Two life-saving bills were filibustered out of existence last week in the U.S. Senate. Filibuster: a procedure intended to kill. Apropos.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would have banned abortion after 20 weeks. Senator Lindsey Graham, the bill's sponsor noted: “There are only seven countries that allow wholesale abortions at the 20-week period, including China and North Korea,” Graham said in a tweet before the vote. “The United States should NOT be in that club.“
However, the flawed bill allowed exceptions for babies conceived by rape. Rebecca Kiessling, pro-life advocate and founder of Save the 1 asserts, "Rape and abortion are wrong for the same reason; they are both violent acts of aggression against another person. If you really care about rape victims, you should want to protect them from the rapist, and from the abortion . . . a baby is not the worst thing which can happen to a rape victim — an abortion is."
When I was a young woman I used to believe exceptions were important. And then I learned that I was one. My mother was raped. Learning the circumstances of my conception moved me from my weak pro-abortion stance to a strong pro-life conviction. I am thankful for this gracious reckoning.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Ben Sasse, was also defeated on February 25. Some mainstream media outlets erroneously labeled this an "abortion-restriction bill".
In fact, it set no limits on abortion but would have secured protection for children born after a failed abortion. Here is the wording:
“If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States, and entitled to all the protections of such laws. Any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall . . . exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
Senator Mazie Hirono claimed that the bill was “a solution to a problem that does not exist.” She contended that laws against infanticide apply in these cases and that the bill is really about restricting a woman’s ability to choose to terminate her pregnancy.
Sasse responded: “Infanticide is indeed illegal in the U.S., and yet in half of the states, there is no criminalization of walking away from the baby and allowing it to die by exposure. There’s an active-passive distinction and a state-federal distinction which are both pretty fundamental.”
In reporting on the failure of this bill, journalist Caroline Kelly contrasted “a fetus that is born” with a “newborn baby.” Huh? Noting the illogic of the comparison--as if the two descriptions of a human are different--Kelly updated her story later that day to "more precisely reflect the language."
Philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, “What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over?”
"product of conception"
"family planning"
"clump of cells"
"terminate"
"choice"
These words and phrases are common abortion-talk euphemisms. In Pink Floyd fashion, our culture has become "comfortably numb" while millions of humans are discreetly murdered behind closed doors at our neighborhood abortion mills and now in the privacy of our homes via the abortion pill.
When I was a young woman I used to believe exceptions were important. And then I learned that I was one.
Last night, a sweet young lady with whom I spent a little time sharing dessert and conversation after a delicious Shabbat dinner astutely noted, if everyone could see what's going on in those mills, the dead babies and their body parts being packaged up as biohazard waste, there would be outrage. "Yes," her Jewish rabbi father agreed, "this is why we have Holocaust memorials, so we don't forget or repeat the atrocities." (Read about it HERE. See it HERE.)
“What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over?” ~ G.K. Chesterton
Every week, I try to spend an hour on the public right-of-way in front of an abortion mill with my husband or a friend, enjoining women to "please, come talk to us!"
We have good news. We have resources. We love them and their babies. Very few are dissuaded. It does not deter us. We know that we are a voice for the voiceless, speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Join the movement.
We pray in our home and with our congregation, "Please, Lord, end this scourge. Turn the hearts of fathers and mothers toward their children . . . end abortion now. Please. Have mercy."
Discord
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Doing
“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’”
Becoming "Unpregnant" and Finding Hope
Abort73 has excellent resources including hundreds of unsolicited abortion stories AND the good news of hope for recovery if you've had one or more.
Thank you. Ultimately, this is NOT a political issue, rather a moral one. Civil discourse should be encouraged and love and logic embraced. Thankfully the stalwart abolitionists of the 18th and 19th centuries refused to entertain the notion that slavery was a “personal choice” and not the state’s business to legislate. We not only allow but daily depend upon the government to impose moral principles to protect humans from subjugation, murder, rape and assault. Abortion IS “solvable”: we must acknowledge the personhood of the unborn and stop making excuses for men, women and a society who refuse to protect them.
What a wonderful post Shawn. It is both informative and touches the heart in such an honest and truthful way. Thank you.