Becky's parents were once supporters of parental consent laws, but now they speak passionately and publicly against them.

-- Gloria Feldt, speech before the All Saints Church, February 23, 2003.

I'm ashamed of you, Dawn. Are you seriously suggesting that the President of Planned Parenthood would lie inside a church?
The Raving Atheist | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 1:15 am | #

Dawn, Protestant bashing is beneath you, and a violation of your adopted Harris Protocol. I wish I was surprised.

But, since we're talking sources here, you should know that Jill Stanek isn't a big fan of the Roman Catholic faith, and has bashed it in several columns. Her column about Becky is shameful - it seems to imply that Becky deserved to die because she 'could have gotten judicial intervention' and 'had been promiscuous since she was 15'.

You might want to rethink this post.
Anthony | 09.17.05 - 8:03 am | #

Anthony, the Stanek article does not imply that Bell deserved to die. It states that if you live a life of drugs and sex that there is a good chance that you will die and that has nothing to to do with whether abortion is legal or not.
Tom | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 9:45 am | #

Whether or not Becky was promiscuous or not is irrelevent to the subject at hand. She received no aboution legal or otherwise. For any group to attempt to make political hay with this lie is shameful. She died of pneumonia, not a septic abortion with no evidence of any infection in her reproductive organs. Yet, pro-abortion groups insist on using this story, complete with the "septic abortion" lie in such a shameless manner.
If you wish to discuss self-destructive behavior as a seperate subject that is fine. The introduction of it here is nothing but a red herring.
J Rob | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 11:22 am | #

What's shameless here is ANY group exploiting the death of a teenager, Dawn's Episcopal-bashing ("faith-friendly blog" indeed), and the use of dubious sources of information to grind an agenda.
Anthony | 09.17.05 - 11:30 am | #

As far as protestant bashing goes, as a Methodist I will save you the trouble: She would have no trouble finding Methodist bishops more than happy to perpetuate this "evil parental consent law" lie as well as those who would oppose it. I know of Methodist bishops that if they were to tell me the sun sets in the west I would go out at dusk with a compass.
J Rob | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 11:31 am | #

I had never heard this story before. I feel unspeakably sad now. The very availability of abortion does cause needless divisions between children and their parents.

I remember when my best friend got pregnant (she was 16), she told her mother who was sensitive enough to ask her whether she wanted to tell her father or whether mom should. Of course, one's parents are, initially upset. Of course, children don't want to disappoint their parents.

While it is understandable that children don't realize that their parents have seen it and heard it all before, there is no such excuse for lawmakers who interfere in family life to the extent that they have with these judicial by-pass laws. And so the bloodshed continues and girls bear the trauma all alone, just as the one of the articles you referenced mentions.
Colleen | 09.17.05 - 11:33 am | #

RA: what would stop Gloria Feldt from lying in a church? She and other pro-abortion advocates have been lying about Beck Bell for over fifteen years. I'd like some evidence that the Bells are out there "publicly" speaking against parential consent laws.

And Dawn: thanks for the referran link.
Joe | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 11:37 am | #

[Off-topic comments deleted]

Still waiting for an apology for the Episcopal bashing, by the way.

[Ad hominem deleted]

Edited By Siteowner
Anthony | 09.17.05 - 12:34 pm | #

Oh, come on. Dawn, I'm a fan of your blog, but I'm dissapointed in your behavior (and RA for baiting). Do we really need to turn this into a faith-bashing fest? Regardless of whether or not you agree with another's faith, let's stay respectful and on topic.

Anthony,
Are the sources on Becky Bell's death only questionable because they are pro-life? Could you please specifically state the errors you find in the reports and provide a refutation with documentation?

Joe: Indeed, Becky's parents are politically active in speaking out against parental notification laws, once more recently at the 2004 March for Women's Lives:

"Bill Bell and Bill Bell Junior, father and brother of Becky Bell, who died at the age of 17 from an illegal abortion in 1998, also addressed the crowd. Becky Bell is known as the first women to have died as a result of the Parental Consent or Parental Notification Laws, which are currently on the books in 32 states and require minors to notify and in many cases gain the consent of their parents before obtaining an abortion. "No more Becky Bells! No more Becky Bells!" chanted her father into the microphone, leading the crowd in a mourning chant for the lives of young women lost to unsafe and illegal abortions."
http://newstandardnews.net/conte...item& itemid=219

Another article refuting Beck Bell died due to an illegal abortion is
Anonymous | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 12:53 pm | #

Oh, come on. Dawn, I'm a fan of your blog, but I'm dissapointed in your behavior (and RA for baiting). Do we really need to turn this into a faith-bashing fest? Regardless of whether or not you agree with another's faith, let's stay respectful and on topic.

Anthony,
Are the sources on Becky Bell's death only questionable because they are pro-life? Could you please specifically state the errors you find in the reports and provide a refutation with documentation?

Joe: Indeed, Becky's parents are politically active in speaking out against parental notification laws, once more recently at the 2004 March for Women's Lives:

"Bill Bell and Bill Bell Junior, father and brother of Becky Bell, who died at the age of 17 from an illegal abortion in 1998, also addressed the crowd. Becky Bell is known as the first women to have died as a result of the Parental Consent or Parental Notification Laws, which are currently on the books in 32 states and require minors to notify and in many cases gain the consent of their parents before obtaining an abortion. "No more Becky Bells! No more Becky Bells!" chanted her father into the microphone, leading the crowd in a mourning chant for the lives of young women lost to unsafe and illegal abortions."
http://newstandardnews.net/conte...item& itemid=219

Another article refuting Beck Bell died due to an illegal abortion is The Truth Behind the Becky Bell Story"

