Can you tell me why abortions are like ?the Holocaust,? but letting the pregnant women die is not?
State Rep. Dick Jones (R-Kan.)?of Topeka said this week that abortion is ?a Holocaust against fetuses.? And he opposes a procedure used in approximately?8 percent of Kansas abortions.
Roe v Wade says?a woman has the right to have an abortion at any time if she faces life or health risks.
The 1992 US Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey?allows further restrictions on abortion, if they do not place an ?undue burden? on women.
?Undue burden? seems to be lost on the extremely conservative Kansas lawmakers. What if a woman needs an abortion, because she has heart disease or a comprised immune system?
What if she is hemorrhaging? What if?the placenta is embedded?in the uterine muscle or it grows over the cervix?
What if the fetus has died?
Is a woman’s death an undue burden? Dick Jones doesn’t seem to care.
What if the woman waited until later in her pregnancy, because she couldn’t afford to travel the long distance to a clinic? States have passed more than?500 laws?restricting access to abortions.
Once again Kansas is the alpha test site for ultra-conservative legislation. This time the?National Right to Life Committee?wrote the bill for state legislatures.
The bill under consideration is outlawing dilation and evacuation (D&E) of the fetus and preventing physicians from using forceps or like instruments.
The national abortion rights people feel that banning abortions after the doctor can detect a heartbeat, between?41 and 47 days, is too broad. And it would be doomed to failure this go around.
The?House Federal and State Affairs Committee held a voice vote to advance the legislation written for them.
Those against the bill argued that the?Kansas legislature just might not be physicians. And without that M.D. degree, they might not be?capable of regulating medical procedures.
They also charged the politicians of having other motivations. Let me guess. Religion?
Anti-abortionists call this ?partial birth abortions,? but this is not the name of any known medical procedure. They are actually referring to D&E.
The use of ?partial birth abortion? is just one of the many cruel phrases used in the well-funded propaganda campaign against abortion. “Holocaust” is simply one more word with sharply-whetted cutting edges.
