By Cheryl Sullenger

Recently there has been a major food-borne illness outbreak in the United States. The Center for Disease Control has traced the outbreak of listeria, an often fatal bacterial contagion, to cantaloupes grown at Jensen Farms in Colorado. So far at least 13 people have died and 72 have been sickened from eating the tainted fruit.

Authorities have asked that grocery stores pull the Jensen Farms cantaloupes from the shelf. They warn people that if they are not sure where their cantaloupes came from, they should throw them away.

“Honestly, as a nurse, I would tell people don’t eat the cantaloupe until this thing resolves itself,” said Laura Anderko, a Georgetown University public health expert. “This stuff happens because our system is not as tight as it needs to be.”

Contrast the cantaloupe hysteria with the lack of concern over a similar number of deaths caused by the RU-486 abortion pill.

The Federal Food and Drug Administration reported in July that 14 U.S. women have died after taking RU-486 and a total of 2,207 reported adverse effects after using the drug.

That makes the abortion pill more dangerous than tainted cantaloupes.

But the official response to these deaths has been to call the drug “safe” and promote it on the market. It seems that the deaths of over a dozen people are only a problem when abortion is not involved. When it is, then the deaths become an acceptable risk.

It seems to us that abortion pills should be treated with at least the same precautions to public health as listeria-laden melons. They should be pulled from the shelf. The public should be warned. The fatal pills should be traced back to the distributor, Danco Laboratories, and destroyed.

If they can do that for dangerous fruit, why not for the more dangerous abortion pill?

Instead, we get Jill June of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, dispensing the deadly pills over Internet vending machines without even a physician present and spouting nonsense about the so-called “safety” of the scheme.

“It’s the way medical practice is taking place today,” June told the Lincoln Star in January. “The fact is we are providing a service women are asking us to provide. And it’s been proven to be safe and effective.”

In reality, Jensen Farms cantaloupes have been proven to be safer than the abortion pill. While they have killed a similar number of people, the abortion pill has sickened over 30 times as many people as the melons. People may ask for Jensen Farms cantaloupes at the grocery store, but no reputable grocer would supply them. There would be dire consequences for those that did.

It just goes to show that if a woman is getting an abortion, concerns for her health and safety go out the window. Maybe that is because “our system is not as tight as it needs to be.”

Yet, any attempt to protect women from the irresponsible distribution of abortion pills is met with the harshest criticism and opposition.

Shockingly even Communist China has more sense than this. Known as one of the greatest abusers of human rights in the world through their brutal one-child, forced-abortion policies, they have expressed concern and taken action to protect women from the dangers of RU-486.

“Press reports from Henan province and Chengdu relate cases where women narrowly escaped death when excessive bleeding occurred after taking RU-486 without a physician’s supervision,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. In 2001, China banned all pharmaceutical sales of RU-486 in order “to guarantee patients’ safety and protect their health.”

Right now in our country, the lives of people who eat cantaloupes are considered of more value than those of pregnant women and their pre-born babies. There cannot be such hypocritical and inequitable treatment of life under the same roof. If our nation is truly one where “all men are created equal” then all human life has value and deserves protection, or none of it does.

Ruling leaves women’s lives and health in continued jeopardy

Kansas City, Kansas – Today Federal Judge Carlos Murguia issued a ruling blocking the American Association of Pro-Life Physicians (AAPLOG) from intervening in a suit filed by Kansas abortionists challenging the Constitutionality of a new Kansas law that imposed safety standards on previously unregulated abortion clinics.

In his order, Murguia indicated that the entry of AAPLOG into the case would cause unnecessary delay.

“To the extent AAPLOG moves to intervene to request reconsideration of the preliminary injunction and possibly appeal, the court determines that these actions will also unnecessarily delay the underlying lawsuit and prejudice the parties. Therefore, the court exercises its discretion and denies permissive intervention,” read the order.

AAPLOG had sought to challenge a preliminary injunction that has prevented all aspects of the new, multi-faceted law from going into effect. It had hoped to allow the provisions of the law that have already been deemed Constitutional, such as the requirement that abortionists have hospital privileges within 30 miles of their abortion clinics, to go into effect immediately while the contested aspects continued through litigation.

The preliminary injunction is based on temporary regulations that the Legislature had required the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to write. Hearings were recently held on the proposed permanent regulations that are due to go into effect in late October. Operation Rescue submitted over 2,500 pages of documented abortion abuses in support of the permanent regulations.

“It is troubling that the court would deny AAPLOG’s intervention in this case. In doing so, the court continues to block all aspects of the new abortion clinic standards law even though great portions of the law have already been litigated in other states. Those parts of the law should be serving right now to protect women from abortion practices that are little better than medical quackery,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“Instead, the court has left the women of Kansas subject to shoddy abortion practices, unsafe conditions, and a dangerous lack of access to emergency resources. We hope that this ruling will serve as a wake-up call to motivate the Kansas Attorney General’s Office to aggressively defend the law and take steps to allow the uncontested parts of this law to go into effect immediately.”

Read the Order

Columbia, Missouri – Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri has announced that abortions have stopped at its Columbia clinic because the abortionist has been deployed overseas.

Abortions at the Columbia mill have been offered sporadically over the past couple of years due to difficulty in finding an abortionist willing and qualified to work there. In Missouri, an abortionist must have hospital privileges within 30 miles of the abortion clinic where he or she works.

“Our research shows that most abortionists do not have hospital privileges, and those that do can’t get them in Columbia,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “This is good news for women and their pre-born babies. However, we know that this clinic will remain open marketing and selling abortions to women on behalf of their Overland Park, Kansas, abortion clinic, and that in itself is tragic.”

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri faces 107 criminal counts related to illegal abortions and manufacturing evidence to cover up for their crimes. A preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for October 24-26, 2011.

“It is our hope and prayer that the Columbia clinic will close permanently along with every other abortion business in America,” said Newman.

Click for a listing of abortion clinics in America