Norma McCorvey & Kathleen Sebelius
Norma McCorvey, best known as “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, wrote a book a few years ago, Won by Love. I was sent the book — autographed, too – when I made a donation to a pro-life cause.
Norma, who went from being the poster girl for abortion to becoming an adamant and outspoken pro-life speaker, tells the step-by-step tale of her journey in this well written, funny — yes, funny — poignant and thoroughly human chronicle.
As the story begins, Norma is working at an abortion clinic when she discovers to her horror that Operation Rescue has rented space next door…..
I’ve been thinking about Norma lately because of President Obama’s choice of Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas Governor who wants the Health and Human Services post that Tom Daschle carelessly lost over neglected taxes.
Evidently President Obama is gambling that Catholic Governor Sebelius’ problems – her political support of the killing of innocent, unborn human life — are no big deal.
A New York Times article nicely outlines what Governor Sebelius’ predicament is:
Abortion may prove a lightning rod in her confirmation. Ms. Sebelius, a Catholic, has repeatedly vetoed abortion regulations on legal or policy grounds. “Personally, I believe abortion is wrong,” she wrote in one veto message before explaining that she did not think the bill would reduce late-term abortions.
Ms. Sebelius has defended her record by pointing to adoption initiatives and falling abortion rates in Kansas, but the archbishop of Kansas City last year said she should not receive communion until repudiating her support for abortion rights.
Anti-abortion leaders also criticize her for hosting a reception at the governor’s mansion in 2007 attended by George Tiller, a prominent Wichita abortion provider. At the time, Dr. Tiller was under investigation and now is about to go on trial for 19 misdemeanor charges of violating state restrictions on late-term abortions, according to news reports.
After her possible nomination became public, the Catholic League called her an “enemy of the unborn” and promised to fight confirmation. “We have the specter of another pro-abortion Catholic stiffing the Catholic Church,” Bill Donohue, the league president, said in a statement. “This is setting up a confrontation that pro-life Catholics will not walk away from.”
This morning we learned that Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann (originally from St. Louis) has written a column for his archdiocesan newspaper that will appear in tomorrow’s edition; to read it, click here.
In time we will learn whether or not the Senate will confirm Sebelius (probably yes) and perhaps whether or not she will present herself for Holy Communion. If she does not, she will not be the first high profile Catholic politician to refrain.
The larger question is this: does Governor Sebelius understand what she defends? Does she understand the scandal? Has she ever bothered to spend a good deal of time in an abortion clinic?
She would do well to read Norma McCorvey’s book. One Amazon reviewer of Won by Love has this to say:
…..Unquestionably the plot’s most fantastic twist occurs after Operation Rescue–the civil disobedience prolife group–moved in next door to the abortion clinic where Norma was working.
Despite opposite goals, Norma amazingly formed friendships with several Rescue staff members and one in particular who grew so trusting of the infamous foe that she actually let her eight year old daughter play under Jane Rose’s tutelage inside the clinic.
Were this book a work of fiction, most readers would slam it down in disgust at the farfetched contrivance in that chapter, but as the cliche goes, “truth is stranger…”
Obviously Norma’s story would be inchoate without a portion devoted to the horrors of the abortion trade, and from her days as an insider she possesses an armamentarium that far surpasses most right-to-life advocates.
She makes little effort to conceal her disdain for her clinic’s smarmy, avaricious abortionist–whom she never identifies beyond “Arnie,” and reveals an industry secret “that a disproportionate number of abortion doctors are actually from other countries–foreigners who perceive that our lax abortion laws create a tremendous moneymaking opportunity.”
Her contempt for this physician who was always barefoot in the office seems appropriate when she discusses how as his wife battled breast cancer, he moved a mistress into their home.
While he is the only abortionist profiled in the book, Norma’s implications are clear.
Referring to the reality of the work in an abortion clinic, Norma admits that on-the-job cocaine usage was commonplace among most workers (and honestly admits to frequent abuse of the drug herself) “drugs became a major tool to keep the peace; drugs got us through the day.”
Even abortion proponents should be outraged when she explains political pressure has resulted in a situation where “veterinary clinics have stricter regulations than abortion clinics…..”
Norma’s stories about abortion clinics and sordid abortionists are not unique. Tales about sleazy staff and practices abound.
What is unique is that this is Jane Roe talking.
Won by Love: a highly recommeded book for Kathleen Sebelius…and you.
Sherry Tyree, 66, a graduate of John Burroughs School and Washington University, is a founding member (1984) and Vice President of Women for Faith & Family, a national Catholic women's organization that supports and defends traditional church teachings. Sherry is married to Dr. Donald A. Tyree, professor emeritus, School of Business, St. Louis University. 
This books sounds more like a manifesto for the
Minutemen Project than a book on abortion.
