FFS: Near Defamation (Is That a Thing?)

This is the blogosphere. I geddit. I can dish it out and and I can take it.

But there are some things that cannot be allowed to stand. Two comments on the Focus on the Family Astroturf Blog (FFAB) fall into this category.

Background first.

Yesterday, I blogged about the Christian Medical and Dental (?) Society's quest to be exempted from new rules requiring physicians (eat your inferiority-complected hearts out, DDSs) to refer patients for treatments that CMDS members find objectionable.

I had what I thought was a simple solution, first voiced on Twitter…

@fernhilldammit I'm sorry but I'm not at liberty to divulge the names of our members.
— CMDS Canada (@CMDSCanada) March 26, 2015

… then again in the blogpost.

Tell us who you are so we can run a mile from you.

As reported yesterday, FFAB called me a hypocrite for asking for names and promising to publish them when I use a pseudonym.

The illogic of that didn't bother me. Neither did the snide remarks about my personality, writing skills, and psychology, both in the blogpost and gleefully added by commenters. (Comments haven't yet descended into speculations about my body hair and weight; they are admirably restraining themselves.)

One commenter though, John Baglow, wondered what the problem was when the intent is clearly to inform potential patients of probable mis-matches between their needs and the medicos' moral capacities.

Two commenters took it upon themselves to respond.

Here's what can't stand -- implications that I intended some kind of harm to come to anti-choice MDs.

Melissa said:

I don’t suppose that naming doctors would be such a bad thing if there weren’t a group of pro-choicers who were dead set on taking them down. But when you have a small group of people (ie the Radical Handmaids) who are committed to taking these doctors down, to bullying these doctors in a media that is quite receptive to the pro-choice cause and quite hostile to the pro-life one. Nobody wants to get caught in one of those smear campaigns, which understandably makes them reluctant to make their names known publicly.

Mary Deutscher said:

If only Fern Hill were naming physicians to help patients avoid them! The fear here is that physicians are being named to be targeted and reprimanded for refusing to harm their patients.

"Dead set on taking them down." "Bullying." "Hostile." "Smear campaigns [!!]". "Fear." "Targeted."

FFS.

I know, I know, I know. It's just typical fetus fetishist self-pity and martyr-card deployment.

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure those comments wouldn't qualify as defamation either.

But they are on the path to defamation and I call on FFAB's Andrea Mrozek to disavow herself and her blog from them.

Deletion of them and an apology would be nice but I'm not holding my breath.

I intend to leave a link to this post in a comment at the blog.

UPDATE: As of noon, Saturday, March 28, Andrea Mrozek has not responded. My comment with a link to this post was published though.

UPPITY-DATIER: I woke on Sunday to the comment from Joel Kropf (below) urging me to meet Mrozek and this from her at the Astroturf blog:
"Fern, I’m happy to address anything with you, in person. Invitation for coffee still stands.
PS Since so much is misinterpreted over text/twitter/email, I’ll add this is not a sarcastic comment."

Is it just me or is this getting creepy?

No. I have no interest in meeting Mrozek in person. I want her to address the implication that I intended harm ONLINE. The implication was made ONLINE and needs to be addressed -- if at all -- ONLINE.

Mrozek, you created the opportunity for stupidity to occur. It is your obligation to fix it.

Or not.

My physical presence is not required.

Q: Why Is Gosnell in the News? A: Guilt

So many lies, where to begin?

We at DJ! predicted it the day after the story broke in January 2011. Kermit Gosnell would become the Fetus Fetishist Anti-Hero.

And the myth just keeps growing.

First, some facts. It is a gruesome story of greed, exploitation, desperation, poverty, drug abuse, gross regulatory incompetence, and not a little insanity.

You can read the grisly details at the Wiki link but here's the upshot.

In 2011, Gosnell, alongside various co-defendant employees, was charged with eight counts of murder resulting in part from gross medical malpractice in treatment of patients at his clinic, as well as 24 felony counts of illegal abortions beyond the 24 week limit, and charged with 227 misdemeanor counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. The murder charges related to a patient who died while under his care and seven newborns said to have been killed after being born alive during attempted abortions. In May 2013, he was convicted on three of the murder charges, 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, and 211 counts of violating the 24-hour informed consent law. After his conviction, Gosnell waived his right of appeal in exchange for an agreement not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

That was last year and one would like to think that the state of Pennsylvania cleaned up its act so as to prevent any recurrence. Sadly but unsurprisingly no.

Will Pennsylvania learn anything from this experience? No, says Brenda Green. As I write, the state legislature has fast-tracked a bill that will ban any insurance plan that covers abortion from insurance exchanges set up under healthcare reform. That means more women forced to pay for abortion out of pocket—and more customers for unscrupulous providers. “That Gosnell was able to get away with his horrific practice does not prove new regulations are needed,” says Susan Schewel, executive director of the Women’s Medical Fund, which helps low-income women pay for their abortions. “It shows we need to enforce the laws we have.”

So why is the case in the news again?

