The Exception Proves the Rule

John Leland visited a Little Rock, Ark., abortion chamber and wrote up his story for The New York Times (Sept. 18). The story seems to be objective.

Alexia, 23, who wore a cross pendant, was having her third abortion. A Baptist, she says, “My religion is against it. In a way I feel I’m doing wrong, but you can be forgiven.” Yes, you can be forgiven, but it sounds like automatic forgiveness without much, if any, contrition. However, the Baptists believe you’re saved by faith alone, not by works. If so, do you even need to be forgiven for doing anything bad?

Then there is Regina, 28, a Catholic and a sergeant in the Army just out of Iraq. She blamed an Army nurse in Iraq for giving her a faulty contraceptive Devo-Provera shot. She had already had one abortion. After which she went to confession, where the priest told her, “People make mistakes.” If it was just a “mistake,” why not come in for a second abortion? And she did.

We hear that ultrasound will convince women not to have abortions. Venetia, 21, and 12 weeks pregnant, viewed the ultrasound, but she had the abortion anyway. “Kori, 26,” Leland reports, “who was having her third abortion, asked to watch the [abortion] procedure on the ultrasound monitor. ‘I wanted to see what it was like,’ she said. ‘It was O.K. to watch. Once you had your mind made up to do it, you just suck it up and go with it.”

Then there is Leah, 26. Leland reports: “Because Leah was just five weeks pregnant, her image showed a formless mass. ‘If I saw an actual fetal baby on the ultrasound, I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it,’ she said.”