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Deception, Lies and Libel

I have never quite understood the appeal of Zombie movies and shows, particularly, The Walking Dead. After a couple of episodes, it was clear that the world was in a zombie epidemic and society quickly collapsed, with the requisite zombie attacks, blood, gore, and roving bands of the uninfected. This is a common trope in the end-of-the-world, apocalyptic fiction genre. Sometimes it’s a virus that just kills everyone, sometimes it makes people into vampires or werewolves and, of course, zombies. So, after the third episode of The Walking Dead, the story was, people become zombies, other people run away from the zombies and, when the non-zombies get bitten by a zombie, they become zombies themselves (unless they are gruesomely eaten by groups of zombies). With minor variation, the 3^rd or 30^th or 300^th episode of The Walking Dead will be the same. Seems sort of boring, as there is no cure, and what is left of society is slowly diminishing to zero. (If you are a fan of the show, please write and explain where I have gone astray, or at least direct me to an episode where something different happens.) One thing that I wonder about is how the zombies seem to coordinate their behavior. They are, after all, dead and mindless zombies, but still manage to travel in groups, more or less, in the same direction. One would think that they would just wander aimlessly and fall off cliffs into the ocean. Is some sort of telepathic Instagram influencing them?

We are blessed and cursed by near-instantaneous communication and sharing of information. Something can appear in an internet news story, and it quickly spreads to a disproportionately large population. Who would have thought that a catchy tune, in Korean no less, would become an internet sensation and Gangnam Style’s video (1)  would be watched nearly 4.4 billion times!? Such is our world. The issue is, most of the internet has no content verification or moderation, so something preposterously wrong, deceitful, or patently false can quickly spread like a virus until it becomes “true.” There is an adage that, if one tells a lie often enough, it becomes true. Certainly, the internet demonstrates and facilitates this, especially if the lie is told with conviction and confidence. Sometimes these are just harmless memes or misunderstandings, but sometimes these are harmful and can result in injury or death. We have previously discussed the Rwandan genocide and its facilitation by the radio broadcasts of RTLM, in a country dominated by radio media (2). In the United States, the internet dominates the spread of information, taking the danger to a geometrically higher level. After all, nearly every person above the age of toddler carries around a smartphone with instant access to the latest viral trend, fad, or slogan. (One of my favorite jokes is “I’m not going to register with any census; that’s how the government tracks you!” Says the man who carries his GPS, Tik Tok and Facebook-enabled smartphone with him everywhere he goes.)

One of the most egregious examples of viral disinformation and the creation of “zombies” is the pro-abortion media echo chamber. With lightning speed, it seems the entire pro-abortion crowd picks up on a deceitful euphemism and then stumbles around, like a hoard of zombies, chanting the phrase. So, “my body, my chooooice,” or “reproductive health caaaaare,” or “threat to women’s liiiives,” instead of “braaaaains,” usually chanted by movie zombies. It is easy to see this phenomenon on the dumpster fire that is Twitter (140-character snippets, in of themselves, likely to create mindless slogans). Something will appear on Twitter, and within a short time, the pro-abortion zombies stumble around tweeting the same phrase. One of the more recent was “ZEF”, used to refer to an unborn child. I guess this is shorthand for zygote-embryo-fetus, although I have never seen that spelled out. The zombies just started chanting it to dehumanize the unborn children under their relentless attack. (Frankly, I even prefer “clump of cells” to “ZEF”. There is something unspeakably evil about reducing a human being to an acronym and, I think even Adolph Eichmann looking up from the table he shares with Pol Pot, Pontius Pilate and Che Guevara in hell’s cafeteria would say, “Don’t you guys think that’s a little much?”) Suddenly, Twitter was awash with, “I can expel the ZEF from my body anytime I want,” “The ZEF has no rights and is a parasite,” and numerous other heinous variations of the same. (For a well-done treatment of the banality of evil and Adolph Eichmann, I recommend Conspiracy, an HBO film, which is a dramatization of the Wannsee conference. It is a thought-provoking treatise on language and euphemism.)

