Abortion

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Texas highest criminal court claims unborn child is protected life

The Criminal Appeals Court of Texas this month ruled that killing an unborn child can be prosecuted as murder. Terence Lawrence was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail for killing his pregnant girlfriend and their 4-6 week unborn child in 2004. In Lawrence v Texas, the plaintiff Lawrence complained to the court that abortion laws prevent him from being charged for the unborn child’s death. In a resounding pro-life decision, the court ruled that state laws giving unborn children protections do not conflict with the Supreme Court ruling Roe v Wade that allows a woman to abort her unborn child. This is a significant decision nationally.

Their bodies, their lives
Abortion is valuing one innocent life over another

By Jonathan Saenz, Attorney, Free Market Foundation’s legal division, Liberty Legal Institute

All women, including unborn women, are valuable and have rights. Gianna Jessen is one of those women. She was burned inside and out with saline solution for 18 hours because her biological mother chose to abort her at 71/2 months pregnant. Gianna was left with cerebral palsy as a result of the oxygen she was deprived of during the attempted abortion. She is now running marathons, and she thrives on life. Rebecca Kiessling, who was conceived in rape and is now a successful attorney, will also tell you that she is glad her mother's choice to abort her was ultimately unsuccessful. Gianna and Rebecca are now doing their part to educate people about how something so beautiful, the gift of life, can come out of a not-so-normal circumstance.

They came to mind last week when I read Susan Wail's March 10 column, "Our bodies, our choice."

Our laws punish acts of one's own body in cases such as prostitution, public lewdness and the sale of one's own human organs. The reality is, though, that human life begins at conception, a fact usually conceded by pro-abortion advocates and supported by scientists, physicians and medical textbooks; abortion is the intentional killing of that innocent human life. In saying "whether you believe that life begins at conception or at birth is really not the issue," Ms. Wail quickly dismisses this point as irrelevant, because it destroys the basis of her argument (choice) and exposes the faulty logic she and others use to support it.

A baby's value should not be dependent upon its location – inside or outside the mother's womb. The unborn baby is a distinct, separate human being, as it has its own unique set of DNA from the moment of conception. It can have a different gender and different blood type, but it definitely has a separate brain and central nervous system. Within 18 to 24 days after conception, the baby's heart can begin beating. At six weeks after conception, brain activity can be recorded, and fingers and toes are present on the baby's feet and hands. All of this typically occurs even before a mother knows her baby is growing within her womb.

It is troubling that Ms. Wail has cited Margaret Sanger as some kind of heroine to women for "family planning." This is the same Margaret Sanger widely regarded as a supporter of eugenics and racism, and whose concept of family planning is that "the most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it" (Women and the New Race). This language sounds strikingly similar to that of current Princeton University professor Peter Singer, who believes it may be permissible to kill a baby even after birth because the baby may have a lack of self-awareness.

The reality is that valuing one innocent human life over another is simply inhumane, as I hope mankind has learned from the recent sins of slavery and the Nazi Holocaust, just to name a couple.

Women need all the correct facts. A Woman's Right to Know, produced by the Texas Department of Health, is a great resource for such facts and can be found at www.dshs.state.tx.us/wrtk/pdf/ booklet.pdf .

The bottom line is that abortion takes the life of an unborn human being and, therefore, abortion should not be used as a form of population control. We should do all we can to support the sanctity of innocent human life. Otherwise, who's to say that your life is more valuable than mine? Is that a choice that you are willing to let someone else make?

Free Market Foundation is a non-profit, Texas organization dedicated to protecting the freedoms of all Texans and strengthening families. Our mission is to keep you politically informed.

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Other Articles on Abortion

U.S. Supreme Court Hears First Abortion Cases in Five Years

Other Web Resources

http://www.texaspregnancy.org/index.html