Here's Ezra LeRant, claiming that Gosnell is the WORST EVER serial murderer (he's not and not by a very long chalk) that no one has ever heard of. And no one has heard of him because of media censorship! [Insert obligatory pearl-clutching Ezra-SHRIEK here.]

And here are two more Canadian bandwagon jumpers: ProWomanProLie and the frog on Brian Lilley's pad.

The occasion is that a couple of Irish "conservative" documentary-makers are trying to raise the dough for a made-for-TV movie about Gosnell. Note that these grifters' work includes attacking climate-change science and most recently the effects of fracking so an even-handed treatment of this subject seems unlikely.

After claiming censorship at KickStarter, they wound up at IndieGogo where they have raised $1.877 million with 8 days left on a $2.1 million goal.

And hey, now they have Sarah Palin on board too.

On Twitter there's a frantic effort among supporters to get to the goal before the deadline or all is lost. As far as I can tell, all these frantic supporters are fetus fetishists. (Check out #Gosnell and #GosnellMovie.)

I asked, because I'm truly curious, why do they think this movie needs to be made, what good would be served?

The answers aren't very clear. They continue to assert that there was a media black-out of the case. (This is a lie.) And that consequently "no one" knows about it.

At the Lilley link, there's a clip showing the filmmakers asking Any Old Assholes, or AOAs, (I have it on good authority that that is proper journalistic parlance) whether they can recognize a photo of Gosnell. Of course they can't, though one trooper ventures "Nelson Mandela?"

On Twitter one person said indignantly that a friend of his (?) had never heard of Gosnell until s/he told him/her. And now s/he is outraged. Why not send friend links to stories? I wondered. "Because print is dead," I was told. Um, OK.

They claim that there are hundreds, thousands, zillions of Gosnells out there and that pro-aborts are protecting them.

That would be another "no". Here is an account of responsible people, many of them abortion providers, trying to alert authorities to Gosnell's horror house. And here's an excerpt from a book detailing the National Association of Abortion Providers' dealings with Gosnell. (He wanted to join. They said: No Fucking Way.)

So what's the motivation here? Are they simply being revved by the likes of LifeShite and Big Nurse Stanek? Well, yes, of course.

Are these just RWNJ slacktivists thinking they're accomplishing something from their couches? No doubt.

But I think there's more to it. I think somewhere deep down there's a dim understanding that they themselves enabled Gosnell and by means of further idiotic regulations and laws, both onerous and picayune, are creating more of his kind.

They themselves are the authors of suffering, exploitation, and needless death.

It's simple guilt.

ProWomanProForcedPregnancy Is a Total Stand-Alone (Astroturf) Organization

In a recent blogpost about March for Lies being such a good teachable moment for young women to learn slut-shaming and sanctimonious judgement, we mentioned that the original article by Amanda Watson seems to have struck a nerve with those professional female slut-shamers over at ProWomanProForcedPregnancy.

They responded with their lie protest that they are NOT affiliated with other organizations.

You be the judge. The principal is Andrea Mrozek. Here's her day job.

Andrea currently works at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada as Manager of Research and Communications.

But PWPFP is not owned or affiliated with James Dobson's loathesome Focus on the Family, they say.

Seems opinions differ on that.

Focus on the Family Canada (French: Objectif Famille) is a Canadian affiliate of the American evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family.
. . .

Focus on the Family Canada is operated and directed independently of Focus on the Family USA.[citation needed] However, some ties do exist between the two organizations. Between 2000 and 2003, the Canadian affiliate received $1.6 million in services from the larger American organization. Two members on the board of directors of Focus on the Family Canada, Tom Mason and Jim Daly, are also vice-presidents of Focus on the Family in the United States. Other than receiving financial support from Focus on the Family USA between 2000 and 2003, Focus on the Family Canada relies fully on donor support for its operations.
. . .
Focus on the Family Canada has also established the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada/Institut du Mariage et de la Famille Canada (IMFC).

It's all just a big coincidence that Mrozek moonlights as the principal of an astroturf anti-abortion website.

Make sense to you?

ADDED: In addition to Mrozek, at least four other of The Women make their livings at least in part from anti-choice activities/careers.

Faye Sonier

Faye joined The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as Legal Counsel. She practices constitutional and human rights law, with a special focus on freedom of religion and sanctity of human life issues.

Deborah Mullan

In March she finally secured a very part-time job as the office manager for the Victoria Right to Life Society.

Natalie Hudson Sonnen

Natalie is now the executive director of LifeCanada, a national pro-life organization based out of Ottawa.

Véronique Bergeron

Currently employed as an assistant to a federal Member of Parliament, Véronique Bergeron is also teaches biomedical ethics to Masters students at St-Paul University in Ottawa.

That MP would be anti-choice Pierre Lemieux and St-Paul University is the pontifical arm of the University of Ottawa.

While bloggers at DAMMIT JANET! are not 'anonymous' as charged, but rather pseudonymous with long-established online personae, not a single one of us makes a nickel from our pro-choice writing and activism.