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Disclaimer: The opinions stated in this piece are not necessarily the opinions of Maryland Students for Life. We provide this article as an educational aid for pro-life interests but do not imply official endorsement of the author's views. For more information on our stances, see the About Us page.
Unpublished column submitted to the Diamondback April 19, 2007
Thomas Baummer
A Ray of Hope
In a world that sometimes seems beset by violence, one news article
Wednesday stood out as a ray of hope, of hope that the culture of violence and
death which sometimes seems to be engulfing our world might be weakening. Near
the bottom of the main page of CNN’s website was the headline “Supreme Court
upholds late-term abortion ban.” The article was referring to the 5-4 decision
handed down by the Court which found that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was
not unconstitutional.
Partial-birth abortion is a grisly procedure which is opposed by approximately 70% of Americans, as found by two Gallup-CNN polls in 2003. More recently, a Fox News poll in March 2006 found 61% support for a ban, and in July 2006, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 76% of Americans favor a ban on partial-birth abortion when not necessary to save the life of the mother. That the Supreme Court, after 34 years, is finally willing to allow a ban on a particular abortion procedure shows that our government does respond to the will of the people and that we as a nation have not completely lost our moral compass, and the ability to say that some things are just wrong.
Partial-birth abortion is used after 4 or 5 months of gestation, and numerous doctors, including some abortion providers have testified that it is never medically necessary; this was a point of debate which was important to the Court’s ruling. In 1997, Ron Fitzsimmons, then executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said of partial-birth abortion, “In the vast majority of cases, the procedure is performed on a healthy mother with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along.” What follows is a brief description of partial-birth abortion. Since it is such a gruesome procedure, readers sensitive to graphic violence may wish to skip to the next paragraph. To conduct an abortion by this method, the abortion provider—usually guided by ultrasound—grasps the child’s legs with forceps and pulls them into the birth canal. The baby—which can feel pain by week 20—is then delivered breach until only the head remains in the womb. The abortionist then sticks scissors into the child’s skull and the brain is sucked out. This allows the skull to collapse, and the dead baby is then removed from the womb.
We should all be able to oppose such a crime. We demand better treatment for livestock; how can we commit such acts of violence against our fellow human beings? Congress first tried to ban partial-birth abortion in 1996 and 1997, but both bills were vetoed by President Clinton; the current law was passed by Congress in 2003, and signed by President Bush, but was prohibited from going into effect, pending the outcome of this case.
The problems with abortion are widespread. It claims the lives of 3,500 babies each day in this country alone, and causes countless women to be injured physically or emotionally. Abortion is not a free choice for reproductive health; it is a sign that society has offered women no other choice. Up to 80% of women say they would have kept their child if they had been supported by family and friends. What is perhaps abortion’s most subtle effect is that it creates a culture of death, a culture in which human life, human dignity is not valued. We are surrounded by it with our violent movies and video games, rape and sexual assault in our communities, and the objectification of women on the internet, and we are drowning in it!
Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling shouts like a siren that the violence must be reined in, that if we are to continue to thrive as a society then we must be firmly grounded by our respect for human life, and that the document which has guided this country for the past 218 years does not guarantee the unconditional right to abort a human life.
Used by permission.
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