The given in any conversation concerning the violence surrounding the abortion issue is that pro-lifers are religious fanatics prone to violence.
In fact, it’s so prevalent that it’s actually a cliche. Everyone knows that pro-lifers are a bunch of wackjob violent anti-woman wackos. Even though one time in the past decade a wacko killed an abortionist we’re all violent wackjobs as liable to be hiding a pipe bomb as we are carrying the Bible.
But what about pro-abort crowd? Isn’t there violence associated with them? I mean, other than the slaughter of millions of babies.
Of course we recently had the death of James Pouillon by a wacko who was offended by his pro-life signs. But it seems the national conversation typically leaves out pro-abortion violence against pro-lifers. And even when it does, it leaves out people like WLBT “Tonya Johnson who was murdered by the father of her unborn child recently? Why isn’t she counted among the victims of pro-choice violence?
According to reports, witnesses said that the father of the child wanted her to have an abortion but she refused. The intent of his violence was obvious from her wounds, say detectives. “It looked like he was intent on killing both of them,” said one detective.
Look, my point is that if someone kills an abortionist their logic is that they killed the abortionist to keep them from killing children. The exact opposite of that would be killing someone because they wanted the baby to live. And that’s happened hundreds of times in the past decade. But for some reason that kind of violence isn’t seen as violence by pro-abortion types.
They’re reported as random and sad stories as offshoots of domestic violence. But what clearer case could it be than someone who’s pro-abortion kills someone who wants a baby to live?
In fact, according to The Unchoice.com, murder is the leading cause of death or pregnant women. Could you imagine if the leading cause of death of abortionists were murder. Pro-lifers would probably be outlawed and banished to an island somewhere.
But pro-abortion violence isn’t even discussed.
This list is a grisly one from The UnChoice.com and it’s only partial:
Man Stabs 15-Year-Old Girl Who Refused Abortion, Frozen Body Found at Rest Stop
Kevin Robinson, 38, was sentenced to life in prison for killing a pregnant 15-year-old girl. She was stabbed multiple times and her frozen body was later discovered at a Wyoming rest stop. Prosecutors said that Robinson had gotten the teen pregnant and that he killed her for refusing to abort.• Man Charged with Shooting Teen in Head After She Refuses Abortion
A pregnant 17-year-old was shot in the head in her apartment in Greensboro, NC. Her boyfriend, 21-year-old Shawn Kristopher Holliman, was sentenced to life without parole for her murder. Police said he killed the teen because she refused to have an abortion and he didn’t want to pay child support.• Teen Charged with Shooting Pregnant Girlfriend; Sister Finds Her Half-Conscious on Park Bench
In New York, an 18-year-old girl was shot in the head just two weeks before she was due to deliver her baby, allegedly by her boyfriend, 19-year-old Warren Teasley. The girl’s sister found her slumped on a park bench, bleeding and half-conscious. The teen and her unborn daughter died at the hospital.• 15-Year-Old Pregnant Girl Jammed with Sticks, Beaten, Crushed with 30 Lb. Boulder
In Colorado, 21-year-old Michael Baldwin confessed to luring his pregnant teenage girlfriend to a secluded area and killing her by assaulting her with sticks and a boulder. Police said Baldwin jammed a branch down his girlfriend’s throat and jammed sticks into her other body cavities, then beat her and crushed her skull with a 30-
pound boulder. She was 15 weeks pregnant. Baldwin pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison under a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.• Pregnant 15-Year-Old Rape Victim Killed and Burned
Shannon Meschack of Dallas, TX, was arrested for killing a pregnant 15-year-old girl and attempting to burn her body. The girl’s family said Meschack, who was more than 10 years older than the teen, didn’t want her to have the baby.
Meschack was not charged for the baby’s death because the state’s unborn victims law was not yet in effect.• Pregnant 15-Year-Old Shot to Death on School Bus—Boyfriend Charged
In Missouri, a pregnant 15-year-old girl was shot to death on a school bus. Police said 29-year-old Mark Boyd hired Malic J. Nettles, 20, to kill her because Boyd already had two children and didn’t want a third. Nettles allegedly boarded the school bus and opened fire, killing the teen and wounding the bus driver. Boyd was charged with murder for the deaths of the teen and her unborn baby.
