The Anti-Abortion Movement

By Eugene F. Diamond M.D.

“Abortions will not let you forget.
You remember the children you got that you did not get,
The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,
The singers and workers that never handled the air.
You will never neglect or beat
Them, or silence or buy with a sweet.
You will never wind up the sucking-thumb
Or scuttle off ghosts that come . . .”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728300894

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© 2019 Eugene F. Diamond M.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  05/14/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0090-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0089-4 (e)

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1   The Anti-Abortion Movement

Chapter 2   National Association for the Reform of Abortion Laws

Chapter 3   Abortion and the Unborn Child

Chapter 4   Public Health Effects of Abortion Laws

Chapter 5   Two Victims of Abortion

Chapter 6   Sex Selection Abortion

Chapter 7   Anti-Abortion Activity

Chapter 8   The Birthright Concept

CHAPTER ONE

The Anti-Abortion Movement

T he Child Health Committee was a standing committee of the Illinois State Medical Society which met more or less regularly on a quarterly basis. The agenda was prepared by the Child Health Department of the State Society. The agenda usually consisted in items of political interest or of educational notification for the medical profession of material which could be of importance for the members of the Society. I was both surprised and shocked to see that a prominent notification for the membership was of the introduction of a bill in the legislature described as the establishment of the Model Penal Code for abortion in Illinois.

I had barely recovered from the impact of the announcement of the report when I had a telephone call from Dr. Matt Bulfin. Matt was an obstetrician and a close friend. Matt was a member of the Maternal Health Committee of the Illinois Medical Society. Matt had received the same notice of the introduction of the abortion bill in his committee report and was asking almost unbelieving about my reaction to the announcement that to both of us was an unexpected shock. The strategy has been instituted nationally by a newly formed political action group known as NARAL (the National Abortion Reform League). The name of the group would later be changed to the National Abortion Law Repeal League. The intention of the group was to announce the strategy nationally, with New York as the central location for a press release which coincided with an announcement in various medical society publications. There was no question that there had been a period of strategizing prior to the national political move. This was meant to convey a simultaneous exasperation on the part of the medical profession to bring about changes in what were portrayed as restrictive abortion laws contrary to the good of medical practices particularly in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. It was apparent that the medical organizations had undertaken the national movement without consulting the rank and file (without consulting the rank and file of medical practitioners)