May 15, 2015: Del Rio News-Herald * OPINION * Letter to the Editor * Dismemberment abortions banned
Letter to the Editor,
Dismemberment Abortions Banned
On April 7, Kansas became the first state to ban abortions by a
procedure known as “dilation and evacuation,” and called “dismemberment
abortion” in the law.
This abhorrent procedure is common during
second-trimester abortions when the pre-born babies are four, five or six
months along in their development.
Pro-life advocates say the legislation is an opportunity to save pre-born babies from a horrific procedure which rips the arms and legs off of children in their mother’s womb because there is scientific evidence that documents the developing child feels pain.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said he was proud to sign this bill that protects life “at its most vulnerable stage” and noted bipartisan support because the Kansas House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 98-26, and the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 31-9.
The legislation, known as the “Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act”, bans physicians from “knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off.”
The law contains an exemption for medical emergencies or when a pregnant mother’s life is in danger. The law allows civil action against physicians who perform dismemberment abortions in violation of the law, but it also makes it clear that a woman who seeks a dismemberment abortion is not liable under law.
Pro-life advocates lament that the abortion debate has become disconnected from the reality of abortion when abortion activists denounce this legislation as an assault on women’s reproductive rights because it is denying health-care access to women and accusations of legislative misogyny because it is hindering women’s ability to make decisions.
Abortion proponents are completely ignoring
scientific evidence that a pre-born baby at this stage of development is a
human being with a heartbeat, brainwaves, all of their organs and fingerprints
and not merely a clump of tissue or “parasitic fetal material”.
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart , indicated such legislative bills should be passed by the states by describing the type of late-term abortion involved as “brutal” and finding that the state has an interest in both protecting the integrity of the medical profession and “to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.”
On April 13, Oklahoma became the second state to ban dismemberment abortions when Governor Mary Fallin signed it into law after being overwhelmingly approved by the House and Senate.
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart , indicated such legislative bills should be passed by the states by describing the type of late-term abortion involved as “brutal” and finding that the state has an interest in both protecting the integrity of the medical profession and “to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.”
On April 13, Oklahoma became the second state to ban dismemberment abortions when Governor Mary Fallin signed it into law after being overwhelmingly approved by the House and Senate.
Currently the dismemberment abortion ban is
under consideration in the legislatures of Missouri and South Carolina.
Permitting injustice inside the womb leads to permitting injustice
outside in the world.
Marian Casillas, Ed.D.