Spotlight on Christensen and Liberal Lutherans

Rockford, IL

One need not assume that Abortionist Christensen is a greedy man - that he aborts children just for the money. The stereotype abortionist in the imagination of many abortion opponents is that of a sleazy, incompetent practitioner who couldn't make it as a regular Ob - who lacked the skills, the personality, the manners, the charm to succeed in a competitive field - and after many years of schooling, determined to do what he had to do to make a living. "If hacking children to pieces pays the bills and it is okay with the police, why not?" Thus one might glibly imagine his thought process. But we must confess here that we are ignorant of the particular depravities which inspire this distinguished abortionist. (The contention that a high percentage of abortionists are, as a group, less skilled and more vulnerable to litigation than those of other specialties is not disputed here; however, we are aware of no evidence to controvert the fact that this abortionist seems to be quite the craftsman - or demolitionist, as some might have it.)

There are plenty of intellectuals among abortionists as well as their apologists. And such reasoning people don't necessarily give a rip about the popular argument fed to the gullible masses; viz. a "woman's right to choose." Rather, their alarmist warnings take up the concerns of the save-the-earth crowd who are concerned with the "population bomb" and all the pollution with which human kind afflicts dear Mother Earth. During the 60s and the following two decades when starvation was reported in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and other places in the world, fears of famine were fanned by the bleak prospect of ceaseless population expansion. Fears of exponential population growth propagated by Thomas Malthus at the turn of the twentieth century, were taken up by Paul Ehrlich with his Population Bomb (1968). His book sold over two million by its fifteenth printing in 1983. The hysteria-mongering subtitle said: "While you are reading these words, three children are dying of starvation and twenty-four more babies are being born."

And the "over-population" scare was not the only justification which intellectuals embraced. There were babies born with serious defects which, for the benefit of everyone, would be better off dead. The "therapeutic abortion" would be a soothing way to advocate for curbing "population explosion." Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA, offered his very unscientific, however candid, socio-political opinion on the matter a generation ago when he argued that newborn children ought not be declared persons until three days after birth. This policy would give physicians time to run thorough tests and determine the physical well being of the neonate and allow him to be terminated if such a decision seemed good (for the parents? the whole of society? the over-burdened tax payer?). Peter Singer, similarly, regards a retarded child of comparable value to a pig. The professor of Bioethics at Princeton University thinks quite consistently with anyone who rejects the religious doctrine that affirms the dignity of man as an "animal" created in the image of God and thus distinguished from all the other creatures of the earth.

Of course, these kinds of cold, philosophically Godless conclusions could not be successfully advocated in the public square. Too forthrightly barbarian. But contending for women's rights works in the arena of popular opinion. "Choice" would be the best propaganda term to use. Surely the American people could not deny the "Right to choose"! That was the argument which became the means of popularizing the effort to de-criminalize what had been outlawed since the beginning of Christian civilization. "Liberty!" "Personal rights!" "Freedom!" "Privacy!"

So, what have these shifting mores to do with Dennis Christensen? What manner of man is he?

Pastor Matt Trewhella, founder of Missionaries to the Preborn in Milwaukee, has had dealings with Abortionist Christiansen indirectly for many of his 30 years as a career abortionist. Pastor Trewhella is aware of five abortion clinics owned or operated by Christensen in Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. Christensen's Church, Bethel Lutheran, was picketed once in 1991 when street activism was at a peak. That year in October at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over 150 students arrived for a weekend from many colleges and universities to demonstrate, block doors, and hear speeches from the likes of Beverly McMillan, M.D (the famed former abortionist who opened the first and now only remaining abortuary in Mississippi), Joseph Scheidler, legendary in bull-horn skills predating Operation Rescue, and others. The students picketed Bethel Lutheran that weekend and left town. Missionaries to the Preborn under the leadership of Pastor Matt Trewhella subsequently maintained a regular presence until Christensen took his "business" elsewhere. But little else is known of the character of Dennis Christensen, the abortionist.

H has an ignominious history for a Lutheran Christian, one might suppose. But modernist Lutherans, like modernist non-Christians, have in common the fact that neither believe that mankind has an authentic revelation from God. There is no Law from God. There is no reliable communication in the written Scriptures. Any would-be Revelation has been subject to corruption and so mankind is left to judge for itself what seems good and right. Hence, the contemporary capitulation of that second largest of Protestant denominations (along with, incidentally the third largest, the United Methodists) to modernist toleration of abortion as well as sodomy. Christensen, then, is not a solitary reprobate, but stands in the company of collapsing church denominations all around. We may imagine in him the best of motives. He is not necessarily greedy. He may well have intended to expand his abortion business in a campaign to "save the planet."

