Just last week a Virginia mother killed her baby and will NOT be charged with murder. The reason: it was still attached to her via its umbilical cord. Therefore, it was not its own person. (see video below for news story). In all fairness to the state of Virginia, this law was originally passed to protect mothers who gave birth to stillborn babies. In the past, they had been accused of killing the child and punished.
This is actually the second case that has occurred in just a year in Virginia- when lawmakers were pushed to change the law; they declined, saying it was “too close to the abortion issue.” So, an outdated law that allows murder stays on the books out of “political correctness” and worries over “offending the other side.”
This brings up what is very central to the abortion debate. When is a baby a baby? Partial-birth abortions can and are performed into the third trimester (the third trimester begins at 27 weeks). Most occur after 20 weeks. It is generally believed that any baby past 23 weeks has a chance of surviving if medical care is available. There are even cases of 22 weeks old ones surviving.
For those who don’t know, a partial birth abortion is when the baby is induced and all of it except its head is through the cervix. They then puncture the skull, killing it (most of the time), and pull it the rest of the way out. Oh, by the way, if it lives through this and is still breathing, they can kill it once the baby is out.
Is it a baby at the moment of conception?
When the heart starts beating?
When it has hands?
When it can survive on its’ own outside the mother’s body?
When it is in the birth canal?
When it is outside the birth canal?
After it is separated from the mother?
I’m not in the least bit trying to tell anyone what to think, what to feel, or what you morals should be. You may notice I HAVEN’T stated which of the above I subscribe to.
I’m simply pointing out that this is where the constant arguing, protesting, suing, and law-passing have gotten us. A woman (or doctor) can kill a breathing baby and it is legal. I think almost everyone can agree that we’ve let this go a little bit too far.
Can this story be applied to other situations? I would say ‘yes.’ So much of the “work” being done in Washington is compromise: a game of “we’ll drop this from the bill if you vote for it.” Political correctness is running rampant. For example, God forbid anyone say that someone without insurance shouldn’t get free care at the hospital. In my opinion, that’s b.s. (excuse my language). I didn’t have insurance for three years. Did I go to the emergency room when I was depressed (I’m bi-polar) and beg for free meds? Did I show up at the local welfare clinic asking for free doctor consultations?
NO! Not because they weren’t available, but I was brought up to believe in being responsible for oneself and in not taking other people’s money just because you won’t/fill in your excuse/can’t earn your own.
It’s time for the lawmakers to listen to the people. It’s time for common sense and moral values to return. No matter your opinion on abortion, common sense dictates that a living, breathing baby outside of the woman’s body shouldn’t be killed.
Common sense dictates that if you give products for free to some people, no one is going to want to work to earn those products- after all, they can not work and get them for free.
Common sense dictates that without strong beliefs- whether liberal or conservative- everything becomes available for negotiation. And when everything is available for negotiation, the underlying REASON for passing a bill in the first place is wiped out under the constant pressure to compromise. Leaving both sides unhappy with the bill that is being passed, let alone the common people.
What is your opinion?
-----Here are some quotes from both sides of the abortion debate. Feel free to skip this section if you like. As always, make up YOUR OWN MIND on what you believe.
If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine. ~Michael Jay Tucker
Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State. ~Edward Abbey
No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg. ~Frederica Mathewes-Green
George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war. ~Rick Claro
"I found much distress in the clinic, but it involved not only the women. I saw the pain of the babies who were born burned from the saline solution used for late-term abortions. I saw the bits of feet, bits of hands, the mangled heads and bodies of the little people. I saw pain and felt pain." ~One time clinic worker Paula Sutcliffe in "Precious in My Sight" "Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices" Gail Garnier-Sweet, editor
"Sometimes we lied. A girl might ask what her baby was like at a certain point in the pregnancy: Was it a baby yet? Even as early as 12 weeks a baby is totally formed, he has fingerprints, turns his head, fans his toes, feels pain. But we would say 'It's not a baby yet. It's just tissue, like a clot.'" ~Kathy Sparks told in "The Conversion of Kathy Sparks" by Gloria Williamson, Christian Herald Jan 1986 p 28
"Now, the baby I aborted was eleven weeks old, and can you imagine what this did to me when I saw this baby with the hands and face, sucking his thumb? And they told me it was a cluster of cells!" ~Carole K. State Director of Women Exploited By Abortion. From "Women Exploited"
Sources: NPR- “Partial Birth Abortion- Separating Fact from Spin”
Public Agenda – “States with Restrictions on Post-viability Abortions”
NRLC- “Aren’t Third Trimester Abortions Rare”
NRLC- “For What Reasons Are Partial-Birth Abortions Usually Performed”
This is actually the second case that has occurred in just a year in Virginia- when lawmakers were pushed to change the law; they declined, saying it was “too close to the abortion issue.” So, an outdated law that allows murder stays on the books out of “political correctness” and worries over “offending the other side.”
