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Why Pain Matters
Part One of Three By Dave Andrusko Editor's note. Good evening and thanks for taking time out of your busy day to read TN&V and National Right to Life News Today. Part Two is an in-depth look at the consolidation within the abortion industry. Part Three is a reader favorite--the pro-life week in review. There is a lot to ponder over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org). Dr. Randy O'Bannon updates you on the expansionary visions of pro-abortionists determined to use techniques that increase the risk to the mothers. Speaker-designate John Boehner celebrates an important victory in the courts in his native Ohio. I write about bogus opinion polls, and we end with a call for prayer from John Smeaton of SPUC. Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.
Sometimes I suspect that the many, many supporters of National Right to Life are not fully aware of how influential NRLC has become. That's partially because for more than 36 years, NRLC has chosen to operate discreetly when necessary to more effectively pursue the case for the unborn and the medically vulnerable elderly in Washington, D.C. Occasionally time and circumstance come together to reveal why NRLC is the most influential single-issue pro-life organization in the world. It's because the Washington, D.C. office is undergirded by the strength of 50 state affiliates. Many of those affiliates came to the Washington, D.C.-area this week to take part in NRLC's State Legislative Strategy Conference. I've written about the meeting, and will again in the January issue of National Right to Life News. (To order extra copies go to www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Nov10/nv110110part3.html. If you are not a subscriber, go to www.nrlc.org/news/subscribe.html.) Every pro-abortion organization knows that almost all the time when effective, promising pro-life legislation gets passed in the states, the fingerprints of the state NRLC affiliate are all over it. So when the Strategy Conference talked about NRLC's priorities for 2011, pro-abortionists and reporters paid attention. (For an overview, see www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Dec10/nv120810part2.html.) At the top of the legislative pyramid are laws modeled after Nebraska's "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." The aftermath of this first-of-its-kind measure, which took effect October 15, is only just beginning. As you recall, the law prevents abortion after 20 weeks gestation based on compelling scientific evidence that by 20 weeks, if not before, unborn children have the capacity to experience pain. The Nebraska abortionist most associated with these ghastly abortions--LeRoy Carhart--promptly announced he was looking for new territory. (As we've written many times, while Carhart gets almost all the publicity, there are many abortionists who perform abortions late in pregnancy.) In rapid fashion, Carhart began plying his trade in Germantown, Maryland and eyeballing property in Iowa and Indiana. Legislators in all three states are prominently discussing introducing legislation along the lines of Nebraska's law. Two other inter-related facets are very much worth emphasizing. Pro-abortionists huffed and puffed about challenging Nebraska's law but in the end thought better of it. They again are making vague noises. From the pro-abortion Women's Health Policy Report, we read this quote. "Meanwhile, the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights has said it is preparing to challenge the Nebraska law in court 'when the circumstances are appropriate,' CRR spokesperson Dionne Scott said." But why the hesitation? It's explained by the first word in the title of Nebraska's law: PAIN-capable. That grabs your attention, of course, but what exactly does that mean? In the decision that upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortions, Justice Anthony Kennedy also discussed the common second-trimester abortion technique: dilation and evacuation. He wrote, "After sufficient dilation [of the cervix] the surgical operation can commence. The woman is placed under general anesthesia or conscious sedation. The doctor, often guided by ultrasound, inserts grasping forceps through the woman's cervix and into the uterus to grab the fetus. The doctor grips a fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the cervix and vagina, continuing to pull even after meeting resistance from the cervix. The friction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus as it is pulled through the cervix and out of the woman. The process of evacuating the fetus piece by piece continues until it has been completely removed. A doctor may make 10 to 15 passes with the forceps to evacuate the fetus in its entirety, though sometimes removal is completed with fewer passes. Once the fetus has been evacuated, the placenta and any remaining fetal material are suctioned or scraped out of the uterus. The doctor examines the different parts to ensure the entire fetal body has been removed." If you are the pro-abortion establishment, do you really want a drawn-out discussion of this? |
