After the murder of Dr. Tiller, CNN interviewed Lynda Waddington, a “pro-choice” blogger for the Huffington Post and RH Reality Check. Waddington herself had a late term abortion.
When Diane Elder saw that interview, she wrote to Anderson Cooper. Elder, you see, was faced with the hardest of circumstances. Her daughter was diagnosed in utero with the devastating Trisomy 18. Elder, though, made a very different “choice” than Waddington. Amazingly, CNN and Cooper agreed to interview her and this was the result.
It seems there is no horror from which God cannot bring good. Kudos to CNN and Cooper for doing the segment.
Great Thanks to the wonderful Newsbusters
June 4, 2009 at 3:04 am
Well, we'll give props to CNN/Cooper for airing the segment and allowing another perspective to be heard.
I think the lady was extremely wise, given the medium, to avoid any direct mention of religion. (I don't know what, if any, religious affiliation she has.) In her words, she "gave herself over to nature".
She also skillfully parried Cooper's attempt to pigeonhole her as being pro- or anti-abortion. her strongest statement on the subject was about her "being a fully formed baby".
I've no idea why Cooper brought up the Tiller murder in this context. It seemed inappropriate, unless he was trying to stir up something controversial for ratings sake.
June 4, 2009 at 3:36 am
The caption says it all:
DIANE ELDER
Chose not to have late term abortion
That choice was her right to make.
Nobody forced her to have or not have an abortion.
What a blessing that we live in a free society where that choice existed for her!
June 4, 2009 at 3:56 am
Craig, that we live in a society that allows people to choose to murder their own children is in no way a blessing.
June 4, 2009 at 5:05 am
Caption:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Chose not to have slaves.
Oh what a blessing that he was free to choose that for himself!!!
June 4, 2009 at 5:11 am
I choose not to demonize the women who are forced to make these heartbreaking choices, Mike.
Is Ms. Elder a murderer because she didn't try to use every medical means necessary to keep Angela alive?
June 4, 2009 at 7:40 am
I have chosen not to kill, Ted Bundy chose another possibility. The important thing is that we chose. Don't trample on our rights.
June 4, 2009 at 2:41 pm
A nice segment. God is the author of all life, regardless of how short. I honestly can see the peace this woman has about her daughter, Angela's, life. That is a peace you very rarely see in the women that chose to kill their child due to an abnormality and most certainly not something you see in the women that chose to kill their child in the second or third trimester because the idea of abortion came to them too late to get an earlier one. While it's got to be hard for any parent to endure such a trial, it's NOT IN OUR HANDS to kill someone just because they will have a hard life, short life, short life with pain, or some other excuse used to kill a child.
June 4, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Craig,
It is good you don’t demonize women, I don’t either. We need to remember that there are two victims with abortion that includes the mother, and they need our love and support more than anything after such a wrong choice like abortion is exercised.
But your attempt to draw analogy between the lack of extraordinary means of care for a proven fatal condition and directly killing a baby by having a hole made in the skull to have the brain vacuumed out is really a straw man argument; and in my opinion a poorly thought out one.
The point is that even though we have freedom to make choices, it does not mean we have the freedom to do whatever we want; if that were the case I can go to a store and walk out with items without paying and claim freedom as my right to do so. True freedom is not doing anything we want to do, it is doing what we ought to do. We just need to make sure our civil laws reflect this concept.
June 4, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I wonder if they chose to run this interview because Elder is not completely pro-life. She chose life in her own case, but would she had her baby not been "fully formed" (what exactly does that mean anyway? — they are all "fully formed" for the stage of development in which they are)?
June 5, 2009 at 5:19 am
I think it was a great interview. She touched on the main issue in this sort of abortion– too often, the parents are thinking about what sort of life the child will have, so short, so painful, etc., and not what sort of death that child will have. Angela Elder died very small, and very young, and very loved in her mother's arms. This child wasn't burned up in the womb, or plucked from it like nothing of value, but loved, really loved. This is the same sort of choice Hope Faith's mom made, and it's a choice that shows both how to die and how to live. Good for Mrs. Elder.
June 5, 2009 at 8:57 pm
"True freedom is not doing anything we want to do, it is doing what we ought to do." – Anonymous
Well said, and I concur.