In the summer of 2006, the OSF (Order of Saint Francis) Health Systems accidentally sold a building in Loves Park to Christensen whose plans were to open a second abortion "clinic" or relocate his Broadway St. facility (again, whether as entrepreneur, philanthropist, or savior of the planet, we know not). Upon discovery of this regrettable transaction, OSF begged to have the agreement expunged and the property returned. How could they live with the thought that they had sold a building to an abortionist? When Christensen agreed to return the property for $750,000, what an excruciating choice? Allow the abortionist to have the building and expand his loathsome "practice" or pay him $ 3/4 million? They had sold the building to him for $ 1/4 million. So the abortionist runs off with a cool half million just for being a despicable abortionist. And the Catholic hospital pays it to him. Not a good day for the good guys. Now, it is not known whether this abortionist benevolently "provided" free abortions to the young girls Madison with that quick windfall or whether he indulged himself in a vacation, but as local television was reporting the story, Christensen was "out of the country" (see Troy Kehoe, 13 News, Rockford, Illinois, June 15, 2006).

A closer look at the doings of the abortionist discovers him working hand in hand with churches and hospitals in the city. And he butchers not just little babies, but larger ones. The "procedure" among us lay folks is called, "partial birth abortion." Among practitioners or - as they like to be called - "providers," the "procedure" is called D and X for (dilation and extraction). And Christensen is quite a skilled "provider," respected among his peers. He was one of six physicians which Planned Parenthood teamed up with as fellow plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin, one of those several states in recent decades which managed to muster the energy to pass laws against killing those larger, more "viable" babies, babies well into the third trimester of life in the womb. He has admitting privileges at SwedishAmerican Hospital in the event that any of his patients, whose children he kills, are injured during the "procedure."

In that case (Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Doyle, 44 F.Supp.2d 975 [E.D. Wis. 1999]), Chief Judge John C. Shabaz writes the decision in support of the law and for the protection of the children (which was later reversed by on appeal in favor of the abortionists). He includes in the record the written testimony of two of the plaintiff abortionists Dennis Christensen and Bernard Smith who describe the D & X "procedure" which they have been "performing" and wish not to remain outlawed:

In the intact D & E procedure (which is also known as "dilation and extraction," "D & X" or "intact D & X"), the physician dilates the cervix and then removes the fetus from the uterus through the vaginal canal intact. The physician extracts the fetal body intact, usually feet first, until the cervix is obstructed by the after coming head, which is too large to pass through the cervix. Then the physician creates a small opening at the base of the skull and evacuates the contents, allowing the calvarium to pass through the cervical opening. The intentional removal of the fetus intact is what distinguishes an intact D & E procedure from a D & E procedure.

Judge Shabaz includes in the "memorandum and order" a description of the newly outlawed procedure as recorded by the leading OB/GYN physicians' professional organization:

Similarly, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ("ACOG") defines the D & X procedure to include the following steps:

1. deliberate dilation of the cervix, usually over a sequence of days;

2. instrumental conversion of the fetus to a footling breech;

3. breech extraction of the body excepting the head; and

4. partial evacuation of the intracranial contents of a living fetus to effect vaginal delivery of a dead but otherwise intact fetus.

The abortionist who developed the D & X method of killing a child is Martin Haskell, owner of the Women's Med Center of Dayton, Ohio. The Court recorded the following concerning him:

Haskell also testified that in perhaps 75% of the D & X procedures he performs, he cuts the umbilical cord before removing the fetus from the uterus. However, sometimes the child is partially delivered before he cuts the umbilical cord. Haskell stated that the child is likely to die within minutes after Haskell cuts its cord.

The effort to outlaw partial-birth abortion on the state level in Wisconsin (which succeeded in 1997) had followed failed efforts on the federal level. The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, passed by the will of the people through Congress, was vetoed by President Clinton in April of 1996. A description was more fully aired at Congressional hearing prior to the passing of that Act. During Congressional hearing, a registered nurse and former employee at Haskell's abortion "clinic," gave description of her observations in terms more graphic than the prosaic court record. Brenda Pratt Shafer "had been pro-choice until one day in September 1993, when the nurses agency assigned her to a three-day stint at the [Haskell] clinic" (Julia Duin, Washington Times, June 21, 1996). "The clinic, operated by Dr. Martin Haskell, specialized in the type of abortion in which an unborn child is delivered feet first up to his or her neck. The doctor then stabs it in the back of the head with a pair of scissors, then suctions out the brain." The Times goes on to report Mrs. Shafer's testimony:

Mrs. Shafer said she watched, horrified, as the doctor performed the procedure on a 6 1/2-month-term male fetus with Down syndrome. With his head still in the birth canal. "The kid was kicking his feet, hanging there," she said. "I kept on thinking to myself, 'This isn't really happening.'"

When the doctor forced the scissors into the base of the skull, "the baby jumped," she said. "I watched the life being drained out of it. I almost threw up all over the floor."

Worst of all, she added, the mother then wanted to see the then-fully delivered child, who had "the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen." The mother then "held the baby in her arms and screamed and begged God to forgive her."

