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Doonby is not your typical anti-abortion movie. I don’t think the word “abortion” is used in the film, and it’s not even alluded to until the final scenes. Unlike recent documentaries such as 180 and Blood Money, wonderful though they are, Doonby uses narrative — storytelling — to approach the issue obliquely. In fact, for the first 95% of the film, you think you’re watching a well-meaning low-budget thriller about a mysterious guy who shows up in a town and causes a bit of a stir. You wonder where it’s going, but even if you know it’s a pro-life movie, you’re surprised, delighted, and moved by the way it ends.
Doonby stars John Schneider, of “Dukes of Hazzard” and “Smallville” fame, as Sam Doonby, a Southern drifter who arrives in Smithville, TX, with nothing but a backpack and a charming smile. He quickly lands a job at a bar owned by a blues man named Leroy (played by Ernie Hudson, who is known to the world forever, whether he likes it or not, as the black Ghostbuster), and almost as quickly takes up with Laura (Jenn Gotzon), spoiled daughter of the town’s prominent gynecologist (Joe Estevez). Pro-life activist Jennifer O’Neill plays the doctor’s wife.
Throughout the rest of the film Doonby manages to continually be in the right place at the right time when crises occur, to the point that he has a major impact on the lives of many of the town’s residents, including Laura and her family, and attracts the attention of the sheriff (Robert Davi, who you may remember as one of the bad guys in The Goonies).
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The following paragraph appeared in the Chicago Sun Times. The most significant part is emphasized.
Tom Schafer, deputy director of the state’s Office of Health Promotion, said Guttmacher has more time and leeway when an abortion provider is unresponsive. “I don’t want to question the accuracy of their numbers, but we don’t have the ability to estimate,” Schafer said. “We count actual procedures as reported to us.” He said the state counts abortions performed at about 26 facilities, in addition to those performed by between 95 and 140 individual physicians. He acknowledged that providers don’t always report all of their numbers.
This should be a reminder to all of us that often the controls and requirements for abortion reporting in the United States and elsewhere in the world ranges from mediocre to very poor.
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This is my attempt to shut up for a minute and let pictures do the talking. It goes against my every natural instinct to run my mouth, but I will try. Here we go!
Curtain up: The Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Dallas, Texas, broods under a cloudy sky. Except it was actually not very broody but kind of festive. And it wasn’t really cloudy either. It was, however, so cold my hands could barely work my iPhone.
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Rebecca Kiessling who was conceived in rape shared her story with Governor Mike Huckabee on his Fox News program last weekend. Here is the video:
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Why is Planned Parenthood losing public support and funding? Well, instead of making a logical case for their receipt of taxpayer money, they are choosing to engage in a despicable attack on right-to-life advocates. Just four days ago Planned Parenthood affiliate chairman Richard Solomon wrote a piece filled with false stereotypes and accusations:
“The fight, then, isn’t really about abortion. It’s about controlling the sexuality of poor and middle-class women by punishing them if they dare to be sexually active and find themselves with an unintended pregnancy.”
How bizarre is that?
The reason why we speak up for the unborn children and want to defund Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the U.S. is because we want to control the sexuality of poor people? Are you kidding me? If this is the great argument that they choose to wield against us then they are in a lot of trouble.
Planned Parenthood refuses to debate the justification of the actual act of abortion because they know they would lose. Instead they try to win with underhanded attacks on the motives and character of their opponents. It is despicable and dishonest tactic.
NOTE: Richard Solomon is chairman of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties, Inc.
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Photo used via license from Demion.
To mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade, some pro-abortion activists took to the streets to celebrate. One sign that caught my eye depicted a bent coat hanger with the words “Never Again” underneath. This sign was obviously in reference to the oft argued idea that if abortion was ever made illegal, thousands of women would die from unsafe abortions. Here is the response to this argument:
1) Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion doctor and one of the founders of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, said that these statistics were made up.
“In NARAL, we generally emphasized the frame of the individual case, not the mass statistics, but when we spoke of the latter it was always 5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year. I confess that I knew that the figures were totally false and I suppose that others did too if they stopped to think of it. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics? The overriding concern was to get the laws eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.”
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Ultrasound at 14 weeks.
In an email sent earlier this week, by NARAL President Nancy Keenan wrote that one of her top fears was this:
More and more women seeking abortion care could be forced to view an ultrasound image – even if they don’t want to or if their doctor doesn’t recommend it.
This is funny because Planned Parenthood in many places REQUIRES an ultrasound before they will perform an abortion so that they have an idea about what size child they will be terminating. Will we soon see Keenan protesting this Planned Parenthood policy as a monstrous attack on women? I doubt it. In the various states with ultrasound requirements, women must be given an option to view, hardly the “forced” viewing that Keenan decries.
Keenan’s statement of “more and more women” implies that women right now are already forced to look at ultrasound images which is not the case in any state. So once again this shows how the pro-abortion lobby is willing to jump to extreme scare tactics all in an attempt to protect abortion and ensure that unborn children never get a chance to be seen by their mothers.
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Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains told the Associated Press in an article published five days ago:
“Every dollar we’re spending on getting people out to vote is a dollar not spent for birth control or sex education or breast exams.”
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In the comments section of my post on abortion and libertarianism, reader Brooke Mehr asked about the ramifications of the idea that “government should stay out of the abortion issue”:
[W]ould that mean that the government shouldn’t even regulate abortion if it is legal? No health and safety inspections of abortion facilities. No limits on how late a woman can have an abortion. No laws that say that the “doctors” need to help a baby that survives an abortion or help a woman who is suffering from a botched abortion at their hands. So many problems with this.
As if on cue, Reason Magazine’s A. Barton Hinkle wrote a piece suggesting precisely that, by attacking the concept of ultrasound requirements. Hinkle says it’s inconsistent for politicians like Virginia state delegate Mark Cole to trust people to make informed decisions about concealed firearm carry, but not abortion:
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Pro-life youth participate in the 2012 March for Life in Washington, D.C. Photo by Sal Guerrero.
Are pro-life advocates making progress in securing life rights for all humans? You better believe it!
In an article published last Saturday, Casey Martinson, a Planned Parenthood Director of Public Affairs, wrote:
I’m sorry to say that the sky is falling on Roe v Wade. It’s been falling incrementally for the past four decades, and it fell further, faster, in 2011 than in any year before.
Roe v. Wade was the monumental decision 39 years ago that created a right to abort children in the United States.
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Some (usually abortion advocates) question why pro-life advocates spend so much of their focus on Planned Parenthood which they describe as just another health care provider. The fact is that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion chain in the United States as confirmed by their own annual report showing over 325,000 termination procedures. In addition to that, just this week Casey Martinson who is the Director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes wrote (emphasis added):
First, the idea that the pro-choice community – whose most visible proponent is Planned Parenthood…
So there you have. Planned Parenthood admitting that they are the most visable proponent against the right to life and for the choice to terminate one’s child. Who made Planned Parenthood associated so strongly with abortion and against the right to life? They did and defenders should see that even they admit it.
Komen Reverses Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood
BREAKING: New statement from Komen
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Planned Parenthood, Komen, & Breast Exams
Speaking of Desperation: Planned Parenthood’s Sinking Deeper
Ultrasound Law is “Dangerous” According to the American Medical Association
Newt Gingrich Tries to Paint Mitt Romney as an Enemy of Catholic Hospitals
How I Became Pro-Choice, Before I Became Pro-Life
This Celebrity Loves Abortion So Much She Gets Her Own Column
