From: slkg9733@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steven L. Kellmeyer)
Subject: BOOK reviews and abortion.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: talk.abortion
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:02:09 GMT


From a book review in the Sunday paper:

"For many, the pressure to conform to the group...played a role."
After all, "the child would be unable to survive ... and killing it
would be an act of mercy.... 

The pressure to conform, and the fear that if they didn't ... they might
suffer some kind of punishment or, at least, damage to their careers.
In fact, the few who tried to avoid [it] got away with it; but most 
believed, or at least could tell themselves, that they had little choice...

Another factor was the process of dehumanization: ... [the victims] were
seen as less than people, as creatures hwo could be killed without the
qualms that would be provoked in them were they to kill fellow [citizens].
It was particularly when [they] .... felt a human connection that made it
harder to kill.

They "were also helped by the practice of trying not to refer to their 
activities as killing"  

"What stands between civilization and genocide is the respect for the
rights and lives of all human beings that societies must struggle to
protect.... A word, finally, about the quiet characters in the book - the
victims.  Little is heard from them but much is evident.  They did indeed
go to the slaughter ... defenseless, naked ... Death confers no automatic
nobility.  Neither should it confer blame.  Blame lies with those who 
kill ... no matter what the psychological rationales may be that allow
the killing to take place."

-----------------------------------------------------
Was this a pro-life review of a book describing the rationales behind 
those who abort women, or those women who are impelled by society,
family, friends, and co-workers into destroying their unborn child?

No.

It is
from the April 12, 1992 New York Times Review of Books, pages 26-27,
reviewing "Ordinary Men" by Christopher Browning.  The book describes
the emotions and experiences of the men of the Reserve Police
Battalion 101, who took part in the Final Solution in 1942.
Full quotes follow:

"For many, the pressure to conform to the group, and to not semm like 
cowards, played a role in their continuing to shoot.  One metalworker
from Bremerhaven contented himself with the rationale that he would
shoot only children, since if his partner shot the mother then the child
would be unable to survive alone and killing it would be an act of mercy.
For nearly all, the Jews were not in the same human family as they."

"Mr. Browning's meticulous account, and his own acute reflections on
the actions of the battalion members, demonstrate the important effect
that the situation had on those men: the orders to kill, the pressure to
conform, and the fear that if they didn't kill they might suffer some
kind of punishment or, at least, damage to their careers.  In fact, the
few who tried to avoid killing got away with it; but most believed, or
at least could tell themselves, that they had little choice.  

But Mr. Browning's account also illustrates other factors that made it 
possible for the battalion's ordinary men not only to kill but, 
ultimately, to kill in a routine, and insome cases sadistic, way.  Each
of these factors helped the policmen feel that they were not violating,
or violating only because it was necessary, their personal moral codes.

One such factor was the justification for killing provided by the 
anti-Semitic rationales (try anti-unborn child rationales like "the fetus
is a cancer, a wart, a leech") to which the policemen had been exposed
since the rise of Nazism, rationales reinofrced by the battalion's 
officers" Or the news media.

"Another factor was the process of dehumanization: abetted by Nazi racial
theories (remember the Washington state case (December 1991) in which the
judge referred to doctor's being required to maintain the purity of the
gene pool?  The doctor was found guilty of not requiring his patient to
undergo genetic testing, and was therefore financially responsible for 
the child's medical problems, since the woman said she would have aborted
had she known.) that were embraced by policemn who preferred not to see
themselves as killers, Jews were seen as less than people, as creatures
who could be killed without the qualms that would be provoked in them
were they to kill fellow Germans, or even Slavs.  It was particularly when 
the German policemen came across German Jews speaking their own language,
especially those from their own city, that they felt a human connection 
that made it harder to kill them."

Abortion clinics that use ultrasound to locate the fetus prior to execution
are careful to keep the screen turned away from the mother, lest she
recognize that humanity portrayed on the screen.  Similarly, heart moniter
attachments used when saline abortions were popular had the audio mode 
turned off and the monitor turned away so that the mother wouldn't hear
the heartbeat go flatline.  

"The policemen were also helped by the practice of trying not to refer
to their activities as killing: they were involved in 'actions' and
'resettlements'.  Moreover, the responsibility wasn't theirs; it belonged
to the authorities."  Just as society washes it's hands of the killings
now, claiming it is only the woman who should be sullied with the death.
The rest of us claim innocence by saying that we wouldn't want to interfer
with a women's right to choose to kill her child.

"And it was shared, most effectively by the death camps, which made the 
men's jobs immensely easier, since stuffing a Jew into a cattle car
though it sealed his fate almost as surely as a neck shot, left the actual
killing to a machine-like process that would take place far way, one for
which the battalion members didn't need to feel personally responsible."
Or in a small room, removed from our view.

"A word, finally, about the quiet characters in the book - the victims.
Little is heard from them, but much is evident."  
"Marched into the forests, or driven into ditches, they were defenseless,
naked, holding on to their children.  Stuffed into cattle cars, they
broke holes in the walls and roofs only to be shot as they emerged.
Death confers no automatic nobility.  Neither should it confer blame.
Blame lies with those who kill and those who order them to kill, no 
matter what the psychological rationales may be that allow the killin
to take place."

We order women to abort every day, by telling them they will lose their
jobs, their educatios, their futures, the love of the men who impregnated
them, their everything, unless they kill their children.  We tell them
that they have no right to expect help from society if they carry to 
term, because they are solely and only responsible for the decision,
and no one else carries any blame for what they decide to do except
themselves.  We wash our hands of the killing by pretending it isn't
really killing because the victims are not really human.  WE are 
part of this newest Holocaust as long as we excuse ourselves from 
interfering with what is going on.

The review tells of men who 
bowed out of the assignment, saying they could not personally do it, but
those same men did nothing to stop it.  Every time we say we personally
oppose abortion, but we wouldn't lift a hand to stop a woman who 
was going to kill her child, we join those men.  When we say we don't 
want to impose our views on someone else, we join those men.  Every
time we sneer at a women who carried to term, and refuse to help her
because she is of the company she keeps, we join those men.

Break ranks with the abortionists.  

Raise your voice.  Stop the killing.

SK
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