BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Thursday, October 23, 2003
A measured take on "partial
birth" abortion. Reader J.S. sends along this
statement from the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists explaining why Congress
erred in banning intact dilation and extraction (D&X) -- a
procedure labeled by its critics as "partial-birth
abortion."
(To be totally accurate, the
statement was actually released a couple of weeks ago, in
anticipation of the congressional vote.)
The college refers back to a 1997
policy statement that found that, in some instances, intact D&X
may be the best option available:
The policy statement notes
that although a select panel convened by ACOG could identify no
circumstances under which intact D&X would be the only option
to protect the life or health of a woman, intact D&X "may be
the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular
circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman,
and only the doctor, in consultation with the patient, based upon
the woman's particular circumstances, can make this
decision."
This is a far more solid argument
than the hapless prochoice Democrats were able to make earlier this
week. Here's what the college is essentially saying: if it's legal
for a woman to have an abortion, then lawmakers have no right
dictating what particular type abortion she must have --
especially since intact D&X may be safter than the
alternative.
Hersh, rampaging again. In
case you haven't heard yet, Seymour Hersh is back in the New
Yorker this week with a
long, horrifying piece on
the intelligence failures of the Bush White House -- failures that
stemmed directly from its keen desire to believe what it wanted to
believe regarding Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
Dick Cheney comes off particularly
badly. And wait till you read one of the leading theories as to who
forged those documents purporting to show that Iraq had sought to
obtain yellowcake uranium in Niger.
New in this week's
Phoenix. The Atlantic Monthly -- if not its
heartbroken staff -- has recovered
from the death of editor Michael Kelly. But questions about its
future remain.
Also, a novel
idea for improving local TV
news: quality!
posted at 9:14 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
