Elaine Hanger, a resident of Chesterfield County and a member on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Christian Alliance responded to an opinion piece by Richmond Time’s Dispatch columnist Barton’s Hinkle. Barton Hinkle believes there is no need to regulate abortion clinics, where life killing medical procedures are executed and Elaine fires back.
September 10, 2010
Dear Editor:
Barton Hinkle contends that there is no compelling need to regulate abortion clinics in his recent op-ed entitled “Where’s the Crying Need to Regulate Clinics?” I found his logic confusing and his title odd.
He cites incidents of recalls of a half-million drop-side cribs because three children suffered bruises; of federal regulators studying whether to mandate changes in hot dog sizes because 13 people choked to death; of the complication rate at abortion clinics as roughly comparable to the recent salmonella outbreak in the American egg supply, yet no one has died from the Salmonella outbreak.
Despite thirty seven years of legalized abortion and widespread efforts to sear the consciences of women, women innately know that abortion is the willful decision to take the life of one’s own child. When a decision of that magnitude is made, even if there are complications or injuries from the procedure, few women are eager to communicate or even to report these problems. I know of a local family whose daughter died from a botched abortion at a Richmond clinic but because of the sensitivity of the situation, the family could not endure public disclosure.
Hinkle says that national figures indicate that abortion clinics tend to be quite safe. National figures are irrelevant when reporting is hardly likely to occur. But the glaring question is really, “Quite safe? For who?” The baby facing the whirring knife of the abortionist has no place to turn for safety except to those maligned in Hinkle’s article as the Taliban wing of the GOP.
Where is the crying need…? Babies have a crying need.
Elaine Hanger
Chesterfield, VA 23832
Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Elaine Hanger serves as on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Christian Alliance and you can read more about Elaine here.
