Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice has kicked up a bit of dust with her recent comments advocating “respect for the fetus” among abortion rights advocates. Now, mind you, such “respect” doesn’t include actually saving the life of the fetus, just saying that one “respects” it. One Seattle abortionist responded to Kissling’s commentary with frustration that Kissling “got her information more from political leaders than from those of us actually doing the abortions.”
So writes Suzanne T. Poppema in the Summer 2005 issue of the CFFC journal:
I have also performed and taught how to perform abortions with great respect for what we were doing both as terminating a life and saving the woman’s life (in some cases literally). I always said that I felt like I was liberating two souls whenever I did an abortion, the woman’s and the fetus’s.
We always tried to validate whatever a woman’s ritual was to let her fetus go and I really believe that we would do well to have a socially acceptable ritual for aborted fetuses. Maybe this is all just because I had a second trimester abortion myself many years ago and had to face all these issues, but I really do not believe that our abortion clinic was unique.
Oh, and the name of the journal? Conscience.
