there you go — if you don’t regret it, you will, someday.  You just haven’t thought about it enough, apparently.

Finally, Amazon did in fact pull the controversial e-book that was being called a “manual” for pedophilia, and the author is now under police protection.  According to a local NBC News station:

Police are aware of at least one threat against Phillip R. Greaves II that was posted on-line after the story about his book aired Wednesday.

The book, called “The Pedophile’s Guide To Love And Pleasure”, drew national attention– and outrage.

It was being sold on Amazon. But Amazon bowed to the pressure by people pushing for a boycott for distributing it.

The book had more than 2,000 “reviews,” virtually all of them negative.
There was also a Facebook page: “Boycott Amazon.com for Selling How-To Guide for Pedophile.” More than 2,200 people say they like that idea.

Amazon initially defended its sale of the book because it “believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable.”

Greaves says the response to his book is a “knee-jerk reaction” to its title by people who have not read it. But also says he’s learned controversy sells books: prior to Wednesday, he’d sold one copy. After the story hit national news, CBS News reported he sold more than 3,000.

Greaves has now become the target of multiple threats online, according to the news report.

Mini-Roundup:  “Daddy I Do” gets pulled from the filmmaker’s local theater, and “For Colored Girls” seems to be the movie least appropriate for those under 18 according to this reviewer, who appears to base that fact on the “explicit implications” of an abortion scene.

Nov 12, 2010

November 11, 2010