Whoever is setting the pro-abortion zombie agenda – Satan, Planned Parenthood, MSNBC, the Democratic National Committee – knows that most Americans, indeed, most of the world (aside from China, North Korea, and Canada) support some limitation and regulation of abortion (3). Most of America also supports the ability to obtain an abortion early in pregnancy (3). (Unfortunate, and likely a result of misinformation and euphemisms, as we will discuss.) Even the darling countries of the abortion zombies, like France, only permit unrestricted abortion up to 14 weeks gestation (4). (Recall that the Mississippi abortion law called for restriction after 15 weeks. Since that wasn’t good enough, Ms. Diane Derzis, the ghoul who owned Jackson Women’s Healthcare, the facility that we in Jackson called the “pink monstrosity”, sued the state to increase her killing power. Ms. Derzis’ appetite for destruction resulted in the Dobbs decision, so thank you for that. The pink monstrosity has been repainted white and is slated to be a high-end consignment store. I would have preferred demolition and a monument to the slain children, but anything is better than the in-your-face abortuary it was. I would consider, however, an exorcism of the building and hesitate before buying creepy “antiques” from the new store. Ms. Derzis, in a single-minded insatiable hunger for death, has gone on to open new abortuaries in New Mexico and Bristol, Virginia, conveniently close to the pro-life states of Texas and Tennessee. I suspect Pol Pot would admire her enthusiasm.)

Because of their hunger for unrestricted abortion, the zombies do everything within their power to conceal the fact that elective abortion is the intentional termination of a human life, that is, an unborn child. They will never use the term “child.” To quote the zombies, “no children are aborted, a ZEF is not a child.” I am not sure when someone becomes a child. Possibly at birth or some months/years afterward? As the Dems will not support protection for a child who has survived an abortion attempt, the definition is murky. (Possibly someone becomes a person when they register as a Democrat?) The abortion zombies also love “clump of cells” and “tissue” and often will not even acknowledge that the “clump of cells” is a living human being. Well, it’s not dead. The cells are clearly undergoing electron transport and cellular respiration and it’s not a cat or a chicken.

The mental gymnastics the abortion zombies need to go through to hide what they are doing is truly mind-boggling, as is the ignorance of simple, basic biology. They are not stupid. They know this, but they are trying to appeal to a sleeping and self-absorbed public that finds it difficult to think in more than 140-character concepts. Bill Burr is a stand-up comedian who is unbelievably honest. In one of his routines, to paraphrase, he says, “Who am I to tell you what to do, but I still think you’re killing a baby!” He then goes on to make a comparison between throwing an unbaked cake out of the oven, saying, “Hey, you ruined my cake! It would have been a cake if you left it in the oven another 50 minutes!” Gallows humor with a lot of profanities, but a strangely honest take from the pro-choice side. You can see it here (brace yourself) (5).

Most of the time, this is just an annoyance and insult to one’s intelligence, but, as we said, repeating a lie often enough can make it true to many, and dangerous to the uninitiated. This week, we were assailed by the news story of Jessa Duggar Seewald having had an abortion (6). This caught the public’s attention, as the Duggar family of reality TV show fame, is a very large, fundamentalist Christian family with a lot of kids, and Jessa Duggar Seewald has been particularly outspoken in her support of the right to life. So, if she had an abortion, oh the shame, oh the hypocrisy! In short order, this story, which first ran in Parade magazine (I know, I can’t believe they’re still in business either) was widely disseminated throughout the drive-by media echo chamber as an example of the “necessity” for abortion. Although the story in Parade is fairly objective, that is, Ms. Duggar Seewald had posted a YouTube video about suffering a miscarriage and undergoing a D&C; the editor of the piece titled the weblink “Jessa Duggar Seewald life-saving abortion!” If one takes even a superficial glance at the story (and who wouldn’t), it is immediately apparent that Jessa Duggar Seewald did not, in fact, have an abortion. Mrs. Duggar Seewald suffered a miscarriage and needed to undergo a D&C to remove the dead child, placenta and uterine tissue. A D&C, dilation and curettage, involves opening the cervix and using a tool to remove the uterine contents in a sort of “scraping” motion. It is also among the procedures used to perform an elective surgical abortion. The zombies (in Michael Jackson “Thriller” video-like fashion) jumped all over this and called it an abortion, because of the D&C’s use in elective abortion, as well as miscarriage and a lot of other medical conditions. So, all of a sudden, abortion, abortion, abortion! Jessa Duggar Seewald had an abortion and, if legislatures ban abortion then they will prevent women from having life-saving treatment for miscarriage! “Oh, the humanity! What’s next, cats and dogs living together?! How the pro-lifer’s worm has turned!” The abortion zombies have been beating that drum, ad nauseam, for a week or two now.

