Analysis

Amanda Marcotte can’t find the baby

Amanda Marcotte, a radical pro-abortion blogger whose career peaked when she resigned in disgrace from Sen. John Edwards’ presidential campaign (think about that for a second) amidst criticism for filthy anti-Christian writing, isn’t exactly known for persuasive argument.

But her latest post at Raw Story, titled “The Reality of Abortion,” takes the sophistry to a gruesome new level. Marcotte uses the image on the right to “counter all the pictures of late-term fetuses—many of which are faked—that anti-choicers use to imply that a typical abortion is much later in the pregnancy than it is”:

So, for your edification, this is what your average abortion actually looks like […] This is an important image to hang on to for the next time you have an anti-choicer wanking about how this is “killing babies”. Ask them to find the baby in this picture, if they’re just so certain.

First, I would ask Amanda to take a good look at a fetal development gallery and reconsider her suggestion that only the late-term fetuses look like babies, and note that regardless of when most abortions take place, most of her side is just as committed to preserving the “right” to butcher those late-termers as they are the younger ones. And what’s this about faked images?

Second, the jar’s contents may not be recognizable as human remains, but considering that it still looks pretty bloody, I kind of doubt that displaying it will have the intended effect with as many people as Marcotte expects it to.

More to the point, outward appearance isn’t what defines humanity. That’s determined by whether an organism is genetically human, alive or dead, and genetically and functionally distinct from his or her mother – questions that are all answered with a resounding yes for the unborn at every stage after fertilization.

Make no mistake: despite trying to frame the discussion with talk of pro-life “misinformation” and pro-choice “edification,” Marcotte is trying to appeal to people’s sense of what’s superficially intuitive in order to derail them from thinking about or investigating the matter more deeply. Indeed, if you want to know how deep her own grasp of embryology is, just read the post’s comment section, where she says, “We were also all sperm and egg cells once. So every man who masturbates is committing genocide.”

Wrong again. So remind me: which is the side that values reason, science, and evidence?

Note well that humanity has a long history of judging one another based on outward appearance, and using those judgments to justify treating certain people differently. It’s not something most of us are proud of. The unborn are merely the latest in what Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft calls “the category [we] invented to justify the killing.”

Mankind has worked hard and sacrificed much to stamp out the vile practice of exploiting superficial differences to exclude classes of people from the human family. Amanda Marcotte and her fellow travelers want to keep it alive. That is the reality of abortion.

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  • Minami

    That’s all it is? Some blood? Wow. Big deal over nothing.

    • Solntsye

      And a dead human being within it. Yes, it is a very big deal.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tish-Morgna/100000098075242 Tish Morgna

      Question Minami, Why would a woman go to an abortuary to have blood removed?

    • Shelley

      Yeah, that’s basically what a pregnancy is at that point, mostly uterine lining and gestational sac. And if you want to see a picture of a medical abortion around that time in pregnancy: http://www.harpyness.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/tumblr_l956zwBvLL1qcw2o0o1_500.jpg It wasn’t suctioned out, just expelled after the woman took the pills. And it still doesn’t look remotely like a “baby”. Looks a lot like the heavier days of my period, though…

      • http://twitter.com/CalFreiburger Calvin Freiburger

        Wow, way to simultaneously prove AND miss the point.

        • Shelley

          I’d make a substantive reply here, but (a) you certainly didn’t even try to do so and (b) trying to debate with someone like you is like banging one’s head against a wall. I’m just saying maybe you should use pictures like those on your little protest signs. :-)

          • http://twitter.com/CalFreiburger Calvin Freiburger

            My substantive reply is already in the article you’re commenting on. You restated the gist of Marcotte’s lazy talking point without substantiating any of it.

          • Shelley

            I was replying to Minami, not directly on your article. Although what I said does relate to your assertion that “the jar’s contents may not be recognizable as human remains, but considering that it still looks pretty bloody, I kind of doubt that displaying it will have the intended effect with as many people as Marcotte expects it to.” (By the way, Amanda Marcotte/”Jane”‘s point is no more lazy than when you people carry around pictures of aborted or miscarried fetuses that are way farther along than when the vast majority of abortions occur.)