This brings up what is very central to the abortion debate. When is a baby a baby? Partial-birth abortions can and are performed into the third trimester (the third trimester begins at 27 weeks). Most occur after 20 weeks. It is generally believed that any baby past 23 weeks has a chance of surviving if medical care is available. There are even cases of 22 weeks old ones surviving.
For those who don’t know, a partial birth abortion is when the baby is induced and all of it except its head is through the cervix. They then puncture the skull, killing it (most of the time), and pull it the rest of the way out. Oh, by the way, if it lives through this and is still breathing, they can kill it once the baby is out.
Is it a baby at the moment of conception?
When the heart starts beating?
When it has hands?
When it can survive on its’ own outside the mother’s body?
When it is in the birth canal?
When it is outside the birth canal?
After it is separated from the mother?
I’m not in the least bit trying to tell anyone what to think, what to feel, or what you morals should be. You may notice I HAVEN’T stated which of the above I subscribe to.
I’m simply pointing out that this is where the constant arguing, protesting, suing, and law-passing have gotten us. A woman (or doctor) can kill a breathing baby and it is legal. I think almost everyone can agree that we’ve let this go a little bit too far.
Can this story be applied to other situations? I would say ‘yes.’ So much of the “work” being done in Washington is compromise: a game of “we’ll drop this from the bill if you vote for it.” Political correctness is running rampant. For example, God forbid anyone say that someone without insurance shouldn’t get free care at the hospital. In my opinion, that’s b.s. (excuse my language). I didn’t have insurance for three years. Did I go to the emergency room when I was depressed (I’m bi-polar) and beg for free meds? Did I show up at the local welfare clinic asking for free doctor consultations?
NO! Not because they weren’t available, but I was brought up to believe in being responsible for oneself and in not taking other people’s money just because you won’t/fill in your excuse/can’t earn your own.
It’s time for the lawmakers to listen to the people. It’s time for common sense and moral values to return. No matter your opinion on abortion, common sense dictates that a living, breathing baby outside of the woman’s body shouldn’t be killed.
Common sense dictates that if you give products for free to some people, no one is going to want to work to earn those products- after all, they can not work and get them for free.
Common sense dictates that without strong beliefs- whether liberal or conservative- everything becomes available for negotiation. And when everything is available for negotiation, the underlying REASON for passing a bill in the first place is wiped out under the constant pressure to compromise. Leaving both sides unhappy with the bill that is being passed, let alone the common people.
What is your opinion?
-----Here are some quotes from both sides of the abortion debate. Feel free to skip this section if you like. As always, make up YOUR OWN MIND on what you believe.
If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine. ~Michael Jay Tucker
Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State. ~Edward Abbey
No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg. ~Frederica Mathewes-Green
George W. Bush will protect your unborn fetus, then send your grown child to die in war. ~Rick Claro
"I found much distress in the clinic, but it involved not only the women. I saw the pain of the babies who were born burned from the saline solution used for late-term abortions. I saw the bits of feet, bits of hands, the mangled heads and bodies of the little people. I saw pain and felt pain." ~One time clinic worker Paula Sutcliffe in "Precious in My Sight" "Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices" Gail Garnier-Sweet, editor
"Sometimes we lied. A girl might ask what her baby was like at a certain point in the pregnancy: Was it a baby yet? Even as early as 12 weeks a baby is totally formed, he has fingerprints, turns his head, fans his toes, feels pain. But we would say 'It's not a baby yet. It's just tissue, like a clot.'" ~Kathy Sparks told in "The Conversion of Kathy Sparks" by Gloria Williamson, Christian Herald Jan 1986 p 28
"Now, the baby I aborted was eleven weeks old, and can you imagine what this did to me when I saw this baby with the hands and face, sucking his thumb? And they told me it was a cluster of cells!" ~Carole K. State Director of Women Exploited By Abortion. From "Women Exploited"
Sources: NPR- “Partial Birth Abortion- Separating Fact from Spin”
Public Agenda – “States with Restrictions on Post-viability Abortions”
NRLC- “Aren’t Third Trimester Abortions Rare”
NRLC- “For What Reasons Are Partial-Birth Abortions Usually Performed”
