Blogging abortion; arsonists posting to chat rooms

A blogger’s abortion instructions concern activists on both sides of the debate, reports Dru Sefton: A feminist blogger has posted explicit directions online for a surgical abortion, in reaction to the new South Dakota law all but banning the procedure. In an interview, the blogger, a former journalist with no medical background, says she has […]

A blogger’s abortion instructions concern activists on both sides of the debate, reports Dru Sefton: A feminist blogger has posted explicit directions online for a surgical abortion, in reaction to the new South Dakota law all but banning the procedure. In an interview, the blogger, a former journalist with no medical background, says she has been compiling instructions for several years. The woman, who writes under the pseudonym Molly Blythe, says she observed an actual abortion, interviewed providers and read medical texts. “If anyone has a problem with this and they don’t think non-doctors should perform medical procedures, there’s a simple way to guarantee that won’t happen: Make sure Roe v. Wade is not overturned,” she says, referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide. But her action troubles activists on both sides of the volatile issue: Is it a harbinger of a return to the era of secret, illegal abortions?

Greg Garrison reports that the Alabama church burning suspects posted messages online: The three college students accused of setting fire to nine Alabama churches left a computer chat room trail that was a window into their personalities. Within hours after Ben Moseley, 19; Russell DeBusk, 19; and Matthew Cloyd, 20, were arrested March 8 on arson charges, reporters were mining their personal postings on the Facebook Web site. All three had registered for the site when they were University of Alabama-Birmingham. The students didn’t talk directly about the fires, but bragged about excessive drinking and partying in messages rife with obscene language. The postings reveal how teenagers increasingly gravitate to a cyberspace world in which peers celebrate wild antics under the illusion they are anonymous and isolated, possibly endangering their futures.

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