            But honestly, I know there’s no point in having the same “debate” about this with you. I have actually seen or taken part in a few constructive conversations around here, but I’m quite sure this isn’t one of them. I’ll be polite and end there. Or maybe I’ll end with a nice emoticon. :-)

          • http://twitter.com/CalFreiburger Calvin Freiburger

            If there are any pro-lifers out there trying to pass off images of babies at one stage of development as if they depicted babies at another stage, that would indeed be dishonest. But I’m not aware of any such instances.

            The way pro-lifers use such images in actual practice is perfectly legitimate. As I said, there are points in all three trimesters in which the preborn resemble the post-born, and considering that your side does all it cam to cultivate ignorance about embryology and condition people to think as little as possible about what it is being destroyed by abortion, visual aid is an essential wake-up call.

          • Shelley

            This, too, is a visual wake-up call, countering the innumerable misrepresented “pro-life” photos. I must say though, I find it hilarious that you think we’re doing all we “cam” to ignore facts, when I believe lying about the development of fetuses is, in fact, your game. I’ve never heard pro-choicers claim that fetuses are conscious six weeks after conception, to pick just one example…Oh drat, here we go again. Why don’t you just go ahead and call me “dishonest” since that’s your shtick. ;-)

          • http://twitter.com/CalFreiburger Calvin Freiburger

            No, I’ll just ask for some hard evidence that we lie about fetal development. I only call people dishonest when their claims don’t match the evidence, yet they choose to keep making them anyway. If the shoe fits…….

          • Guest

            I as a pro-lifer stick to the fetal development facts found on the Mayo Clinic website. I have found many instances when the prochioce community lies about fetal development and not any instances in which the pro-life community lies. Why do we need to lie with the truth on our side?

          • http://www.facebook.com/elise.n.hoffman Elise N Hoffman

            OF COURSE pro-”choicers” don’t claim that a fetus is conscious six weeks after conception (which, btw, would be EIGHT weeks gestation) because that would conflict with THEIR goal of dehumanizing unborn humans to render them disposable. Instead, they claim that an unborn human being NEVER attains any degree of sentience. That it floats around with no powers of perception at all until it emerges from the birth canal, breathes room air, and magically springs to life. They use this fallacy as their defense of abortion “rights” throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

            Of course, scientific observations of fetal development and response in the womb, logical analyses of human neural development and its ramifications on fetal consciousness, and the experience of having one’s “fetus” respond to sound, light, and touch, shared by billions of mothers around the world, all contradict that assertion. But you stick with it because it validates your point of view.

            Let’s see… Who has more to gain or lose in this debate, and thus, more reason to lie about fetal development? The pro-lifers who have ZERO personal stake in whether some stranger kills her own offspring and whose entire objective is compassionate defense of unborn human beings? Or could it POSSIBLY be the pro-”choicers,” who insist that their right to do as they choose with “their bodies” supercedes even the most basic right to life of their OWN CHILDREN for whose existence THEY would be responsible?

            As far as that picture of an embryo at six weeks gestation: It doesn’t look like a full-grown adult, you’re right. Its resemblance even to a full-term baby is still lacking in many ways. But it has arms and legs. There’s this guy named Nick Vujicic that doesn’t have those particular human traits. Heckuva guy. Maybe you think he should be subject to death, too, since he lacks certain “human characteristics”?

            The baby at six weeks has a rudimentary face, to be sure. But it’s still a face. It has eyes. Christian Buchanan was born without eyes. I guess he’s not human either.

            Even the rudimentary face of an average embryo at six weeks’ gestation is symmetrical, just like a “normal” human face. Juliana Wetmore’s face isn’t symmetrical. In fact, what Juliana Wetmore has is barely recognizable as a face. I guess she’s not human either.

