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outside IHS abortion clinic in north Austin photo- JH
The following is an interview with local abortion provider Dr. Peter Kopf, who responds to the Austin chapter of the '40 Days for Life' protest outside his abortion clinic, International Healthcare Solutions, in north Austin.
The protesters are part of the massive national pro-life campaign that calls for 24-hour prayer vigils to be held for 40 days by volunteers outside local abortion clinics. The effort began September 23 and runs to November 1.
Dr. Kopf also shares his views on religion, abortion, and euthanasia.
(CLICK HERE FOR PROTEST VIDEO)
Q: What is your response to the 40 Days for Life protest taking place outside your clinic?
Abortion is an issue to me that - scientifically, ethically, politically, legally - in my heart of hearts I favor legal, properly-performed abortions. Anybody who demonstrates against us, in my experience - and it's always tied to some religious organization - to me, they are no different than Osama bin Laden and his creed. Because you cannot talk to them, their minds are closed, they think that God talks to them, which in my point of view is psychotic.
I feel sorry for them, for all who walk down that road of brainwashing, but you know, some people are just susceptible to brainwashing. But despite that, no religious terrorism will stop me from doing what I think is the scientifically right thing to do.
Q: So then, I take it that you're not a particularly religious man?
No sir. I am a very devout atheist. Very deeply, there's no question about it. This God concept is a very interesting anthropological development, but I think its just - ah, did you ever see the Bill Maher movie "Religulous?"
Well, I haven't seen it, but I know the film you're talking about.
I would go a bit further than him, a little more radical. You know, Maher says that 'God may exist.' But I say that God, as it's defined to me and through my readings from antiquity, you know, it's all a wonderful story. And, I suggest, a nice fairy tale.
International Healthcare Solutions on Anderson Mill Rd -JH
Q: Your website describes abortion as an "important medical procedure." Can you expand on that?
Well, it's a philosophical question. But to us, ethically, having an early abortion and taking birth control pills are the same procedure, because certain types of birth control prevent the development of a fertilized egg and leads to miscarriage.
If you consider a fertilized egg a pregnancy, which religious people do, then taking certain birth control pills is just as much an abortion as anything else. It's somewhat interesting that many people who would demonstrate against an abortion service think nothing of taking birth control pills. Ethically, you cannot differentiate between the two.
Second, in a certain patient population, an early abortion is a safer, better birth-control method than even taking birth control pills. So, from a medical point of view, there is no scientific or ethical argument that you could come up with against early pregnancy termination. As long as humans have recreational sex they will need abortion. As long as some pregnancies are abnormal, we will need abortion. You can't get around it.
Q: Your website mentions you offer counseling. Does your clinic offer literature, or do you talk about other options, such as adoption, with the women who come in?
Well, adoption is very simple, if they are interested we discuss it. It's sort of a misconception in some circles that ladies who choose pregnancy termination would be interested in adoption, that's one thing people don't understand.
Abortion is birth control. Adoption is giving up your child and not accepting your duties as a mother. Most women are not interested in that. It's only in a religiously-altered mind that that's a true option.
Q: It seems that the debate over abortion hinges on a central question: at what point do you believe that a fetus becomes a human being?
Well, as long as you have an early abortion, that's birth control. If you have a late-term abortion, that's euthanasia. I mean c'mon, let's face it. You do an abortion at 30 weeks, you know, you could do a C-section and you have a little baby in your hands. That's euthanasia.
But euthanasia is something that's coming, you know. I mean c'mon. It already exists in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland."
Q: And what's your opinion of state-sanctioned euthanasia?
It's coming, I mean, you can't avoid it. You can cry against it, but it's a necessity. The only way you can control suffering and dying a most miserable death is by properly developed, medically-supervised euthanasia.
Q: So you think that's a medical progression that will be sort of natural?
Yes, there's no question in my mind. The United States happens to be a sociologically very backwards country, I mean compared to any European country. So, it's coming, and it's a struggle. I mean look at it, the whole society struggles with it. But it's like a train coming down the track.
