NPR affiliate: Banning partial-birth abortion a waste of time
[P]artial-birth abortion has been illegal under federal law for years. Congress passed a ban 8 years ago that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007.
There have been no legal partial birth abortions in Michigan or anywhere else since that time. So … why are the legislators wasting time doing this, in a state with so many other problems? …
By the way, despite what I said, so-called partial-birth abortions are still legal under both this and federal law if that were necessary to save the life of the mother. And neither this ban, nor the federal ban, is saving any fetuses from abortion.
What I am going to tell you isn’t for the squeamish, but is true. A Boston Globe story reported that in cases that formerly might have been a candidate for this procedure, doctors now do one of two things. They first give the fetus an injection in the heart, killing it, or, in some cases, they break its neck in the birth canal, then extract it.
These procedures are apparently fully legal, according to the Supreme Court ruling.
Whatever your feelings about abortion, it seems to be that State Rep. Lisa Brown… had the most rational thing to say about what her fellow lawmakers did yesterday:
“Why are we wasting our time on this when unemployment is higher now – over 11% – than when we took the oath of office? How does this legislation move Michigan forward and lead us to economic recovery?” she asked.
Lisa Brown knows the answer. It doesn’t, one bit. But creating jobs and fixing the economy is hard. Passing a law banning something that is already illegal is easy, and painless.
~ Jack Lessenberry, Michigan Radio, September 22
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Does the person who saw fit to link this article have a rebuttal to what the author is saying?
I posted it. My response would be that I don’t think banning partial-birth abortion really saved lives. Just like banning guns won’t stop murder. Killers will find a new method in which to kill.
The partial-birth abortion debate, however, changed many people’s views on what abortion really does, so it has been useful to some extent, in further cementing the humanity of the unborn child into many of the public’s minds.
Secondly, I think it’s a sad commentary that some legislators are pitting the most basic issue, life, against things like unemployment. If Michigan’s having issues, they can thank pro-abortion, pro-taxation Granholm instead of blaming Republicans like they always do.
P.S. – I almost didn’t respond because it doesn’t matter what the poster of the quote thinks. Quotes of the Day are meant to generate the comments of the blog readers.
Just wanted to add it was my testimony and other women hurt by abortion who had friend of the court briefs filed in this case through Operation Outcry.
http://www.operationoutcry.org
The gruesome details of partial birth abortion were made public as was the testimony of Carhart. THAT helped to turn public opinion against it as well.
The gruesome details of partial birth abortion were made public as was the testimony of Carhart. THAT helped to turn public opinion against it as well.
Amen! It also changed some minds at the CPC where I worked, actually. Most women who came in had no idea that abortion was taking place so late in pregnancy and when they saw info on partial-birth abortion, they were disgusted by it, even if they were abortion minded. It opened the door to discuss with them about how abortion, at any stage, kills a living human being.
It’s not a waste of time, it’s a simple question of should this be legal or illegal? Do you think it should be legal to stab the head of a partially-born child and suction out her brains? Jack Lessenberry doesn’t think there is anything you can’t do to a unborn child, that’s why he opposes it. Can we trust the current administration to enforce federal law? It passed overwhelmingly (in a pretty bipartisan vote, which some would say is too uncommon these days), so tell me why Joan as such a vocal minority partial-birth abortion should not be a crime in Michigan, enforceable by state and local law enforcement? The debate lasted minutes, tell me how this minor aside will cause the economic collapse of a state apparently dependent on it’s state legislature for existence? The Michigan people have spoken over and over on this issue over 15 years, in elections and ballot votes. Case closed, next!
Let us make sure that people are informed that abortionists comply with the law by lethally injecting the child in the womb or by breaking his or her neck. Thank you, representative Lisa Brown for reminding us of this fact.
I approve of what the Michigan legislature did and hope the governor will sign it but they cannot stop there. There is much, much more that they can do to reduce the number of abortions in Michigan. Because most abortions are performed on unmarried women, the state should not pay healthcare benefits for domestic partners of its employees. The state can show favoritism towards relationships that benefit children – and that relationship is called marriage.
