There’s good news tonight. The infamous Concord Medical Center abortion mill at 17 West Grand Ave. in Chicago, is closed.
Concord Abortion Mill Closes
This is the mill most pro-lifers cut their teeth on in the Chicago Area. Many of us were arrested there. In the 1970’s we had sit-ins and protests at Concord on a regular basis. Aida Gemini and Jerry Korsnicki have never abandoned the mill and were still outside picketing it up to and including the day it shut down. Our hat is off to all those who had any part in this victory.
Also on the ropes is an abortion mill on the northwest side run by Jan Barton, American Women’s Medical Center on Dempster in Des Plaines. Word is that his lease will not be renewed.
These two victories in Chicago reflect a growing trend across the nation of shutting down abortion mills through determined prayer and action. We’ll keep you informed of other abortion mill closings on Action News.
Biased Trib Headline
The Headline in the Chicago Tribune‘s WomanNews section Wednesday read, “Anti-Choice Groups Celebrate Victories.” Who are these anti-choice groups? Why, they are you, dear caller, and more than fifty-percent of Americans who believe the choice of killing babies is really no choice at all, but a great evil.
What the Tribune WomanNews section gets right is that we pro-lifers, by whatever name they choose to call us, are indeed celebrating passage of a partial birth abortion ban, Terri Schiavo in Florida getting fed again by order of Governor Jeb Bush, and some other pro-life victories.
But among the abortion crowd, despite the fact that we have called ourselves “right to life” and “pro-life” for thirty years, we are called simply the “antis.” So the Chicago Tribune is using the language of the pro-aborts when it refers to us as “anti-choice.”
Now, we could swallow hard and let the Chicago Tribune get away with another verbal atrocity, but we’re getting tired of editorial decisions to give us the names they select, and not the names we call ourselves. We’re tired of their style book that says they have to refer to us as “anti-abortion” and “anti-choice,” while they bend over backwards to support the abortion crowd and do their P.R. for them. These editors sometimes go into verbal contortions to avoid connecting us with life, using terms like “anti-choice” or “abortion rights opponents.”
Help Win the War of Words
We believe it is time the media, and especially the Chicago Tribune, begin calling us by the name we have chosen: pro-life. That would have fit nicely in their headline: Try it: “Pro-Life Groups Celebrate Victories.”
We called Cassandra West, editor of WomanNews, and told her the headline offended us, and asked if we cold be referred to in future as “pro-life,” not “anti-choice.” She sounded perplexed and apologetic and we did notice that the headline was turned around a little in a later edition, though it wasn’t any better.
If you want to put in your two cents, we suggest and urge you to contact Tribune Public Editor Don Wycliff and air your grievance. As always, be polite but firm. That’s dwycliff@ tribune.com; Don Wycliff, Tribune Public Editor, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611; or 1-800-874-2863.
It’s time we won this war of words. They don’t call the Republicans the Elephant Snout party, nor the Democrats the Donkey Ears party. They don’t call the National Organization for Women the National Organization for Witches. But they play games with our official names and we’re tired of it. While we are anti-satanic choice, we like pro-life.
Trib Right about Our Victories
There is even more bias in the article: “the self-proclaimed right-to-life movement” and “a disputed late term abortion procedure.” But the story does mention some pro-life victories such as passage of the Ban on Partial Birth Abortion, reattaching the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, firing Patricia Ireland from the board of the YWCA and the U. S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal on behalf of a drug-addicted South Carolina mother in prison for killing her child through use of crack cocaine.
It also mentions the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, making its way through Congress. This law would make murder or injury of an unborn child a separate offense during the commission of some existing federal crimes.
League at Festival of Faith
Look for our booth at the Festival of Faith this weekend at Navy Pier.
