Abortion by Videoconference

On Friday, the  New York Times reported on the “chilling and ghoulish” case of William  Melchert-Dinkel, a Minnesota man who haunted pro-suicide websites and coached at least two people to their deaths all for the “thrill of the chase,” in his own words.

Today I learned (hat tip  Matt Archbold ) that Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa are now performing “telemed” abortions. Operation Rescue published a  special report on the practice in March and the story was picked up by the  DesMoines Register this week. According to the  Register :

The first-in-the-nation system allows a Planned Parenthood physician from Des Moines to visit with each patient by videoconference, then press a computer button to open a drawer in front of the patient, who could be seated up to 190 miles away. The patient then reaches into the drawer and withdraws the abortion pills.

This may not have been what Romano Guardini had in mind in  The End of the Modern World , but it is certainly a consequence of ignoring him. Man has, Guardini said, rapidly made many spectacular technical advances, and, consequently, has increased his power without ever having learning to govern it. But power is not the same as natural energy, power requires a will to direct it, and when men neglect to do so, it becomes demonic. It will be the great task of our time, Guardini warned in 1949, “to integrate power into life in such a way that man can employ power without forfeiting his humanity. For he will have only two choices: to match the greatness of his power with the strength of humanity, or to surrender his humanity to power and perish.”