The woods if full of reformed white supremacists who
have supposedly seen the error of their ways and
reformed homosexuals and reformed murderers
whose causes were championed by cabals of
influential idiots…
What’s the religious angle here? Some woman up
for an appointment might or might not be able
to take communion in good conscience? What business
is that of ours? Is this woman qualified? Will she
push policies good for the nation?
I’m far more interested in what she may have had to say about BRo’bama’s pastor damning her nation than I am of her opinion about abortion. Women who get pregnant and then decide they don’t want to be are going to have abortions. Hell, something like half the women having a fertilized egg in them have an abortion at some point, whether they know it or not.
If dog was pro-life, there wouldn’t be any death.
If we have free will we should have the freedom
from our fellow man to pursue it. I can see no
harm in the allowing of a woman to have
a parasitic savage life which poisons her immune
system as it’s first act of violence against
another human being dug out of her if she doesn’t
feel in the mood to gestate. I know what everyone’s
bible says about the subject–that “her fruits” are
property, not a human life, and further it belongs to it’s father and he’s the one who’s to go to magistrates and have the compensation for the
LOST PROPERTY adjudicated.
One is allowed to dispose of their own property
as they see fit in a society which believes in
personal property rights, and if we want to
substitute dog’s law for man’s law, then let the
men who don’t want their fetus’ egg-donor to
abort sue them in civil court for damages.
Unless they were planning to sell the child
to the Gypsies, it seems as if they’d be suing
for a negative amount–not something too many
would be likely to undertake on those terms.
My personal view: if you think there’s any possibility
you’re not going to want to be pregnant–including a massively deformed fetus or one carrying a terrible congenital health problem—then see to it you
don’t become pregnant. I’ve driven down the road
at the posted speed limit being passed constantly as if I’m standing still so I know that’s probably too much to expect.
I view most people who become pregnant and then decide later not to be as the type of people I don’t want to see a lot more of, so let them abort! Men who impregnate women who are not ready, willing and able to gestate and partuate are poor at selecting women with whom to mate. Their heritable behavioral defect need not be conserved.
What’s all the hoo-rah about? If there’s a shortage of catholics, that’s not abortion, it’s the religion’s inability to “speak to” modern man and find a receptive audience. If WASPs are a dying breed, it’s not because of abortion, it’s because of their putting the quality of their families ahead of the quantity of their families when in-fact, the two are not inverse-proportional. That means they’re kind of stupid and that’s the problem, not abortion.
I’m tired of this phony debate stirred up to
create chaos so that while we’re all arguing
about this we won’t be paying attention to the fact
our taxes are used to incite righteously-indignant
14th-century anachronistic terrorists to want to
kill us.
I wonder what aspect of this appointee which would be of far greater concern to most normal non-aberrant-thinking people is being swept under the carpet by raising this concern.
Hi UBl,
Hi UBL,
Sorry about the double post. All thumbs!
I read that several times, and what I hear is you act to avoid abortion with your choices, and you advise others to do the same. If they don’t, that is the outcome of free will.
You consider this whole conversation a diversion to holding people accoutable for their own actions, and when we interfere in other lives we pay the price in our own.
Personal choices are distinct from public policy, and should be kept that way. The natural order of things will resolve it. I get it. A little cold maybe, but it works.
Only one thing is missing for me, sharing what you have for yourself in a way that what moves you touches others in the same way. Not that they agree, only that they get what you have for yourself is something that moves and inspires you.
I get that you do not choose abortion for yourself. What I don’t get is why. I do not accept that it is because it is hte way of those you do not respect.
No need to satisfy me in this, just sharing how what you wrote is for me.
“Catholic Governor Sebelius’ problems – her political support of [abortion rights] — are no big deal.”
You know, this seems to only be a problem with people like this poster and her ilk. Ones that would never have voted for Obama. HHS is so much more than abortion, yet you attempt to cloud the nomination with something only to hear yourself speak.
sounds to me like ms. sebelius has abandoned the roman catholic church, as has rep. clay. i hope they don’t believe in hell or any other form of eternal damnation, for their sake. at least they’ll have a few more relatively peaceful and uneventful years here on earth before the boom’s lowered. may God have mercy on their souls.
1. The issue is lost because of the spin. The “choice” is made BEFORE sex. Abortionists want “choice” with no consequences. “If I’m stopped by a trooper because I’m drunk & driving, why can’t I “choose” not to be DUI?” A women does have the right to make choices with her body. If she chooses to have sex, the possibility of a new life is a consequence of her choice. The low % of abortions related to rape, incest, & life of the mother, are separate issues.
2. We give absolute rights to human beings to defend themselves no matter what evidence exists to convict them. Why not give the same right to babies when modern science cannot determine when their “life” begins?
xman09stlouis,
You state:
…i hope they don’t believe in hell or any other form of eternal damnation, for their sake. at least they’ll have a few more relatively peaceful and uneventful years here on earth before the boom’s lowered.
________________________________________________
What exactly is the meaning of this statement that you have made?