Grisly

Advance warning on this link. Ace found a site where the blogger, disapproving of South Dakota's abortion ban, posted instructions on how to set up your own basement abortion business.

So seriously, if you don't want to read grisly details about how abortions are performed, do not click the link about to post.

Everyone clear on the rules?

Okay, here's the link.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ace concludes: "I don't know how this cuts, politically, for me, anyway. On the one hand, I have a new, visceral appreciation for how grisly this all is. On the other hand, I also appreciate that women are seriously going to try DIY abortions if they want one and no abortion-doctor is available."

First, I'm glad Ace came to his new understanding. Second, his second conclusion rather misses the mark. Yes, the abortion procedure is grisly. But the whole reason it's grisly is because of what happens to the fetus. Any time you chop up a human being and use an ice cream scoop to scrape the placental remains off the uterine wall, by definition you're entering "grisly" territory.

Yes, I reckon women will try this sort of thing. But three points: if abortion is outlawed, I doubt the number will spike, because people will be aware that, Hey, abortion is illegal again, so I can't sleep around with impunity like I've been doing since 1973. Part of the reason people are so lax about contraception is that they know a doctor can take care of any "accidents." Second, do it yourself abortions will happen even without overturning Roe v. Wade. I read an article a few days about about some kids who got pregnant, so the girlfriend got down on her back and the boyfriend walked around on her stomach until the babies were dead. [Incidentally, the boy was charged for murder]. I'd say that's a pretty freakin' gruesome procedure, and Roe is still the law of the land.

My third point is simply a reiteration. Yes, a do-it-yourself abortion has the risk of being very grisly for the mother. But any abortion, of any kind at all, is guaranteed to be grisly for the baby whose skull is collapsed, arms torn from the sockets, brain suctioned out, and the shredded remains pulled from the womb with foreceps.

Update: Adolfo Velasquez, commenting at Ace's, is on the same page:

"The problem, Ace, is that women are still throwing their babies in dumpsters and DIY aborting at, probably, the same number they were before widespread medical abortions. I don't even have to post a link, we've all seen the stories on the evening news. Legal, widespread abortion has not made any stupid people suddenly smarter."

I'd also like to echo Mrs. Peel's sentiments, commenting at Ace's: "Dear Lord."