• 16-Year-Old Taken to Deserted Field, Shot in Head, Left in Ditch—Boyfriend Charged
Trevor Wayne Benson and Kelly D. McCarney of Oklahoma were charged in the murder of Benson’s 16-year-old girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant. Police said that the two men took the teen, who had asked Benson to take a paternity test, to a deserted field and shot her in the head, leaving her body in a ditch. Benson and McCarney could be charged with murder for the unborn child’s death under Oklahoma law.• Pregnant 14-Year-Old Stabbed in Abdomen, Neck, and Back; Believed to be Buried Alive
In Boston, 21-year-old Kyle Bryant and 24-year-old Lord Hampton were charged with the murder of a 14-year-old girl who was seven months pregnant with Bryant’s baby. Police said the two blindfolded the girl, struck her over the head and stabbed her repeatedly in the neck, abdomen, and back. She was then buried in a shallow grave, probably while she was still alive. The two men were charged with double homicide.• Pregnant Teen Shot in Kentucky, Body Found in Park
In Kentucky, a pregnant 18-year-old girl was shot and her body found in a car at a park. The girl’s family said that only hours before her death, they had watched an ultrasound video of her 22-week-old unborn baby. The teen’s ex-boyfriend, Roger McBeath, was charged in her death.• Teen Strangled, Stoned, and Stabbed by Boyfriend Who Had Threatened to Kill Her if She Didn’t Abort
Sean Steele confessed to murdering his pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend by strangling her, dropping a rock on her body, and stabbing her with a broken beer bottle. Family and friends testified that Steele had threatened to kill the teen and her baby
if she didn’t abort.• Woman Refuses Abortion, Man Fulfills Threat and Kills Her with Pipe Bomb
A pregnant Pittsburgh woman and her 7-year-old daughter were killed by a pipe bomb in their home on New Year’s Day.
The woman’s ex-boyfriend, Joseph Minerd, was sentenced to life in prison. Police said Minerd had threatened to kill her when she refused to have an abortion.
• Oklahoma City Woman Beaten and Shot After Refusing Abortion
There are hundreds of these cases. They go on for pages and pages.
We need to realize the unspoken cost of abortion. When we devalue the life of the child inside the mother we necessarily devalue the life of the mother. The two are connected physically, emotionally and spiritually.
So many of these women were brave mothers who fought for the right of their child to live. They deserve to be honored. Their stories should not be discarded because they don’t advance the abortion agenda.
October 2, 2009 at 5:41 am
Not wanting to pay child support is enough of a motive for murder? Life indeed has been cheapened by our culture.
October 2, 2009 at 1:03 pm
This is a shocking reminder of how the allowance of violence against one, allows for the violence against another.
October 2, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Well, one of the reasons many women give for their abortions is pressure from the baby's father.
I'd say a credible threat of homicide certainly counts a pressure….
Funny how the same feminists who care so much about domestic violence at other times are so willing to over look it when the woman ends up at an abortion clinic instead of a shelter…….
It's almost like they care more about political clout and $$$ than the women…..no….couldn't be…..
October 2, 2009 at 1:40 pm
"And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"
–Mother Teresa
October 2, 2009 at 2:36 pm
While reading these news reports, a few things stood out for me. Many of these teenagers were being sexually abused by adult men. Women are being abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Women are valued only for their ability to be sexual objects–objects of a man's pleasure. When these young girls become pregnant, they are murdered if they refuse to slaughter their unborn child so they can continue the fun and games. It's vile. The ENTIRE abortion industry and this attitude THRIVES on the contraception mentality. People are having sex never actually believing a pregnancy will result because "she was supposed to be on the pill." FWIW, all these heinous accounts actually convince feminists that murdering our children before they are born should continue to remain legal, else more women will be abused. Flawed logic, if you ask me. Instead women should demand to be treated better than this.
October 2, 2009 at 5:42 pm
This article made me cry. All those young women and their babies. All of them martyrs. So sad.
October 2, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Uhhh, the sick, twisted individuals you cite in this post didn't kill pregnant women because they were pro-choice. They killed these poor women because they were sick, twisted individuals. For you to say otherwise is dishonest to say the least.
Regarding Pouillon, have you read what his eldest son has said about the late, great James L. Pouillon:
"It will be impossible for some to believe, but my dad really didn't care about aborton.
He did this to stalk, harass, terrorize, scream at, threaten, frighten, and verbally abuse women. He had a pathologic hatred of women: his mom, my mom, everyone.
After my mom finally left him and he lost his favorite punching bag the violence and abuse that was always contained within our 4 walls was unleased on the people of Owosso.
My dad used the pro-life movement and 1st Amendments foundations to defend him, support him, and enable him. He fooled them all.
He was at the high shool because my niece was there, and female family members were always his favorite targets.
Again, my dad didn't care about abortion. He wanted to hurt people, upset people. He enjoyed making people suffer.
His goal was to be shot on a sidewalk. His goal was to make someone so angry, to make them feel so terrorized, to make them feel the only way they could make him stop was to kill him.
His pro-life stance was the most perfect crime I personally know of. He hid behind the 1st Amendment and was allowed to stalk, terrorise, harass, be obsene, ect. These things are crimes. Offending people isn't a crime, and having different political views isn't a crime, but he committed several crimes over the last 20 years and got away with it.
