Republicans in the California State Assembly are backing innovative legislation aimed at reducing abortions statewide. Assembly Bill 1009 — aka the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2008″ — would require “abortion clinics to offer pregnant women information and counseling on fetal pain prevention prior to performing an abortion,” according to a circular outlining the background and purpose of the bill. Women at and beyond the 20th week of pregnancy would have the option of approving “anesthesia [for] the unborn child so that he or she will not experience pain during the abortion procedure.” The bill’s text and status can be viewed at www.assembly.ca.gov/Benoit.
Documentation supporting the legislation is compelling. “There is substantial evidence that an unborn child has the physical structure necessary to experience pain 20 weeks after fertilization. For this reason current law protects these children from experiencing pain in prenatal surgery by injecting the unborn child with anesthesia.” If an unborn child is shielded from pain during a medical procedure, how about an unborn child about to be dismembered? One commonly used abortion method, dilation and evacuation, “uses a clamp to grasp the unborn child’s body parts at random and pull them out, finishing with the head after it is crushed.” Ah, the humanity of it all.
The reasonableness of AB 1009 is further strengthened when the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958 is reviewed, a law requiring “that all methods of slaughter must be ‘humane’ and ensuring ‘all animals are rendered insensible to pain’ before being slaughtered. In addition the Animal Welfare Act outlines practices for procedures specifying that practitioners must ‘ensure that animal pain and distress are minimized’ when administering ‘care, treatment or practices.’” To date, cows, horses, dogs and cats fair better in the slaughterhouse or on the vet’s operating table than many babies in their mother’s wombs. It’s high time we changed that. Or, is it?
The unstated but fundamental goal of AB 1009 is not to make abortion comfortable for the child, but to change the mother’s mind about having an abortion at all. According to a key Assembly-member’s staffer, “If this bill passes it will allow women to learn that the child they are about to abort has the possibility of feeling pain and maybe that will have an impact on if they have an abortion or not.” A worthy goal to be sure, but other possible outcomes of AB 1009 are not so attractive.
First, reliance on a comparison with about-to-be slaughtered animals reduces the unborn child’s status to the point of insignificance. To argue “if anesthesia is good enough for Bessie or Fido it’s good enough for little unborn Johnny or Sally” denies the image of God infused in all humans beings. Unborn children are not cattle, and are deserving of far better than a humane execution.
Second, AB 1009 is in the unintended yet damnable position of making abortion palatable. Granted, it is possible some mothers may be awakened to the reality of that within them being more than in-viable tissue, a lot more. However, other mothers may very well have their consciences soothed upon learning their unborn (child, tissue, blob-of-flesh-not-unlike-a-cyst) will not experience a smidgeon of pain. One can almost hear abortionists offering such a balm. Those of us opposed to abortion, considering it murder, dare not diminish the outrage. If one-year-olds were being put to death at their parents’ whim, would we petition for legislation requiring painless annihilation? Removing pain in the aborted child does not end the wrong of abortion, but may make it more acceptable to mothers and abortionists, a contrivance we must never be associated with.
While agreeing with the ultimate goal of AB 1009 — preserving the lives of unborn children — we cannot subscribe to its method. No amount of anesthesia or any other salve alters the fact that untold millions of human babies have been systematically, legally and ruthlessly butchered since Roe v. Wade became law, a nightmare continuing while you were reading this post. Participating in such madness is not an option, no matter how noble the goal. The only fitting course of action is to end America’s national shame by ending abortion. When it comes to innocent human life, there can be no compromise and no accommodation.
In coming months you may be asked to sign a petition placing AB 1009 on the ballot. Don’t sign it. If AB 1009 gets on the ballot, vote no. Do everything you can to bring about the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and let the children live.