To summarize what possibly happened:
Becky found out she was pregnant and because of parental notification laws, wrote down the number of an out-of-state abortion provider (which her parents came upon later), however she was unsure about having an abortion. However, it is believed she began to have a miscarriage and on her last night she went to a party where she took some recreational drugs, causing vomiting w/ aspiration, leading to pneumonia to develop in her lungs. Upon her death, her parents were told that their daughter had died from an abortion, which they immediatly interpreted as meaning illegal abortion; however, this terminology is also used to describe spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. Further autopsies (no damage to her reproductive organs from a induced abortion but the appearance of a spontaneous abortion) and the testimony of her friend Heather Clark, confirmed this.
Rachael | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 12:55 pm | #

I deleted Anthony's off-topic attempt to link Jill Stanek with Catholic-bashing. His evidence was that she had criticized Catholic hospitals that condoned partial-birth abortion. She is actually a great friend of Catholics, who themselves have criticized such hospitals.

Attention all: Please note that I tire of editing out ad hominems. I'd like for every voice to be included here, so please follow comments rules. Your cooperation is appreciated—thanks.
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 12:57 pm | #

Oh, come on. Dawn, I'm a fan of your blog, but I'm dissapointed in your behavior (and RA for baiting). Do we really need to turn this into a faith-bashing fest? Regardless of whether or not you agree with another's faith, let's stay respectful and on topic.

Good point, Rachael. I'm sorry.
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 1:14 pm | #

Yeah, those "proud progressive Catholics" who ignores the big fat "thou shalt not kill" commandment that is probably located on their building somewhere.

Never mind references to cloning, I guess PP's President didn't think of that either.

As to Planned Parenthood doing anything? Passing out ineffective rubbers and profiting off abortions hardly alleviates the occurence of abortions as much as crisis pregnancy centers do.

I hope RA won't be offended, but if ever there were verifiable proof of a tool of Satan, PP's President would be it. Lying in church, applauding sinful behavior and its supporters, asking Christians to break at the very minimum 2 commandments(killing and bearing false witness)... the gaul.
Brian K | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 1:57 pm | #

I wasn't baiting (I do bait, but not this time).

I was being ironic. I'm perfectly aware of PPs disrespect for everything; being in a church is the last thing that would inhibit them (or me, but I don't kill when uninhibited).

So I'm not ashamed of Dawn (not for this).

And I would never express disappointment with someone in a parenthesis (not even Rachael).
The Raving Atheist | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 4:51 pm | #

Sorry (in advance).
The Raving Atheist | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 4:52 pm | #

Dawn, thank you for apologizing. I may be snarky when it comes to the reprehensible ideas I see floated through here in the name of Christianity, but I draw the line at mocking someone's chosen faith.

That said, it looks as though Becky Bell's family doesn't believe she died of simple pneumonia. I imagine that they would know better than we do. And, it doesn't matter if the pro-life movement wants to posthumously vilify her as a trollop who could have gone to court to get an abortion, or if the pro-choice movement wishes to deify her as an example of what goes wrong when parental consent laws are in effect.

She's dead. Using her death to grind an agenda - ANY agenda - is in exceedingly poor taste and disrespectful. How about we all knock it off?
Anthony | 09.17.05 - 6:26 pm | #

RA,
Why the fuss? I didn't realize that you were being sarcastic, but was the jab back really necessary? Come on, were on the same side, remember? And I do have a lot of respect for some of the articles you write.
Rachael | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 9:29 pm | #

Anthony,
You're trying to tell me her misinformed parents know her cause of death better than the knowledge of a several medical professionals? You've got to keep in mind that Becky's parents were misinformed and NARAL took advantage of their daughter's death and her parent's grief to recuit her parents for their cause. Sometimes kids don't tell their parents everything that happened in their lives, and sometimes close friends know whole story. Also, the cause of death is best left up to the professional post-mortum examiners to decipher.
I see her story as explained by pro-lifers only describing a girl who made some wrong choices in her life and had a miscarriage. And on the other hand, pro-lifers have nothing to gain. Since she didn't have an abortion, the pro-lifers can't use her for the parental notification argument. By bringing an awareness to the cause of Becky's death, they are hoping to put an end to NARAL's exploitation of the Bells and to let Becky rest in peace.

BTW, I'm still waiting for you to cite the errors you find in the reports and provide a refutation with documentation.
Rachael | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 10:02 pm | #

Rachael,

I said I was sorry (see above).

And I was being ironic (not sarcastic). It's more like a tickle than a jab.

I've put you on my "Saints" blogroll, if that's any consolation. I respect your writings too.

Sorry (for real).
The Raving Atheist | Homepage | 09.17.05 - 10:15 pm | #

Ok, ok, it's all cool :) Light humor is cool with me :P
Rachael | Homepage | 09.18.05 - 1:20 am | #

Oh, RA, you didn't have to add me to your Saints blogroll, but I sure do appreciate it :)
Rachael | Homepage | 09.18.05 - 1:21 am | #

Just because they refuse to accept the cause of death being pneumonia and claime it was an "illegal abortion" forced by parental consent laws does not make it so. My mother in-law to this day swears that Martin Luther King was in Augusta, GA the day before inciting the riot that almost killed one of my brothers in-law in 1971. We all know that was impossible because King was killed two years earlier. But she still swears that is what happened.
If the objective facts do not support the opinion, the opinion is at best suspect, or is not an opinion at all but a rant.
J Rob | Homepage | 09.18.05 - 12:43 pm | #

People who have lost relatives, especially children, frequently look for someone -- anyone -- to blame.

It is charitable to minimize the harm they do in their grief, not only for the sake of their victims, but for their own, in the event they regain their stability and can justly evaluate the suffering they inflicted.
Mary | 09.18.05 - 1:55 pm | #