            Even a six-week-old embryo has a body. It has a head, arms, legs, eyes, a nose, and a mouth. All of those things are contained somewhere in that jar of blood. But if you run that tiny, tiny body through a vacuum that reduces everything to a frothy liquid, then no, of course you’re not going to be able to identify the tiny human corpse. That doesn’t mean it’s not there. Stick your hand in a blender on high for a few minutes and then see if you can still identify it as a hand.

            In other words, that jar of frothy blood says NOTHING about the relative honesty of pro-life posters and images. It says VOLUMES about the DIShonesty of the pro-”choice” movement.

            If, perchance, the little embryo’s body had survived the procedure relatively intact and floated to the top of the blood, do you think she’d have posted THOSE pictures?

            Thought not.

          • Shelley

            I’m not sure what your deal is with all of these hypothetical people, but my answer to that would be that they can still think and feel and act for themselves. Regardless, I never said that the important thing is whether or not it looks like a human–you people just don’t like someone turning the tables and posting a picture of what a typical abortion actually looks like. Also, it’s so tiny at that point that you really couldn’t have seen anything without magnification. And if you’d read my previous comments, you’d see a link to a picture of a medical abortion, which means that there was no machinery or anything to alter the fetus in any way and it still doesn’t look like a human, or anything really.

            I’m not sure why you think pro-choicers have something to gain in this whole thing. I’m not pregnant right now, never have been, but I’m still pro-choice. I’ve never heard anyone say anything about a magical birth canal, just that it takes around 18-20 weeks before the fetus’s brain could be developed enough to feel pain or have any kind of consciousness. I’ve heard and read plenty of unfounded allegations from anti-abortion people that fetuses are aware at six weeks–that’s all I said. It has to do with the fact that that is not true, not whom it benefits.

          • Guest

            Since when does the ability to feel pain constitute a right to life? Lepersy takes away ones ability to feel pain, so do lepersy victims not have a right to life?

          • Guest

            So size makes one less valuable than another person? Just because someone is small does not mean they are not valuable. A baby at conception is one cell, but a fully unique indivuial, perfectally formed and developed for that stage of his or her life. Though you cannot see them it does not mean they are there it merely means they are small. Unless size changes whether one is valuable or not please do not use that argument.

          • CarolRS

            VERY well said!!!

    • Sydney

      I wish everybody could just see it that way, people die, people are murdered. Death is all around us yet people choose to make a huge deal about a jar of blood. When I’m sure any of us who has seen Saw or any other gore-filled movie has seen much worse than that.

      • Guest

        The problem that we see with that particular jar of blood is it contains the remains of a precious unborn child, who had a complete DNA code and was most likely exactly where she (or he) needed to be in her development. She was a living whole person.

  • Katie

    I find it disturbing that people are embracing these pictures. The rhetoric is completely nuts. If you’re not on their side, you’re a “forced birther.” These individuals are off their rockers, the lengths they’ll go to just to defend what every last human being knows is wrong.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michelle-M-Williams/1021964754 Michelle M. Williams

      Yeah, tens of millions of law abiding Americans from various backgrounds, religious, and political beliefs are “completely nuts” and “off their rockers”.

      • Solntsye

        Yes, and there are millions of law abiding Americans from various backgrounds, religious and political beliefs who disagree with your beliefs. We also know people who share your beliefs say similar things (and worse) about those who disagree with you.

        • Guest

          Ah, but the difference is that one group of people is trying to force others to comply with their beliefs by denying their rights to their own bodies…

          • Katie

            Think about that for a moment. Would you want to force individuals to stop rape? To stop murder? To stop stealing? You certainly wouldn’t want to live in a society where those acts are seen as okay (at least I hope, you never know with some people…) The majority of human kind does not wish to live in a society where murdering babies is okay.

            Oh, and yes, it looks like a bunch of blood people. But guess what, you once looked EXACTLY like the baby in the picture does. Where the heck do you think you came from?

            But go ahead, keep on with your baby-killing, oh it’s just as much blood as one period, oh I must abort because it’s my body agenda. If the pro-abortion continues to kill their next generation, then all that will be left are the pro-lifers’ next generation, who will teach their children the value of life in all circumstances. :)

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michelle-M-Williams/1021964754 Michelle M. Williams

            Hmm.. I guess all the pro-choicers I know with 1, 2, or 4 kids are just figments of my imagination.

