We cannot separate moral, scientific and logical truth from our actions
if we are to succeed. The truth is the truth. It cannot be ignored or
denied. For this reason, the pro-life movement, by our statements that
life begins at conception and ends at natural death, will succeed.
Mention of a person or group or a person's or group's publication does not constitute
an endorsement of all the work, publications and/or information of such person or
group. Unless otherwise noted, pictures are for illustrative purposes only.
In his 1986 book entitled "50 Questions on Abortion, Euthanasia and Related Issues,”
Professor Charles E. Rice comments on a landmark turn of events in the history of
the pro-life movement. It happened in 1981 after eight years of growth and progress
toward "restoration of the principle that all human beings are persons entitled under
the Constitution to the right to live.” Professor Rice records that there were not
yet sufficient votes in the federal legislature for "any constitutional amendment
restricting abortion.” Instead, Senator Jesse Helms (R, NC) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R,
IL) introduced the Human Life Bill.
Says Professor Rice:
The HLB would have used Congress' power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment to define,
as a matter of law, that all human beings are persons from conception. Unlike a constitutional
amendment, the HLB required only a majority vote in each house. President Reagan,
newly elected in the 1980 landslide, was on record as supporting it. The HLB had
momentum and there was a strong prospect that it could be enacted.
Here, however, is where the movement's history takes a decisive turn. Lobbyists claiming
to represent the pro-life movement refused to support the HLB and instead supported
a proposed constitutional amendment that "was a repudiation of the personhood concept
through which the pro-life movement had achieved increasing success.” Although the
amendment did not pass, the "controversy split the pro-life movement.” Professor
Rice opined that part of the movement "will be likely to busy itself with endless
efforts, in state legislatures and in courts, to restrict abortion but only to whatever
extent might be permitted by the Supreme Court. The goal of restoring personhood
to the unborn child will be quietly abandoned."
In the 27 years since that book was written, a litany of intended restrictions have
been enacted by Kansas legislators trying to stay within limits permitted by the
Supreme Court: limiting taxpayer subsidy for post-implantation killing of preborn
babies to purported cases of rape, incest, and pregnancy endangering the mother's
life; limiting killing of preborn babies late in their fetal lives to purported cases
of pregnancy causing substantial irreversible impairment of maternal bodily health;
limiting killing of partially born babies to purported cases of pregnancy endangering
the mother's life; requiring information offerings both to mothers considering post-implantation
abortions and to the public; criminalization of violence against the unborn other
than acts of violence performed or procured by the mother; diminished funding for
Planned Parenthood; limiting killing of babies statutorily designated as pain capable
to purported cases of pregnancy causing substantial irreversible impairment of maternal
bodily health; requiring that parents or a judge approve a minor's request to have
her baby killed after implantation; licensing baby killing facilities; prohibiting
the killing of preborn babies for purposes of gender selection.
As Professor Rice comments, it is pointless to disparage those who think it a matter
of being practical "to accept some legalized abortion while trying to save some lives
by enacting piecemeal protections.” We do, however, also agree with the professor
when he writes that this allegedly practical approach is "not only wrong but futile
and so is any pro-life movement which engages in such bargaining and brokering with
the right to life... Abortion and euthanasia involve an ultimately religious choice
as to who is in charge, God or man,” and the pro-life movement "should seek nothing
less than the conversion of the American people to belief in God and to obedience
to His law.” CLICK HERE FOR ACTION ITEM LINKS.