Yes I really am his oldest son. Owosso is now rid of a mad man."
Here is the link:
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/09/james_m_pouillon_criticizes_fa.html
The Flint Journal confirmed it was really written by James M. Pouillon.
October 2, 2009 at 8:29 pm
My impression is that the climate that allows abortion also allows the degradation of human life, hence murder. When I first read this post, I was impressed by how far the culture of death extends. Abortion by itself is horrendous, but the types of murders that occurred to these women and children were particularly brutal. Something similar to dismembering a baby in the name of medicine.
As for Jim Pouillon, children have been known to publicly criticize their parents. That isn't news. I was saddened by what his son wrote. Maybe it was true, maybe it only contained a kernal of truth and maybe it was patently false. Whatever happened, a man who drove his granddaughter to school that morning was murdered. If I remember correctly, I think I saw a quote from her after he was killed, and it was not negative. Students from the school attempted to resuscitate Mr. Pouillon. Those are additional facts.
October 2, 2009 at 8:48 pm
The stories are examples of how hypocritical the pro-abortion side is. They claim they're "pro-choice" yet when a woman makes a choice and it's not the one they want, she's killed.
This is just all so very sad. 🙁
October 2, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Sue,
I regret to inform you that violence against women pre-dates Roe v. Wade.
October 2, 2009 at 9:12 pm
"Uhhh, the sick, twisted individuals you cite in this post didn't kill pregnant women because they were pro-choice. They killed these poor women because they were sick, twisted individuals. For you to say otherwise is dishonest to say the least." -Craig
Where have I heard that before?
Something like,
"Uhhh, the sick, those twisted individuals in history didn't kill women, children, and other humans because they were Atheists. They killed these poor humans because they were sick, twisted individuals. For you to say otherwise is dishonest to say the least."
If one thinks that killing is ok as long as it is convenient for them (etc), who cares whom they kill.
(If God doesn't exist (according to the Atheists), no action is off limits.)
–gbm3
October 2, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Craig, really, who knows whether the men who killed these young women and their children were "pro-choice." When it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter what kind of bumperstickers these people had on their cars. They used these women and then denied them their choice to live and let baby live. Even if they weren't confirmed "pro-choicers," they were the result of the attitude that underlies the very "abortion-rights movement."
To name it: that a woman can have sex with whomever, whenever and not leave ANYONE "punished" with inconvenient children. If the woman has a "right" to brutally kill her womb dwelling child, than the man who participated in that child's creation naturally feels entitled to brutally killing that child as well. For, by using a sick and twisted form of logic, the man was just as responsible for the pregnancy as the woman, then the man is also just as entitled to enforce his will upon the pregnancy.
In a good and holier context, this would mean that the biological father should have a claim to the life of the child in the womb and be able to protect that child from abortion. However, since the culture of death and the resulting abortion movement is a sick and demonic twisting of all that is good in man-woman relationship, this logic is used against the woman and the child when the woman decides to keep the baby. The man, feeling like he has equal rights in the pregnancy (since truly he does- it is his child) feels that his rights extend to ending the life of the unborn child and therefore the woman carrying it.
Any time you have certain people (read: pregnant women) claiming the right to determine the span of another's life, you open the door to greater evil. Suddenly the men behind these pregnant women feel that they have "rights" too and exert them in an equally terrible way. The women in this article are proof of this.
Therefore Craig, whether or not these men are "pro-choice" or not is truly irrelevant. They themselves are the living (hah!) proof of the effects that the "pro-choice" "abortion-rights" mentality on our culture and the deaths that resulted.
PS. Just because brutality against women is nothing new does not mean that this wave of violence and deaths is unrelated to the abortion movement. The fact that many of these cases involved young vulnerable teens who were threatened, "Unless you have an abortion…" proves that these are not in the category of senseless domestic violence.
October 2, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Craig,
I agree. Violence against women goes back to the beginning.
My point is simply that a son's anger against his father is not the final word. As I said, there could be some truth to it. I do not know, because I did not know Mr. Pouillon. If someone did know him, then I would be glad to listen. There were other accounts of Mr. Pouillon's involvement with life. I read reports of his support – both financial and personal – to young women who found themselves in need of it.
October 3, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Matt, THANK YOU for posting this. No one else will. I promise. The reason I know this is because its just too painful to look at. So we look away (pull up the home page on MSN, yahoo or whatever today for evidence) or we point fingers (e.g., Craig's comment that violence preceeds R v. Wade…the inference being "see, we can't blame abortion. Its all those 'bad' people")
Point: Our society cannot handle too much reality & the reality is that billions (with a B) of kids have been legally killed during the last half century. That's alot of blood on alot of consciences. There are 2 responses to this fact:
1. Ignore, deny, diss, kill or point fingers at anyone who says the emperor (abortion) has no clothes.
2. Admit, forgive & change the culture of death.
I appreciate CMR for trying to do the latter.