          • CroquetteLover

            Yikes, they may be. Hopefully the real pro-choicers in your life, including yourself, are considering sterilization. Why bother with the conception process at all? If you take a step ahead, you’ll be much happier. Then you don’t have to bother hopping on these sites and proclaiming your awkward views. Instead, you could take up golfing or knitting. Maybe croquette? Depends on how adventurous you are…

          • Solntsye

            What about the unborn baby’s right to his or her body? When a woman consents to sex, she is implying by that consent that she is willing to carry and birth a baby, should the sexual encounter she is about to participate in result in a conception. She, as a rational woman, should realize that not all birth control is 100% effective, and therefore understand what may happen as a result of consenting to and participating in sex.

            We don’t care who she does it with, how many times, how many people, whatever….We don’t care at all about what she chooses to do with her body. However, once there is a seperate body involved, she is not free to harm another human. It’s no different than if I were to intervene if I witnessed a mother violently beat and burn her three year old daughter (which I did. And you better believe I stepped in!). Would you have rather me ignore the mother of this young girl? After all, the girl did carry her mother’s DNA, so she was a “part” of her mother. Should we have allowed her mother to do what she saw fit?

          • http://www.facebook.com/vglaser2 Vickie Glaser

            This is very well stated, and I also believe that the aforementioned consent means the father involved is equally responsible for any child conceived.

          • CarolRS

            There wouldn’t be any controversy if it was just about “a woman’s body”….that’s why people are upset…there is another “being” that is voiceless and needs protection as well….that is why some people try to “force their beliefs” on others,as you say…a belief that some people think is every human’s right…no matter what…the right to life.

  • Daniel

    Mr. Freiburger, I don’t konw what Amanda did, but I took a good look at your link to the fetal development gallery. She aborted in the sixth week. According to your link, at this stage one certainly cant’t say a fetus looks like a baby. Oh and yes, what is this about faked images? Concidering the fact of your lies in this article, it is likely that imges are faked, too.
    I olny hope, that you are also anti-military and anti-war or else there is an even bigger twist to your arguments.

    • Solntsye

      It doesn’t matter what a fetus looks like. The questions are: Is it human? Yep, it’s got human DNA. Is it alive? Yes indeedy…it begins to develop right feom the moment of conception. So a human zygote/embryo/fetus is a living human entity, period. Do you consider somebody who is born but deformed not human simply because of the way they look?

      There isn’t anybody who is pro-war. However, if war is the only means to protect a society, then unfortunately…so be it. Considering that the military is willing to go forth into those wars that may indeed be unfortunate, but necessary, why would anybody be against the military?

      • Sydney

        I have lost my respect for the military for several reasons, this war in Iraq is no war, Vietnam was a war, shipping out to Europe to stop Hitlers reign was a war. Iraq, is no war. Men and women are AWARDED for killing people in the line of duty. Yet pro-choicers choose to fight against abortion instead of what the military does on a daily basis. America needs to stop trying to help people who don’t need or want help. Some countries need to learn how to help themselves first. This includes Iraq, we invaded Iraq, and it’s becoming obvious that they don’t want us there. That might explain the bombing of U.S army vehicles over there don’t you think? War will happen, and will always happen because Humans are too different. The military was created to protect the United States, it was not meant to invade other countries that don’t want us there, and who don’t need our help.

    • Solntsye

      Sorry, my error: “…right from” I meant, not “feom”.

    • http://twitter.com/CalFreiburger Calvin Freiburger

      You haven’t identified a single lie in this article. I didn’t make any claims about the gestation of the jar picture, but merely pointed out the obvious that fetuses can resemble post-birth babies in the first and second trimesters, as well.

