I mention that in anticipation of the potential for complaints that the site isn't "fair and balanced."
Clearly that statement wasn't intended to be fair and balanced; it was advocacy, not journalism. It used a number of rather transparent sophistic techniques. For example, it pretended to give a sop to the opponents in admitting that the procedure is "difficult and disturbing," but went on to say that it was difficult and disturbing "for some to comprehend," not that it was difficult or disturbing as a procedure, thereby clearly implying that the opponents are simple lacking in understanding, not that they have any legitimate arguments whatsoever to make.
The statistical arguments she makes are shaky at best. For example, "Blood loss to the woman having a D&X procedure is four times less than blood loss with a normal vaginal delivery and 16 times less than with a Cesarean section ..." So? Blood loss from a bloody nose is probably something like four times the blood loss from a cut finger and sixteen times the blood loss from a mosquito bite. Does that mean that a bloody nose is a life threatening circumstance? Such ratios are meaningless without some indication of the actual losses involved and whether, for example, they are greater than the normal blood loss of a menstrual period.
I could go on, but why? The author was not trying to present a fair and balanced picture; she was advocating for a position. Fair enough, she's perfectly entitled to do that, but let's not even begin to pretend that the piece was fair and balanced.
And I note that she never did give a single instance where the D&X procedure would be necessary, where no other procedure could accomplish the same result with the same degree of safety. If the doctors are inadequately trained to perform other procedures, is that an argument for allowing the D&X, or is it an argument for demanding that doctors who want to perform abortions are properly trained in all the possible procedures so they can pick the best one, not just the one they think they can do. |
