Behind the Mask of the Kindly Abortionist
Propaganda Distorts Abortion Debate
By Rep. John Hostettler
Maybe the writers for the NBC drama “Law and Order” just ran out of plot ideas. Instead of a fresh new storyline, their Jan. 6 episode recycled a tired and reliable media theme: a “pro-lifer” stalking and killing an abortion practitioner.
The abortionist, predictably, was portrayed as a family man, caring and gentle with the women who visited his clinic. The pro-lifer was portrayed as a cold and calculated fanatic who prayed with his family before assassinating the kindly abortionist.
This theme has taken many forms on the networks, cable, Hollywood and even news programs. Movies like the “Cider House Rules” depict abortionists as saintly heroes, while television programs like “The West Wing,” “Felicity,” “The Practice,” “Gideon’s Crossing,” “Party of Five,” and others show pro-lifers as intolerant and violent.
The roles are almost never reversed. Pro-lifers are rarely portrayed as caring people with a legitimate concern about the destruction of pre-born babies. Abortionists are not shown to have any shortcomings, much less possess the capability of harming another human being. But is this an accurate representation of reality?
A brief glance at the facts shows it is not. In fact, these portrayals are at odds with what has taken place since the Supreme Court invented a right to take life in the womb 29 years ago. Since 1973, abortion providers and radical abortion supporters have committed more murders and other felonies than can be accurately tallied (not including the tens of millions of murdered babies). The examples are plentiful.
On Valentine’s Day last year, Oklahoma City abortionist John Baxter Hamilton strangled his wife, beat her and slammed her face repeatedly onto a marble floor, killing her. Hardly the actions of someone who is “pro-woman.” Dr. Hamilton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Another abortionist, Dr. Brian Finkel, owner of the Metro Phoenix Women’s Clinic, was indicted in January on charges of molesting 26 patients. That comes on top of 17 counts of sexual abuse and sexual assault brought against Finkel last year. Altogether, more than 100 women, including four former employees, have alleged sexual misconduct by Finkel.
In 1999, Pasadena abortionist Kevin Paul Anderson strangled his business partner, Dr. Deepti Gupta, a mother of two young children who was expecting her third, the product of their extramarital affair. After strangling her, Anderson put Gupta’s body in her car, poured gasoline on her and pushed the car off a 450-foot cliff. He was convicted of second-degree murder.
In a case that parallels the recent “Law and Order” episode–except the roles were reversed–Alabama pro-abortion activist Eileen Orstein Janezic murdered pro-life minister and radio talk show host Jerry Simon. After shooting Simon through a window of his home, she held police at bay with a pistol for six hours while quoting from the “Satanic Bible.”
Many abortionists have also been convicted of murdering or maiming their patients. In January, jurors awarded $2 million to the 5-year-old son of a woman who died following a 1997 abortion at the Delaware Women’s Health Organization clinic. The jury found that Dr. Mohammad Imran was negligent and that his actions led to the death of the 19-year-old woman.
In May 2000, California abortionist Dr. Bruce Steir pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the death of a 27-year-old woman. According to the medical examiner, she bled to death after Steir performed a second-trimester abortion on her at A Lady’s Choice Clinic. The examiner ruled her death “a result of gross negligence.”
Another California abortionist, Alicia Ruiz Hanna, was convicted in 1994 of second-degree murder after a 27-year-old mother of four died in her clinic. Two of the woman’s children, who sat in the waiting room for hours after she died, saw Hanna trying to stuff their mother’s body into the trunk of a car in order to dump her body in Mexico. The judge described Hanna as “callous and self-serving” before sentencing her to 15 years to life in prison.
Countless other women have died as the result of abortions, several more have given birth to live babies maimed by abortionists, and one New York City abortionist, Dr. Allan Zarkin, even carved his initials on the abdomen of a woman upon whom he had just performed a Caesarean section. Zarkin was fired for this act, but was later hired at The Choices Women’s Medical Center in Long Island, which performs 15,000 abortions a year.
Though you rarely hear about it, there are also numerous cases of abortion supporters killing women who didn’t make the right “choice.”
In 1998, a jury found Alfred E. Smith guilty of murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend Deena Moody because she refused to abort their preborn child. Her charred body was found in her burned car near an Amtrak station.
In 1997, 38-year old Kevin Robinson murdered 15-year-old Daphne Sulk because he had gotten her pregnant and she refused to get an abortion to cover up his child molestation. Daphne’s frozen body was discovered near a Wyoming rest area.
In a particularly horrific case, Lavern Ward was upset that his girlfriend, 28-year old Debra Evans, was pregnant with his child and would not get an abortion. So he shot and killed her. Then he stabbed Evans’ ten-year-old daughter in the neck and killed her. After hacking the unborn child out of Evans’ body, Ward abducted her seven-year old son and stabbed him to death. The only bright spot in this tragedy is that the baby somehow lived.
The list goes on and on and on. Yet the national media almost never cover these incidents. Hollywood and network writers and producers will not portray them. Abortion groups will not acknowledge them, much less apologize for or denounce them.
The truth is that taxi cab drivers, grocery store workers, service station employees, used car dealers, real estate agents, liquor store employees, police officers, jewelers and hotel personnel are murdered at a rate many, many times higher than abortionists, according to Bureau of Labor statistics. But these murders do not fit into a political agenda, so they are ignored by the abortion-favoring media.
The success of a movement that does not enjoy widespread public support often depends on effective propaganda. The pro-abortion movement knows this well and has advanced its cause by repeating myths until they were accepted as fact. Their distortions have turned a violent act into a celebrated “right.”
No one understands this better than the national abortion provider Planned Parenthood, who hands out annual awards “to the media and entertainment figures who have best advocated abortion during the previous year.” Among the winners honored last month: the NBC drama “Law and Order.”
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Congressman John Hostettler is a Republican from Indiana and the father of four children. This article is reprinted with permission from his office.
Abortion Violence: The Numbers
A report by Human Life International lists statistics on verifiable crimes committed by abortion supporters vs. alleged crimes committed by pro-life supporters-showing that the images portrayed in the media aren’t always true. Here are the numbers:
| Crimes | Pro-Abortion | Pro-Life |
| Deadly and extreme crimes (murder, kidnapping, rape, etc.) | 181 | 26 |
| Lesser crimes causing injury (assault, sex crimes, etc.) | 1,511 | 112 |
| Property crimes (arson, theft, burglary, firebombing, etc.) | 204 | 1,094 |
| ————– | ————– | |
| Total crimes | 1,896 | 1,232 |
Source: HLI Special Report, updated on Nov. 15, 2001. The full text of the report with citations is available at www.hli.org.
Originally published in The Post-Abortion Review 10 (3) July-Sept. 2002. Copyright 2002 Elliot Institute.