"Mrs. Shafer claimed that none of the six or seven procedures performed that day were for life-threatening situations and that only one case involved Down syndrome. The others included a woman who was getting a divorce and a teen-age girl whose parents insisted she abort her pregnancy.

There is difficulty with the aborting of a large child. His dismemberment is a strenuous task for the abortionist and can be hard on the mother as the instruments are manipulated about to cut, rip, or tear appendages apart from the child (the euphemistic term used regularly by Christensen and recorded in the court records is "disarticulation").

Traditional D&E abortions, the most common type of pregnancy termination during the second trimester, involve, dismembering the fetus. Dr. Haskell said he prefers doing the "intact D&E" or "D&X" procedure after 20 weeks gestation because bones and ligaments become tougher and stronger at that age and are more difficult to pull apart" (Washington Times, 21 August, 1999)

The D&X method of killing a child enables a certain, "legal" killing (i.e. while the child is still in the womb) with reduced physical trauma to the mother. Moreover, Christensen explains in his affidavit to the court that in the process of "disarticulation" in the case of the D&E tends to leave behind too many disturbing remains of the child. A separated fetal "part" might protrude outside the birth canal, leaving behind "living cells and a beating heart."

Presumably, this method of killing larger babies is rare. Among the six plaintiff abortionists, Christensen is the only one who uses the D&X method. In fact, the Court noted that there is "no evidence in the record that any physician in Wisconsin, other than Dr. Christensen, performs the D&X procedure." Judge Manion in dissent of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal says of Christensen:

In 1997, he performed 2350 abortions in Wisconsin, 300 of which were second trimester abortions. Yet, he performs only one or two D&X procedures per year. And Dr. Bernard Smith, who performed approximately 2500 first trimester and 500 second trimester abortions in Wisconsin in 1997, does not even perform the D&X procedure. It seems counterintuitive that before the law was enacted Dr. Smith had decided not to perform the D&X procedure, yet he now contends that the absence of the D&X is a substantial obstacle to a woman obtaining an abortion. This disingenuity is what likely caused the district court to conclude at this juncture that the defendant's experts were more credible than the plaintiffs'.

These men seem to lying about the frequency of late term abortions or the extent of their particular involvement with the killing of these larger children.

Within a few months of the Seventh Circuit's reversal of the District Court in June, 1999, a story came forth from Haskell's abortion clinic in Dayton. A baby was born on 4 August at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton. The child was to be aborted by Dr. Haskell at 25 or 26 weeks gestation according to Mary K McClelland, spokesman for the Montgomery [Ohio] Children Services Board which had temporary custody of the child (Washington Times, August 21, 1999). This was the second time, at least, in four months that "a woman about to undergo a late-term abortion at the Women's Med Center of Dayton has experienced premature labors and delivered a live child. But in the previous case, which involved a 22-week-old female fetus known as 'Baby Hope,' born in a Cincinnati hospital, the infant lived for only three hours." Haskell had testified that he kills no children after 24 weeks, which may cause doubt concerning the testimony of his plaintiff colleagues.

To be sure, the killing of the larger children is harder for our young abortion culture to grow accustomed to. It takes time. Our champions of this brave approach to a more candid infanticide lead the way gradually so that we need not at once face the stark delivery of a live child along with the termination of the same at that moment. It must be done still under the cover of darkness. The intentional gymnastic turning of the child to the breech position in order to bring his head to pause delivery long enough to kill him represents a burdensome effort to maintain self-deception. In due time, as the collective conscience grows colder, we will be able to face, unashamed, the simple murder of a child before our eyes rather than as he abides hidden in the birth canal where we can pretend his non-existence.

Our dissenting Judge Manion wishes that the conscience of the people may be pricked by display of the truth. (And then? Perhaps might he wait for the people to revolt rather than "higher" Courts to correct themselves?) He suggests rhetorically near the close of his hopeless dissent:

When the abortion doctor does a precautionary ultrasound to determine whether the fetus is six or sixteen weeks along, why not require that he turn the screen so that the woman can see the image of her baby and its stage of development? She would at least have a limited view of a beating heart, the beating heart the doctors in today's case are so concerned about leaving behind when they pull one dismembered part of the fetus from the mother's body.

He does as well as a judge in his position can do. Unless he wishes to simply proclaim the undiluted truth, flout stare decesis, and take up as an impeached judge a new career with Missionaries to the Preborn or Operation Rescue.

Our pioneer abortionists have found a way to make this process, the road to outright infanticide, a gradual one. Incrementally, the children are destroyed at later and later stages of development while advanced medicine allows for "viability" to occurs at earlier and earlier gestational age. The voice of the Churches of God is faint. And First Assembly and WQFL have given aid and comfort to those who blaspheme God by destroying those fashioned in His image.

Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. Exsurgat Deus!