The problem is, none of this is true. Medical terminology can be confusing to either the uninitiated or the dishonest. In strict medical terms, an abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before its natural conclusion, that is, delivery of a child. The abortion zombies jump on this word to say, “See, I told you, abortion, abortion, abortion!” But that is a very disingenuous twist of language. Indeed, any process can be stopped before its conclusion, that is, aborted. If NASA and Space-X abort the launch of a Falcon-9 rocket, 10 seconds before ignition, due to an electrical abnormality, can the zombies say that Elon Musk and NASA support abortion? Using the logic of Parade magazine, I’m surprised they haven’t run a story, “Elon Musk forced someone to have an abortion!” In the medical lexicon, a miscarriage is a pregnancy aborted by natural causes. This further breaks down into subtypes, so a missed abortion is when a child dies (usually around 12 weeks gestation), but nothing is expelled from the uterus (as was the case with Mrs. Duggar-Seewald). An incomplete abortion is when the child dies and only some of the products of conception are expelled, with others remaining and often with profuse bleeding; this is the most common scenario requiring a D&C. A spontaneous abortion is when the child dies and all uterine contents are expelled. An inevitable abortion is when something occurs in the course of the pregnancy that will lead to loss of the pregnancy, such as early premature rupture of membranes and loss of amniotic fluid, which can also lead to a septic abortion, when the uterus and products of conception become infected.

The medical lexicon calls the Planned Parenthood type of abortion an elective, induced, or sometimes, therapeutic abortion. (No, I don’t get the therapeutic part either, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are some of the most adamant pro-abortion cheerleaders, so…) The abortion zombies lump all this together in their efforts to confuse the public and attempt to normalize the killing of unborn children. They almost never use the term “miscarriage” because that would not fit their narrative of all abortion, all the time. Indeed, the term “miscarriage” is also in the medical lexicon, because “I’m sorry you had a spontaneous abortion” is not great bedside manner and an unfair characterization of a tragic outcome.

A miscarriage is a traumatic and terrible event that leaves an indelible mark on one’s psyche. There are not many greater tragedies than the anticipation of a child, your child, suddenly taken, before even being born. As the parent of a miscarried child, the experience was among the very worst of my life and something I think about, however fleetingly, nearly every day. My wife often wakes, teary-eyed, having dreamt of the loved, lost child. Frequently a D&C is required to remove residual products of conception, such as the placenta and uterine lining, and frequently this is done to stop severe, life-threatening bleeding. In the absence of bleeding, misoprostol is sometimes used to expel the products of conception. Miscarriage is, unfortunately, very common, occurring in as many as 30-40% of pregnancies, despite appropriate prenatal management and nutrition. Hence, the general public is very sympathetic to women who have suffered this tragedy and it is personal to them, given its frequency. The abortion zombies know this and use the unfair and outright lying scare tactic of saying that abortion bans will ban the performance of D&Cs for miscarriage and threaten women’s lives.

This is so dishonest and reprehensible that I cannot find the words to fully express my contempt for these purveyors of evil. Each and every law regulating or banning abortion in the United States makes explicitly clear the exception of performing D&C and other therapies in the case of miscarriage. Take, for example, the Louisiana law, one of the most restrictive in the US, it reads, “Abortion shall not mean any one or more of the following acts, if performed by a physician: … the removal of a dead unborn child or the inducement or delivery of the uterine contents in case of a positive diagnosis, certified in writing in the woman’s medical record along with the results of an obstetric ultrasound test, that the pregnancy has ended or is in the unavoidable and untreatable process of ending due to spontaneous miscarriage, also known in medical terminology as spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, inevitable abortion, incomplete abortion, or septic abortion (7).” This could not be more clear and one doesn’t need to be Oliver Wendell Holmes to interpret it.

