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GUEST COLUMN
(5/28/2007)
Abortion: "Laden with Power to Devalue Human Life"
By Linda Schauer State Director, Concerned Women for America of South Dakota After 11 years of vigilance on the part of those who respect life, the United States Supreme Court voted to uphold the national ban on partial-birth abortion (PBA) signed into law by President Bush in 2003. The court decided that the ban does not violate a woman's right to abortion and voted in favor of protection for the most vulnerable members of society from a "brutal and inhumane" death. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted "that the government has a legitimate substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life." Under the 14th Amendment the government is responsible for protecting all citizens under the law. Great respect for unborn life and reverence for the birth process appeared to be the theme of Kennedy's opinion. He stated that abortion is "laden with power to devalue human life." Medical descriptions within the Supreme Court document outline the procedure of PBA, or "intact dilation and extraction" (D & E) as dilating the mother's cervix for two days, turning the baby to breech position and using forceps the abortionist delivers the entire baby except for the head. He then stabs the baby at the base of the skull, suctions the child's brains to collapse the skull and delivers a dead baby. According to http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/pbafacts.html, Executive Director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers Ron Fitzsimmons, stated that 3,000 to 5,000 partial-birth abortions are performed annually. He also stated that the "vast majority" of partial-birth abortions are committed on "healthy babies of healthy mothers." "Partial-birth abortion is never medically necessary to protect a mother's health or her future fertility. On the contrary, this procedure can pose a significant threat to both," stated former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Expressing concern for the integrity and ethics of the medical profession, Kennedy wrote that PBA "undermines the public's perception of the appropriate role of a physician during the delivery process, and perverts a process during which life is brought into the world." Partial-birth abortion shows a "disturbing similarity to the killing of a newborn infant." Kennedy further acknowledged the special relationship that a mother has with her unborn child that ought to be respected in the eyes of the law. He found "respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child." Many states, including South Dakota, require that women seeking an abortion be fully informed about their choices. Justice Kennedy affirmed those statutes by saying the "state has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well-informed. It is self evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form." While the Court’s decision is good news, tragically other abortion procedures are still legal for all nine months of pregnancy such as “dilation and extraction” or “D & E.” Dismembering the child, the abortionist extracts the child from the mother’s womb piece by piece. He then lays all the pieces—two legs, two arms, a torso, and a head—on a table to make sure he has removed all the parts, usually requiring 10 to 15 passes with forceps into the womb. Another method involves using an ultrasound to locate the baby, and then the abortionist inserts a long needle through the mother's womb and injects a deadly solution into the baby's heart. This method is used for "selective reduction" - aborting babies in a multiple pregnancy that resulted from fertility treatments. No procedure that kills an unborn child should be allowed in a civilized society. What manner of people are we who allow such barbarism? Justice Kennedy called PBA "a procedure many decent and civilized people find so abhorrent as to be among the most serious of crimes against human life." These words and the Court's decision give a glimmer of hope in our national holocaust that has killed 45 million babies since 1973 and left mothers who deeply regret their so-called choice. Concerned Women for America is the nations’ largest public policy women’s organization. Linda Schauer is the state director, a volunteer position, here in South Dakota. Mrs. Schauer is a homemaker/farm wife, mother and grandmother. She can be reached at here.
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