And Lisa Brown and Jack Lessenberry just want us to ignore what is going on in Michigan’s abortion centers and hospitals. Our job is to keep pulling back the curtain and exposing these activities to the glare of public view.
This morning a young woman uprooted my “I regret my abortion” and my “Compassion not judgment, Hope not Despair 800-395- Help” signs and threw them on the ground before she entered the abortion center. Women are bearing a heavy burden of grief over mutilating their babies to death – or having them lethally injected under less humane conditions that what the government affords to death row inmates.
Until the abortion industry and its minions work as hard to reduce the number of abortions as the pro-life movement, women will continue to grieve over their abortions.
SO what your saying is that wasting time on this type of grandstanding legislation has the added benefit of making women aware of something that has been illegal for 6 years? So all it is really good for is putting your anti-abortion views in the news while real life families are going hungry due to the recession created by the republicans…
Yea that’s good for America…
And yes Jobs is a life issue, you need food to sustain life and you need a job to by food…
Somewhere in the archives of this blog I made the very same point. And then a few regulars here poo-poo’d me.
“SO what your saying is that wasting time on this type of grandstanding legislation has the added benefit of making women aware of something that has been illegal for 6 years?”
Who is wasting time? Those opposing it or those supporting it?
It seems that it takes longer to haggle over it than to just pass it unanimously without debate. I mean, since it makes no more difference than a resolution commemorating Girl Scouts, why not just rubber stamp it and move on?
Michigan legislators reminding the media and the population about what abortion really does to the child is better than the Obama administration shoving Planned Parenthood down the throats of the people of Indiana, New Hampshire and Kansas (and what ever other states President Obama chooses to bully). I am hopeful to see Right to Life leadership in the effort to defund Planned Parenthood in Michigan.
I would prefer they pass a Personhood amendment, or at least a ban on pain-awareness abortions (as a start).
These efforts are useful in reminding people how horrible abortion is, and as a counter-measure to pro-abort efforts to make abortion into a duty (of women to have them when others decide it is a bad idea for the woman to have a baby at this time, of the government to pay for abortions).
To know abortion – is to despise abortion. And the more people become informed about abortion, the stronger the movement to restore the right to life becomes.
It is only a matter of time.
Kel @September 23, 2011 at 3:25 pm -> excellent.
…
“Why are we wasting our time on this when unemployment is higher”
easy for you to say, scum rep Lisa Brown, you’ve been born. What, you can’t work on 2 things at once?
Lisa Brown takes a piece of gum and puts it in her mouth. Immediately, she is unable to take a step!
Passing a law banning something that is already illegal is easy, and painless.
Okay, is this really the situation? If the new law does not really extend protection that was not there before, then it’s a waste.
Where abortionists formerly used the partial-birth procedure to kill the child they…“now do one of two things. They first give the fetus an injection in the heart, killing it, or, in some cases, they break its neck in the birth canal, then extract it.”
This fact might lead one to believe that the quest to ban partial-birth abortions has all been a waste of time. After all late term abortions still occur at the same rate as before. BUT, it was not a waste…two things indicate the crusade was a great success:
1) If it really was not a defeat for the abortion industry why did they fight so hard against the ban? (To protect the women…oh yeah, right! More like to protect their pocketbook.)
2) All the good fruit that has come to the prolife side as a result of the crusade…
More people made aware of the cruelty of late term abortion.
Many hearts changed on the abortion issue in general.
Politicians have been forced into the open by their votes on the issue.
The bloody hands of the abortion industry are exposed.
Social tension creates energy that moves people to action.
The prolife community itself is strengthened by every prolife win.
Since the prolife movement has made these obvious gains in banning the specific partial-birth procedure we should move on to the next one. Lets start banning each procedure one at a time state by state (or federal) as we can.
I suggest we start with banning the next most heinous late term procedure: “they break its neck in the birth canal, and then extract it”
“they break its neck in the birth canal, and then extract it”
I would like to see the abortion advocates try and defend that in public.