The real issue is that the abortion zombies trumpet the narrative of abortion bans preventing miscarriage treatment so loudly and so confidently, that it creeps its way into the psyche of healthcare professionals and may put doubt in the minds of otherwise rational physicians and administrators. In this way, they not only insult those suffering a miscarriage, but they may threaten proper care by planting these false seeds of doubt. But it was never about women’s health; it was always about the agenda to exterminate as many unborn children as possible. If some women suffer improper treatment of miscarriage because of the abortion zombies’ disinformation, I suspect that is acceptable to their agenda, as a sacrifice to “the greater good.” 65 million killed since Roe? Planned Parenthood would call that a good start. Now, I have seen a news story or two about women denied proper miscarriage care in some hospitals because of misinterpretation of existing law (7). Like most items in the popular press, I wonder, “Is that true?” And, even if so, how often does it happen? In 30 years of practice, I have never, not once, seen any ambiguity whatsoever, regarding treatment for miscarriage versus elective abortion. Perhaps I am just lucky? I think not. I think the media will stop at nothing to lie, twist the facts and make one-in-a-million outliers seem like everyday events.  Certainly, since Dobbs, we have been bombarded with lurid stories of events and misadventures regarding abortion that, even if true, constitute less than 1.5% of elective abortions.

The drive-by media has characterized the Dobbs decision as directly threatening the health of every woman in the US, should they have the misfortune to become pregnant. They would have you believe pregnancy is fatal nearly 100% of the time and can only be “cured” by abortion. The reality is the death rate from pregnancy is approximately 2 in 10,000 (8). Not zero, but not anywhere close to the media hysterics and abortion zombie spin. The US incidence of breast cancer is more than 10 times greater, at 30 in 10,000 (9). Under the pro-abortion zombie view of the world, this means being female is an incredibly fatal disease and should be “cured” by abortion! (Wait, hasn’t China already tried that?)

Every person who has ever suffered a miscarriage, including myself, is highly offended and incensed by the abortion zombies’ equating a miscarriage and subsequent D&C with abortion. This is truly beyond the pale. I would have far more respect for the abortion zombies if they simply said, “Yes, I know this is a child, but I think I have the right to kill it whenever I want.” At least this is honest. They won’t say this, however, because they know it is abhorrent to a civilized conscience and would never be supported by the vast majority of Americans (3). Yes, a D&C is sometimes used to manage a miscarriage; it is also sometimes used to perform an elective abortion. It is also used to treat uterine hyperplasia and diagnose cancer in 80-year-old women. To use an analogy, the medications I administer daily to provide anesthesia for patients undergoing surgery are often the very same medications used by the Texas State Prison in Huntsville to administer capital punishment by lethal injection. Am I administering capital punishment to surgical patients? Propofol, the drug blamed for the death of Michael Jackson, is one of the most commonly used anesthetics worldwide. Mr. Jackson received a dose of approximately 25 milligrams before his demise (10). The average dose I use in the operating room to induce anesthesia is between 150 and 200 milligrams in most adults. Sedation for colonoscopy often uses the exact same medications used to sedate women during an elective abortion. Does that mean Joe Biden had an abortion? Stop, just stop.

Jessa Duggar Seewald has been unfairly castigated and assaulted by the pro-abortion media to drive their thantalogic agenda. They knew exactly what they were doing and should be held accountable. A miscarriage and subsequent D&C is not an abortion, period, full stop. Every physician knows this. Anyone who says otherwise is either an irredeemable imbecile or a dishonest liar. I suspect the latter. Mrs. Duggar Seewald has been forced to make more public statements affirming the true course of events in her case and reliving the trauma of her miscarriage every time (11). She has cause of action for libel, harassment, and emotional distress, and she should pursue those with all the vigor of a hard-shell New York plaintiff’s attorney, who won’t leave a scrap of meat on their bones when he is through. Parade Magazine, Jezebel.com, Salon.com, Yahoo News, every blogging abortion zombie, talking head, and all the media abortion cheerleaders should be held to account and put out of business. As Jesus said in Luke 22:36, “Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” Fortunately, in our era, plaintiff’s attorneys work on contingency, so Mrs. Duggar Seewald should have no shortage of sharp swords. I am certain there is a cadre of pro-life attorneys who will pursue the case with unrestrained vigor, and we can fill an entire courtroom with physician expert witnesses willing to testify as to the facts in her case, including me. Holding the irresponsible and libelous media to account will not only bring Mrs. Duggar Seewald justice but will also protect every other woman suffering a miscarriage and having to navigate the lies and disinformation of the drive-by media and pro-abortion zombies.

Physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators do a difficult job under arduous circumstances. The last thing any of us need is the pro-abortion echo chamber deceitfully and purposefully confusing things and making our job harder. We believe Mrs. Duggar Seewald should go fully Old Testament:

“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!”!

Ezekiel 25:17