Once again, abortion is a hot issue in this year’s election. As always, there will be no real discussion involving facts, only crazy accusations. An old saying is, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” I will try to put some facts in this article, but I have little expectation that it will change anyone’s mind. Most people will not take the time to read the entire article, so I will provide information out of order.
The decision by the Supreme Court to overturn the “Roe v Wade” decision only returned to the states the legal right to decide on what if any restrictions are placed on abortions within their state boundaries. The voters in each state set any or no restrictions by majority rule.
During the debate, Kamala Harris promised that as President, she would get “Roe v Wade” reinstated as a federal law that would control all the United States. So, what would that require under the US Constitution? It would have to be done like all other federal laws become laws. A Bill would have to be drafted in the House of Representatives and passed by the majority in the House before it could be sent to the Senate. There are 435 members in the House, so at least 218 would have to vote yes on the Bill to be sent to the Senate. How would the Bill be worded? No wording in the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision could be used for a new law.
The Supreme Court’s “Roe v Wade” decision was based on assumptions and creative thinking that other privacy rights contained within the Amendments could be carried over to the right of privacy for a woman to terminate her pregnancy. That decision in January 1973 had no legal basis but was a political action by liberal Justices on the Supreme Court. Seven Justices voted for and two voted against the decision. Before that decision, Congress had never passed a law allowing legal abortions during any time of a pregnancy and no President had taken any action that would have provided any legal right for abortion.
If a Bill does get drafted using wording that could hold up to court tests and approved by at least 218 members of the House, it would then require 51 Senators to vote for the Bill for it to be approved. Then the President would have to approve and sign it to become a federal law that would override existing state laws. When Kamala was asked, what limits she would approve for up to what month, she did not answer. She implied that abortions only are done in the first trimester, not beyond three months. That is the problem, they do not want to go on record that they accept terminating the baby’s life even late in the pregnancy.
The Republican-led Congress first passed laws banning “partial-birth abortion” in December 1995, and again in October 1997, but they both were vetoed by President Bill Clinton. The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, enacted November 5, 2003, is a United States law prohibiting a form of late termination of pregnancy called “partial-birth abortion“, referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction. Under this law, any physician “who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both”. The law was enacted in 2003, and in 2007 its constitutionality was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart.
In the House, the final legislation was supported in 2003 by 218 Republicans and 63 Democrats. It was opposed by 4 Republicans, 137 Democrats, and 1 independent. Twelve members were absent, 7 Republicans and 5 Democrats. In the Senate, the bill was supported by 47 Republicans and 17 Democrats. It was opposed by 3 Republicans, 30 Democrats, and 1 independent. Two Senators were absent, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), a supporter of the bill, and John Edwards (D-NC), an opponent of the bill. On November 5, 2003, after being passed by both the House and the Senate, the bill was signed by President George W. Bush to become law.
Kamala also said that currently, if a woman has a miscarriage hospitals will not provide her medical care. Her statements are not correct, and it is easy to find out what restrictions exist for each state. Kamala is making statements to get women to vote for her on a single issue that she cannot deliver even if she becomes President. If she wants a federal law that allows abortions with no time limits like the eight now, that would be next to impossible.
The states that allow for late-term abortions with no state-imposed thresholds are Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont. All states have exceptions and allow late-term abortions when pregnancy threatens a woman’s health, physical health, and/or life. The exception of “physical health” permits abortion when the woman suffers from a “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” In the following states, the pregnancy must threaten the mother’s life to permit a late-term abortion: Idaho, Michigan, and Rhode Island. In the following states, the pregnancy must either threaten the mother’s life or health to permit a late-term abortion: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Virginia, and Washington.
Almost without exception, when someone is making the case for legal abortions, they use the same three circumstances; rape, incest, and the life of the woman. Exceptions by state are listed above and they can be changed by the legislatures in each state. In this day and time, most of us know someone who was not conceived and born in the best of situations. Unplanned pregnancies are not new and sometimes cause life changes and struggles. Some families might never adjust to a child conceived from rape or incest, but that child could be loved by adoptive parents. However, those cases are so rare and do not impact the millions of abortions done over the past fifty years. The discussion about terminating a pregnancy because the baby may have disabilities after birth, I will simply say will only be raised by someone with a different belief than mine.
https://christianliferesources.com/2021/01/19/u-s-abortion-statistics-by-year-1973-current/
https://www.hli.org/resources/partial-birth-abortion/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/late-term-abortion-laws-by-state
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