      “I olny hope, that you are also anti-military and anti-war”

      You still think lazy, meaningless talking points like that impress anyone? I hate to break it to you: http://liveactionnews.org/opinion/are-non-pacifist-pro-lifers-hypocrites/

    • eva marie

      i am ani war military and anti abortion any killing of a life a human unborn children are not the same as a living tree that is more protected in this world than our own unborn LIVING children i was born and barly 27 weeks my daughter at 36 and my son at 24 my daughter is 3 weeks sunday and my son is now 4. thats just some insight for yu bc were i am frm u can have an abortion up to 37 weeks, so can yu tell me are my children not REALLY a child yet? please dont comment back it will prob just be more bullcrap> thanks

  • jacquelene emslie

    Ok firstly do you know that they actually inject a highly concentrated salt solution into the womb and that burns and dissolves the fetus (baby) before it is sucked out. So what ever is left won’t look like baby at that stage. Can you imagine how that must hurt. Can you imagine doing that to your child any child. Its not only killing a baby its a painful death. Don’t want to get pregnant close your legs or take the proper precautions and if it still happens give baby up for adoption. But chances are that as soon as you hold that precious child you wouldn’t want to let it go. It might be your body but that child didn’t ask to be created.

    • Guest

      Can I point out an error in your post? The unborn cannot feel pain at week six. That does not change the fact that a unborn baby at week six is a human being worthy of the right to life, but we need to be careful with our imagry and arguments

      • Painless

        Whew, it’s so good that people like you are here to define when a person feels pain. Gosh, I wonder if you felt pain by week six and that’s why you weren’t aborted. But others do. So glad you cleared that up.

  • Neil

    Not Interested in the facts is right. I tried to post simple facts of embryology in the comment section of her blog and the response back was censorship.

  • smask63

    All a person has to do is look at a scientific website such as ehd.org (the Endowment of Human Development) and click on Prenatal Summary to see what an unborn baby looks like. Obviously, the baby’s remains are not going to look the same as a live baby in the womb. A baby has a beating heart just 22 days after the egg is fertilized. So obviously if the baby has a beating heart, then it has a body.

  • Sweetnyss

    First of all if this were actually a room where a procedure had been done, and that was the procedure, it’s illegal to take pictures. “No camera’s or video camera’s once the procedures start.” so they don’t have witnesses. Second I’m sorry but I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks and more than just blood came out. How the hell do you think I know I had a miscarriage. How is it in a late term abortion when the doctors do vacuum extraction they have to “assemble the fetus on the extraction table to make sure all the parts have been removed”? If there are no parts. Whats great about this is you people who are saying, oh that’s all they take out in an abortion well, wow whats the big deal? Your all idiots. Why do I have to pay that much money, the doctor put me under, and use those many tools with the paperwork that has to be signed only to withdraw blood? Clinton had a fetus thrown at him during a pro-choice speech and it sure as hell wasn’t a jar of blood. An unborn pig fetus in a jar at my school, looked just like a pig. This picture is bullshit. It goes along with all the crap and the lies. That is the jar that removes the blood and “other” liquid items. What that looks like to me is that they put the baby in a blender. Is she literally telling every person in the world that science has got it all wrong? They have pictures from inside the womb, of the so-called fetus, they have scientific proof of when the heart beat starts, the brain grows, cartilage starts forming, lungs, back bone etc… So are the ultrasounds lies too? Do they actually have a fake picture of a “fetus” on a T.V. screen and they print out fake pictures? This is rediculous. A baby after 8 weeks cannot be the pill abortion, you are required to come in and have a procedure. Want to know why? Because before 8 weeks it’s the size of an egg and getting bigger everyday! It has to be done by procedure, by the abortionist going in and physically removing it. They don’t do an abortionist led abortion before 8 weeks. What, are they nothing but blood and water and then all of a sudden right before they’re born, BAM! It’s a baby! Wow, an even bigger miracle then we once thought!! There is no tissue in that at all! At least in the form of a tissue. There is much more liquid in a womb from day one, than what’s in that jar. Oh and that jar top mouth is big enough for her to have opened it and removed the baby before the picture. Where’s the rest of it? What about the second jar next to it? So what about all the things that aren’t in the picture? No bed, no patient, no tools, they want to make you think it’s a frickin trip to McDonalds. A lot of women are ashamed of what they’ve done so they won’t come forward. I wish someone would grow a pair, whose experienced an abortion, who hated it, and who will actually shed some light on what it really looked like in there. Unless of course they were put to sleep and the clean up was done without them. Anyone who believes that picture is either naive or hasn’t ever read anything or experienced a birth, pregnancy, or anything. All you have to do is read about birth and abortions to know that’s bull! Wake up people! You all want to believe someone walks into a room, sneezes, and the baby comes flying out! Or the fetus is aborted! It’s a medical procedure that has qualified people, tools, etc… in order to be done. These people are all going to see one day! Also BTW, I like how people say a woman is in charge of her own body. Yes, I can get piercings and tattoos, boob jobs, anything I want done to my body, I can have sex and choose to chance a disease or pregnancy, anything! There are consequences to everything we do and this generation is being raised that there are none and we can do what we want and then just fix it with a quick in house procedure, or pop a pill. Well guess what, you can’t fix everything with a pill or a procedure. And when someone cuts their bodies or does things to hurt themselves they end up in a psycho ward so thats that to your, womens bodies belong to them and they can do whatever they want with them. Well I gave birth to my children so does that make them things I own and can do what I want with? Oh but they aren’t people until they’re born and reach a certain age. They do their best to muddle the water so no one recognizes the truth. It’s crap. She’s a fool and she’ll figure it out one day, once it’s too late!

