“This right to life cannot be granted or denied by
government, because it does not come from government –
it comes from the creator of life.”
President George W. Bush said those words moments after he
signed into law a bill outlawing partial-birth abortions,
a procedure where the child may be “terminated”
during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, and
even during birth by puncturing the child’s skull.
The bill has been a hot issue for months; less than an hour
after the President signed it into law, one federal court
filed an injunction against it, on the basis that no exception
is mentioned in the law for women whose health may be threatened
during delivery.
President Bush has stated the White House will “vigorously
defend this law against any who would try to overturn it
in the courts.”
I am in full support of the new law. Any legislation that
seeks to protect the lives of others, especially those who
aren’t even born yet, should be supported.
This is not the only legislation regarding the rights of
the unborn that has reached Congress.
Laci Peterson and the child growing inside of her were murdered
almost a year ago. Scott Peterson, her husband, is the murder
suspect and has been charged with two counts of murder, not
one.
Laci Peterson’s family drafted a piece of legislation
calling for crimes against pregnant women to be counted as
crime against both her and her unborn child.
The name of the legislation is the Unborn Victims of Violence
Act and has been endorsed by two Republican representatives:
Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio.
The legislation is similar to Exodus 21:22-25, which lays
down the consequences for anyone who injures a pregnant woman
and, in doing so, injures her child.
Many groups question whether the unborn child should be counted
as a life. If an embryo is nothing more than a complex cauldron
of biological material, then why shouldn’t women have
the right to “terminate” the pregnancy at any
time?
Like President Bush, I firmly believe the person growing
inside of his or her mother is truly a human life, from the
moment of conception (which science tells us is when a child’s
gender is determined) to the day he or she dies.
Science has also been able to tell us that there will never
be another person like you. For as long as the world has
been and still will be, there will never be another Justin
Boulmay or another <insert your name here>.
Every life is unique, “fearfully and wonderfully made,”
as the Bible puts it. Like the President said, life comes
from the Creator.
It is this belief that has led me, and many others, to conclude
that the life and rights of an unborn child should take precedence
over women’s rights in this controversy.
That is not to say that women’s rights should not be
taken into account at all.
This country, sadly, has a history of denying women the rights
due them under the Constitution (women weren’t allowed
to vote until 1920, less than a century ago).
If rights are such a huge issue in this, then shouldn’t
the rights, not only the life, of unborn children be taken
into account, as well?
Children, even for the first few years of their life, are
incapable of defending themselves, which means someone else
has to take on that responsibility until the child can raise
its own voices in their defense.
The U.S. government, I’m happy to write, is doing just
that, and although the fight for this law is far from over,
those who disagree with the practice of abortion have, for
the time being, a reason to be happy.
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