But can I ask you a question? You have asked many questions, so let me ask you: Why is it okay to put a dog to sleep because it hurts too much, but it's not okay to put a human to sleep? He needs to suffer? That's reasonable? I don't think so.
Dr. Kopf came to the US as an immigrant refugee from Communist Hungary. He served 12 years in the US Army, got his education and medical degree in the US, and opened International Healthcare Solutions in Austin in 1992 with his wife, also a physician. Dr. Kopf is a board certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist who specializes in abortion care, is a fellow of the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and has performed abortions for over 25 years.
Comments
Wow!
It's not everyday that one the abortionists will just open up like that.
What a dim and increasingly dark vision. At every turn, his world view is colored in death - destroy the embryo, destroy the fetus, destroy the 30-week old, kill the aged and the suffering. Death is his answer for nearly every problem.
One of Mr. Kopf's most intriguing comments was about birth control and its destruction of fertilized embryos.
It's true, many people who believe that life begins at conception, nevertheless, agree with forms of birth control that have the side effect of destroying viable embryos. But, as the doc says, as long as we have recreational sex, we'll need some way to deal with the consequences.
Great article! What a scary point of view, but that is where things go in the world of those who are pro-abortion.
Interesting! How scary to think that a person could have such a void of love in their lives to be that destructive.
Like your writing Jacob! Keep up the good work :)
Very interesting. And Jacob... you didn't answer his question.
He answered his own idiotic question: To him, a dog and a human are more or less the same.
Maybe he thinks comparing a human to a dog is no more idiotic then making it illegal to allow a terminally suffering person to die with dignity.
To address the question about why it is different to put a dog to sleep as opposed to a human, Dr. Kopf would not like the basis for the answer, because it relies on the concept that God put the care of the Earth and its animals in man's charge.
I guess you could argue that we eat animals, but we do not eat humans, but I'm not sure that Dr. Kopf would be against that either.
Is it any wonder that athiest regimes have killed so many people?
Why are so many "pro-life" people also pro-death penalty? Isn't all life sacred?
Not trying to incite anything, I've just wondered this.
Tyler, very good question. It's similar to the question of why anti-death penalty folks, who claim that life is too sacred for such a punishment, are often simultaneously "pro-choice." But I think the difference to people of faith has to do with the notion of a fundamental difference between innocent life (of the unborn) and the life of a criminal who has murdered an innocent, etc. Religious people think that it is precisely because of life's "sacredness" that the death penalty is the only appropriate or just punishment for those who have taken innocent life unjustly, as in a heinous murder, for instance. But anti-death penalty folks make no such distinction, so the seeming hypocrisy is more obviously theirs.
There are a few reasons Tyler.
1. Not all pro-life people are also for the death penalty. Many Catholics are against abortion and the death penalty. Many are also for it. Theologically the issued is by no means settled and still an open question as it will be for years to come.
2. Those who are given the death penalty, in this country at least, have had the right to a trial of there peers and were found guilty. They in turn are guilty of a crime and the penalty of which is death. While a child in the mother's womb is innocent and has committed no crime. One is always innocent; the other is likely (though not always) to be guilty. That is why some pro-lifers are also in favor the the death penalty.
~Thomist
I'm curious Mr. Harrison--do you now suffer, or have you ever suffered from the disorder the good doctor mentioned, a "religiously altered mind"? (Sounds like some sort of cool substance-induced effect, doesn't it?)
Well Ryan, has it not been said? - "the mind that alters, alters ALL."
I noticed it mentioned at the end that he is a physician. This is a false statement. So for all the doctors out there reading the article I hope they are not offended by that statement. Physicians are healers, and this man is not.
"Abortion is birth control. Adoption is giving up your child and not accepting your duties as a mother." favoring death over life... what has our society come to.