    • Katie

      YES!!

    • Katie

      YES!!

  • unknown

    so im going to be honest i had an abortion when i was 15 but it was against my will…..my mother the women whos supposed to love me forced me into signing a paper which stated that i didnt want my child and sentenced it to death… and thats excactly what it looks like they turn your unborn precious child into a blood smoothie then call it justified. becasue i was 15 i wasnt given a choice and if your given the choice give them life! theres someone somewhere that cant have children but would be the best parent…….

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Siara-Delyn/100000094032948 Siara Delyn

    Please allow me to take Paul Ryan’s plan to an extreme level too.

    It’s a lovely summer evening and a pretty young woman is walking hope from her music lesson. A man begins to follow her down the street, quickening his step as she quickens hers. She tries not to react at first (assuming that she’s being paranoid and not wanting to look foolish). Eventually she is so flooded with fear that she breaks into a wild run. Her worst fears are confirmed when the man begins running after her, slowly gaining on her, since he is a foot taller than her and much stronger. He grabs her from behind and her head cracks on the ground so hard it sounds like a baseball being hit. She is momentarily stunned, then focuses enough to find her pants down and the man on top of her, shoving himself into her while she screams and tries to bite him. His breath is in her nostrils and his scent is all over her as he sweats and grunts and pumps on and on and on. He reams her unprepared soft body out until it bleeds. Eventually, he becomes annoyed with her screaming (“shut up you stupid b*tch…”) and pummels her in the face until she passes out.

    She comes to, and staggers to her feet, clutching her ruined clothing. She limps home, spends a couple hours on the floor of the shower, sobbing and trembling in anger and fear. Then she forces herself to move on. Life continues. Three weeks later she finds that she is pregnant. Her church community congratulates her on the new life that is growing within her. She is not allowed to get an abortion because a group of Americans who follow a different religion from her’s feel that God made this happen and her sacred destiny is to be a mom, and they have passed laws controlling her body. As she watches her body change over the month she wonders if the baby will look like her rapist. She thinks about her parents and grandparents and contemplates the idea that from now until the end of humanity, the DNA of the people she loves best will be inextricably linked to the DNA of the man who brought her down in the street like an animal. The baby swells within her, half her and half him. The church helps her prepare for motherhood and tells her not to worry because God did this for a reason and everything is in God’s hands.

    PAUL RYAN SUPPORTS FORCING THE VICTIMS OF RAPE AND INCEST TO BEAR ANY RESULTING CHILDREN.

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