Surprising Shift

By Michael F. Flach
Herald Editor
(From the issue of 6/12/03)

The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (see article on page 21). The Senate earlier this year approved the same legislation, paving the way for final approval from President George Bush.

In a surprising cover story entitled "Should a Fetus Have Rights: How Science is Changing the Debate" Newsweek magazine last week allowed for an open and frank discussion on whether a human being should be given rights prior to birth.

"Slowly, but inexorably, the movement to reinfranchise unborn children in law as respected and cherished members of the human family is growing," said Congressman Chris Smith, R-N.J., during an address preceding the House vote.

The Newsweek cover story "shatters the myth that unborn children are somehow less human and less alive than their born brothers and sisters," said Smith. "Indeed a second Newsweek story, ‘Treating the Tiniest Patients,’ noted that medicine has already granted unborn babies a unique form of personhood — as patients."

"Once just grainy blobs on a TV monitor, new high-tech fetal ultrasound images allow prospective parents to see tiny fingers and toes, arms and legs and a beating heart as early as 12 weeks," Newsweek wrote. "But while these images can make parents’ hearts leap for joy, they also pack such an emotional punch that even the most hard-line abortion-rights supporters may find themselves questioning their beliefs."

"Let’s hope so," said Smith. "We have lived in denial concerning the violence of abortion for far too long. We have, however unwittingly, enabled and empowered abortionists to dismember, decapitate and chemically poison more than 43 million innocent and precious little babies since 1973.

"Today we can stop some of this violence against children," he said. "Today we can take one weapon out of the hands of the abortionists."

Cathleen Cleaver, director of planning and information for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, also applauded the Newsweek cover story, but issued a cautionary tone as well.

The story "gave goose bumps to the now half of all Americans who call themselves pro-life — and no doubt chills down the spine of the staff at Planned Parenthood," Cleaver said. Inside the magazine, "beautiful 3-D ultrasound images of the various stages of pregnancy speak volumes, but so do the testimony of parents who were faced with pressure to abort and decided against it."

But Cleaver said there’s a "whopping error" on the first page. The caption accompanying the photo of an unborn child at week 23 reads, "After this week, partial-birth abortion is banned in 40 states." Cleaver said currently there are no enforceable bans on the partial-birth abortion procedure in the United States.

The Supreme Court in Stenberg vs. Carhart (2000) struck down Nebraska’s law against partial-birth abortion, thus, all 31 similar laws throughout the country were rendered unenforceable, she said.

"The Big Lie about partial-birth abortion claims that it is sometimes necessary to preserve a woman’s ‘health’ and so any ban on this procedure must include a health exception," she said. Numerous medical authorities, including the American Medical Association, have testified before Congress that this procedure is never medically necessary, Cleaver said.

"When the partial-birth abortion bill becomes law, abortion advocates will file suit and their documents will be riddled with the Big Lie. Let us pray that judges will be able to see the truth."— M.F.F.

Copyright ©2003 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.