My wife and I have two children, and we had ultrasounds done during each pregnancy. Honestly, to me, the images on the screen looked more like those of an old black and white television after all the stations had gone off the air than those of a baby. I fail to see how looking at these snowy sonograms would convince any woman of the humanity of her preborn child, especially after she has already bought into the lies spewed by the "pro-choice" propaganda machine.
The big problem with this legislation is that it further codifies abortion into law. We don't need more laws on abortion, we need fewer. In fact, we need to wipe out all abortion laws and simply define a person as a human being at every stage of development. The Texas Penal Code already defines a person in this way; it is the regulations on abortion, many of them passed as "pro-life bills," that keep abortion legal. Any bill that ends with some form of "and then you can kill the baby" should never be considered a pro-life bill.
The proper function of government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of each individual human being. This protection should apply to EVERY human being, without regard to stage of development or any other factor (race, gender, etc.). To exclude any class of human beings from this protection is a failure of this principle of proper government.
When will Texas have a legislator who is principled enough to vote against any bill with specifies a legal condition under which one human being may kill another innocent human being? Do we allow parents to murder their teenage children after forcing them to look at baby pictures of those teenagers? Of course not. A person is a person at any stage of development, from embryo to infant to toddler to adolescent, etc. And yet, the powers that be consider this sonogram bill to be a pro-life bill. It is sad that legislators today care more about their one hundred percent pro-life voting record from right-to-life organizations or their endorsements from Texas Alliance for Life than they do about true principles. And what good are those ratings and endorsements when they come from organizations which are defined by 38 years of failure?
If I were a state legislator, I would vote against these current bills and propose one of my own. My bill would eliminate EVERY abortion law and regulation in Texas and would simply define a person as a human being at every stage of development. Abortion would then be treated as any other form of murder. If one would reject the myth that Roe v. Wade gave women a "constitutional right" to get an abortion and really read the majority opinion of the case, especially Footnote 54, one would see that personhood legislation would not violate any mandate of that decision.
It is time for all Texans, but especially our elected officials, to re-evaluate their own principles and to take a stand on those principles. Life is the most basic of rights, and it applies to all human beings. Government has no place in selecting which human beings deserve to have that right protected and which don't...
Dan I agree with you. We are being deceived as they throw us a bone. These are tactics used by the legislature, where they never intend to stop abortion.
ReplyDeleteI understand your point and your frustration.
ReplyDeletePragmatically, we just don't have the public and political will to get the legislation passed that we'd prefer at this time. Until we do, women will be going to these clinics and more babies will be killed. The sonogram will have the effect of stopping the murder of some innocent lives and the potential for educating many people about what abortion really is.
If I were a legislator and knew that by passing this bill lives will be saved that will not be otherwise, I'd have to sign the legislation.
I agree w/ Deborah; we need to educate people. Also, I have known of people who were going to have an abortion until they saw the sonogram image; then they decided they couldn't do it. If everyone has to see the image, how many more people's hearts will be changed?
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough issue because anyone who is pro-life in their heart desires to save as many babies as possible. However, what we have in this Sonogram legislation is a bill that could possibly save the lives of some of the unborn, but the legislation keeps the practice of abortion legitimized. As my 16 year old son identified this morning; if this legislation passes it will satisfy many because they will believe they've done all they can and abortionists will work to find ways around the sonogram law similar to the story in Pennsylvania where the abortionist and his staff found ways around their laws and eventually broke laws to kill babies at will. Let's strip this Sonogram bill down to the bare bones issue and remove all our presuppositions. The baby in the womb is a person guaranteed the same Constitutional rights as all other persons; the only difference is its size, level of development and dependence on others. Let's make this more personal as well; say we are talking about one baby and you are the grandparent, brother or sister, or father of a mother who has chosen abortion for her child, your child, your sibling. What would you want done then? Would you be satisfied with the mother having a sonogram and then making her choice or would you want something more? If you are truly pro-life you would declare that child to be a person; you would fight for its unborn life with everything you had in you; you would not make a compromise in the life of this precious child. It seems to me citizens in the pro-life movement need to grow more bold and stop allowing politicians to hide behind legislation that allows abortion to continue all the while they wave the pro-life banner like they are some hero to be exalted. What would happen if there was a coalition of pro life politicians that stood up and demanded personhood? Well 2 already have in the Senate at the federal level. Governor Perry is pushing this Sonogram Bill in Texas and pro lifers cheer him. Surely folks you see what this is, nothing more than a position that allows Perry to offend neither side, choice or life, but he will wave the banner of
ReplyDeletepro-life proudly all the while an unborn baby in Texas can be aborted up to 30 weeks, all the while Houston, Texas boasts one of the largest abortion facilities in the United States, all the while many millions of dollars are allocated to Planned Parenthood in the Texas budget from year to year. I'm not buying the politics of any of it, pro-lifers need to wake up and get on the side of absolute truth. There is NO COMPROMISE on the issue of life PERIOD! Pro-choice legislation is not pro-life!
Julia Farmer
Thanks Dan.
ReplyDeleteCal Zastrow