Having had encounters with the abortionist, I do know that while we offered him love and forgiveness, he screamed at us, threatened us, called the police despite our being peaceful in the right of way area at all times, and, at one time in the past, threatened violence. He flipped me off for telling him we loved him. It's fair to note that the first nation in modern times to legalize abortion was Nazi Germany, the second was Communist Russia. I wonder with his euthanasia views if he is in favor of the Nazi euthanasia of the Jews. That aside, he needs prayers, not condemnation.
A few thoughts from Chesterton that might be relevant here.
"The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
"The madman's explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory.... Nevertheless, he is wrong.Perhaps the nearest we can get to expressing it is to say this: that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large. In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large."
I think religion creates a space for that infinite. That doesn't mean religion is anti-scientific. It just means that religion, at its best, agrees with Socrates when he said "I am wiser only that what I do not know, I do not think I know."
Dr. Kopf seems to think he knows quite a bit.
A few thoughts from Chesterton that might be relevant here.
"The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
"The madman's explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory.... Nevertheless, he is wrong.Perhaps the nearest we can get to expressing it is to say this: that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large. In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large."
I think religion creates a space for that infinite. That doesn't mean religion is anti-scientific. It just means that religion, at its best, agrees with Socrates when he said "I am wiser only that what I do not know, I do not think I know."
Dr. Kopf seems to think he knows quite a bit.
"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." -- John 8:32
Better to have a "religiously-altered mind" than the alternative...
You belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God." -- John 8:44-47
A few thoughts from Chesterton that might be relevant here.
"The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
"The madman's explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory.... Nevertheless, he is wrong.Perhaps the nearest we can get to expressing it is to say this: that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large. In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large."
I think religion creates a space for that infinite. That doesn't mean religion is anti-scientific. It just means that religion, at its best, agrees with Socrates when he said "I am wiser only that what I do not know, I do not think I know."
Dr. Kopf seems to think he knows quite a bit.
I find this interesting. I am not a believer in God, yet I think abortion is wrong. It's murder, in my opinion... an opinion uninfluenced by religion.
I wonder if the the Hungarian Communist Immigrant who claims to be a Physician has any other boundaries in this life? How does he feel about kidnapping, rape, rape of a child, torture, and so on?
After all, if there is no God for him to be accountable to, why just stop with killing defenseless babies? I wonder what he does for kicks?
He doesn't seem to have trouble with clear infanticide of a 30 week preborn baby. He calls it euthanasia. very scary. Eugenics?
This man just called adoption "very simple." Is he simple?
I wonder how many mothers who lost children to adoption this dude has ever met or read about?
Simple? How so? Carrying a child for nine months is "simpler" then not? Going through labor is simpler than not? Experiencing feeling your child inside you and going through labor and delivery to never see your child again is "simpler" than avoiding going through that?
Living the rest of your life wondering about the welfare of a human being you are responsible for bringing into the world is "simple"? Getting a knot in your stomach every time you're asked how many kids you have - simple?
abortionists and anti-abortionists pushing their agenda, it's amazing any single mother ever makes it through in tact with her baby in her arms...but then, isn't that their mutual goal?
These seeming opponents are really - perhaps unknowingly, unwittingly? - united in preventing single mothers from being parents.
Mirah Riben, author,
Communist Hungary, huh? All his schooling done in the USA, right? He now appreciates his adopted country so much, that he kills our future citizens. How twisted is that?
wow. this was incredible to read. it really made me understand the type of person that can have such an occupation.
im not religious in the traditional sense so i think he was a bit prosumptious for him to think that someone against abortion must be "religiously brainwashed". perhaps a little "closed minded"?
i was already completely against abortion, on a personal level against birth control and almost for euthenasia. well ive gotta say, this has made me against it all, strongly!
wow. this was incredible to read. it really made me understand the type of person that can have such an occupation.
im not religious in the traditional sense so i think he was a bit prosumptious for him to think that someone against abortion must be "religiously brainwashed". perhaps a little "closed minded"?
i was already completely against abortion, on a personal level against birth control and almost for euthenasia. well ive gotta say, this has made me against it all, strongly!
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