Angels of Death

There’s an update since Friday’s post on the Texas abortion law ruling. The 5^th Circuit wasted no time; they have lifted the injunction imposed by Judge Yeakel, and have set an expedited schedule to hear the case as soon as January. Already there is a wailing and gnashing of teeth, with the closing of nine Planned Parenthood clinics (about 25% of facilities statewide) that have not met the requirement of having doctors with admitting privileges. No word on why their doctors do not get those privileges to meet the requirement. My guess is that the quick move to lift the injunction means my assessment of error in the ruling, outlined in the Friday post, is probably on track.

Writing that post required me to spend some time thinking about abortion—always unpleasant. It’s one of the most uncivilized acts in a savage society.

Much of that post was about the part of the law concerning abortion doctors, who had been required by the new Texas law to get hospital admitting privileges, like all other ambulatory surgeons. So I was thinking about these doctors, wondering why they choose to do what they do.

For comparison: I have a longtime friend who became a doctor, eventually specializing in gastroenterology. She always planned on med school, but she didn’t start out in life thinking a gastroenterologist what she wanted to be, so I asked her how the decision came about. It was during the rotation process (of a residency program?), and gastroenterology was one of the specialties in the rotation. It wasn’t expected to be a favorite. Problems with that part of the body tend to be—unpleasant. But she found that the expected unpleasantries weren’t that bad to her; she wasn’t bothered by smell or sight or feces or gastric juices. In fact, the functioning of that portion of the body fascinated her, and she thought she could help a lot of people in that specialty. Which she has successfully done in the ensuing decades. Her decision process makes sense to me.

So I picture the decision process for a doctor specializing in abortion. What goes into that decision? They study many of the same things as an OB-GYN, and in fact might have qualified as an OB-GYN specialist. But they have not chosen to help with women’s reproductive challenges, nor help with the miraculous and beautiful process of bringing new babies into the world. Instead, they choose surgery to dispose of life that qualifies—by DNA, shape and growing form—as human. They have managed to get over the innate ickiness of that, have desensitized themselves to the repeated taking of life.

I don’t know that I’ve met an abortion doctor in person. I’m imagining a conversation with such a person at a neighborhood barbecue or school parent meeting.

Me: So, what do you do for a living?

Abortion Doctor: I’m a doctor.

Me: Oh, really. What kind?

Abortion Doctor: Um. I’m in women’s reproductive health.

Me: That’s great. Cindy, over there, was just telling me she thinks she’s pregnant and asking if I had any recommendations for an OB-GYN. Are you taking new patients?

Abortion Doctor: Um. No. It’s not that kind of practice.

Me (looking puzzled, not pursuing the conversation further)

There’s pretty much zero chance that such a person would show up in my civilized society and simply blurt out that he/she aborts babies for a living. That would sound worse than, “I have a meth lab in my basement so I can distribute at low cost to the local high school clientele.” Silence, stares, and moving away from such a person would ensue.

a purchase option for abortionist fans

Maybe in Sen. Wendy Davis’s circles, such an announcement could be made, and the response would be, “Thank you for your service; someone has to do it—for the sake of healthy families.” But it’s hard to imagine. Still, there are apparently such circles of savagery.

For reasons that mystify me, Facebook suggested a piece it thought I would be interested in, about the insidious effort to shut down women’s reproductive options. (Yet more evidence that metadata is misinformed about me.) Now that I’ve actually read it, I’m afraid Facebook will send more my way.

I’m still wondering, how does a person get into the dirty job of abortionist? One would think there must be other options for someone capable of graduating from medical school and adding a specialty. So why, with those abilities, would a person choose to abort babies? Even in those weird Wendy Davis social circles where there is approval, there wouldn’t be disapproval for choosing any number of other specialties.

I was talking this over with my son Political Sphere, and he said the reason is simpler than I’m trying to make it: They like to do it.

They have what he referred to as an “angel of death” kind of psychosis; they convince themselves they are doing good by taking human life. They can tell themselves, “It’s because the mother deserves the choice,” or “No unwanted child should be brought into this world,” or “This world is so terrible that I’m doing a favor to anyone whose birth I prevent.” But, however they may justify it, it’s not very different from the pathology of an angel-of-death serial killer, the kind that shows up on Criminal Minds, for example.

So I asked, “You mean every abortion doctor is in fact a psychopath?” Yes. Yes, they are.

We worked through the numbers. You shouldn’t compare the number of abortions to the number of OB-GYNs. They don’t turn to aborting babies because they are OB-GYNs; they go through the OB-GYN training so that they can abort babies.

I wasn’t able to get exact data on the number of abortion doctors. There are, however, 1793 abortion clinics (the main providers) as of 2008 (most recent numbers I found), which had remained essentially stable since 2005. In 2008 there were approximately 1.21 million abortions performed by those 1793 clinics, so about 675 per clinic. I don’t know how many doctors work per clinic, but let’s estimate 1-2 so we can round off to about 3000 total abortionists.

So, if we estimate there are 3000 abortionists in the US, out of a population of over 300 million, that’s a relatively small 1 in 100,000. A demographic we might not notice, especially if they only associate with people who approve of their behavior while the rest of us only associate with “normal” people who are disgusted and distressed by the killing of little humans.

Maybe they start out as an assistant in a clinic, and find that, because of their belief system or whatever reason, it’s not that hard to desensitize themselves to the taking of life that appears human. They not only aren’t bothered by it, they choose to keep doing it. Good or better money would be available to them in other specialties, so it’s not the money. They convince themselves they are doing good for society by taking human life—they’re angels of death, by definition.

When we apprehend a serial killer who stalks elementary school children and kills them with the belief they are doing the victim a favor, it’s pretty clear we’re dealing with a psychopath who must be stopped. Abortionists might appear more normal, and they get paid to do what they do. But they’re doing it nevertheless because they choose to. It requires a certain warping of the mind to come to believe savagery is a positive lifestyle choice.

I’m quite certain I’ll never find one teaching Sunday School at my church. But I wouldn’t want to find one coaching my child’s Little League team either. Or even handing out candy on Halloween. Sometimes there’s good reason a person is considered a pariah.