October 3, 2009 at 6:23 pm
The murderers of these women and girls were not pro-choice. They were undeniably, unequivocally pro-abortion.
They girls/women may have been pro-choice _in_theory_, but they certainly made their choices clear when they decided to carry their babies instead of killing them. However, isn't "pro-choice" supposed to mean than a woman can choose to *keep* her baby? The murderers cannot even claim that title.
One horror (or two, or three) may be a sick, twisted individual. Ten or more indicates a pattern and, in this case, a horrifying one. These men and their accomplices took it upon themselves to abort not only the baby, but the mother as well. The motives in each case were clear and unmistakeable. Where should the blame be laid for this pattern, if not at the feet of those who would argue that at least one of the two lives in question (mother and child) is legally expendable?
Whether or not James Poullion was a great man or a monster is irrelevant to this argument. His murderer confessed (in a previously linked story) that he was offended by Poullion's signs. For the murderer, it was about the pro-life sentiments Poullion was expressing. Therefore, it was a politically motivated, pro-choice murder.
Can anyone point to another time in history where the greatest cause of death for pregnant women was murder? If you can, I will gladly concede the point that "abuse" of this kind reaches all the way back to that time. However, if I'm remembering my history correctly, traditionally, child-bearing was actually considered a blessing. Henry VIII, for example, didn't divorce or execute his wives because they were fertile; rather, because they could not bear him an heir. Similiarly, even in cultures where slavery was considered ethical, a woman who was pregnant/fertile was considered more valuable than one who was not (as stock that can reproduce itself is always considered more valuable: bulls vs. cows). At what point in history was a woman theoretically in more danger from the father of her child than from complications to the pregnancy/childbirth?
Craig, you know I've never been confrontational with you and never resorted to name calling or straw men. However, I sincerely believe in this case that you are wrong.
If you can prove me wrong, please feel free to do so by answering my questions.
October 4, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I do believe that the pro-abortion mentality makes life expendable and can breed violence, I have to wonder of the legitimacy of the claim that "the leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide."
I know for sure that the leading cause of death among women in general is heart disease. I have a hard time understanding how homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women when there is heart disease, cancer, infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, respiratory diseases, etc. Do we have any verification of the claim?
October 5, 2009 at 2:21 am
Brendan,
Actually, I wanted to see the info, as well. I found an article that stated that a CDC study released in February, 2005, named auto accidents as the leading cause of trauma related deaths in pregnant women (44%), with homicide coming in second (31%). The one caveat was that such deaths are "significantly understate(d)", due to lack of accurate records about such deaths. Either way, it's an incredibly sad statistic.
October 5, 2009 at 2:49 am
One last thought –
I was looking at the publication dates. Most of the articles that stated homicide as the leading cause of death in pregnant women were from 2001. A particular study from that time was based on the state of Maryland – not nationwide. One article was published by the AMA in 2001, but I could not find anything more recent.
October 5, 2009 at 5:38 am
You can find the citations Unchoice.com is using at the bottom of this page. I believe #5 is the primary one.
October 5, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Mouse,
I was going to leave this vile topic alone until I saw your post, so I will respond to you.
Firstly, NOW also touts the study Unchoice cites from Maryland, but this does not point to a "culture of death" phenomenon.
From NOW's website:
"Nationally, homicide is a leading killer of young women—pregnant or not. In 1999, homicide was the second-leading cause of death among women ages 20 to 24. It was fifth among women ages 25-34. Accidents are the top cause of death in both age groups."
So, homicide is not just a leading cause of death among pregnant women. It's a leading cause of death for ALL women of child-bearing age. A reason why this is more prevalent for pregnant women is also given in the article:
"People think that pregnancy is a joyful, happy time for families. That's not always true," said Phyllis Sharps, an associate professor at The Johns Hopkins University's school of nursing who researches violence against women.
In some cases, the woman has been abused for years, and the violence escalates to murder after she's pregnant. In others, pregnancy itself sparks emotions that can lead to murderous rages.
"Violence in intimate relationships is all about power," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "There are fewer times when you can have power over a woman than when she's pregnant. She's vulnerable. It's an easier time to threaten her."
I say this the fault of the "culture of violence against women" and, despite tremendous advancement, we obviously have a long, long way to go before this tragic pattern can be broken.
Regarding Pouillon's killer, he also killed a gravel pit owner and was on his way to kill a realtor. He is a definitive example of a sick,twisted individual.