The following is the latest plea to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Take time and search the information, to see where you stand on the issue, and email your legislator. This is written to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is meeting tomorrow:
HB 425 is an amendment about human life. It does not give qualifications or markers that are impossible for a child to reach before the child’s natural developmental timeline. It does not discriminate against the sex of a child, or its abilities, or lack of abilities. The amendment does not give extra rights, but rather gives this one little life the same chance to live, and to have life, that all Montanans have.
A woman’s right to choose, concerns her body. The unborn child is a separate person, with a body of his/her own, and is independent of the mother, although it relies on Mom for nourishment and shelter. And, in all likelihood, remains reliant on the mother for usually the next 18 years.
Will this amendment result in a travesty of justice, where women are questioned by the State for miscarriages and still births, or, will guardians ad litem be appointed to monitor a woman’s actions? There will be no more of an overreach, by the State, of the mother now, as there was before abortion was “legalized”. If a mother is abusing her unborn child by giving it drugs or alcohol, or abusing it in some other way, she should answer for it, and be given help. Consequences should not be different than that of a mother of an abused child that has already been born.
The argument that “abortion would stop violence against women” is a rather two edged sword. Violence may have come to the woman and it may have resulted in a child, but turning around and killing the child does not erase the violence. That child is also a victim, and has now become an unprotected victim. If the married woman and her husband, or unmarried and with a partner, have children, and the partner or husband is abusive, we don’t kill the children that are already born, why, then, are we discriminating against the one that is in the womb? The children should not pay for the mistakes of the parent, or parents. Montana already has too many families with continuing cycles of violence that need help. The violence will not stop; it will just leave one more trauma that they must now deal with-- the taking of the life of their own child.
The decision for an abortion is made under varying degrees of stress and duress. The mother will be forced to make the decision immediately, or within a very short time period. The woman’s focus will be on how her life just fell to pieces. She may be overwhelmed by the idea of motherhood and the necessity to give up part of her life for a child, and have no idea of how she will provide and care for it. The child, however, cannot be erased by abortion, and life does not go on as before. The child is a reality, not an inconvenience that can be ripped, burned or mutilated and thrown away. The abortion would not be the end. Grief will come, along with the overwhelming trauma of suffering and regret, as the mother relives the pain she just put her little one through. Reality sets in as the mother realizes how fragile life is – that when taken, it cannot be replaced, nor can it be given back. An aborted child will never know his or her mother’s love, or touch, or even know human kindness, and the mother will long to comfort that child. Post-Traumatic Stress is a condition that our soldiers suffer after the taking of lives on the battle fields, or witnessing it. We have learned how it affects the lives of the soldiers. Now put yourself in the shoes of a young woman, not trained at all in killing, and have her kill her own child.
The amendment does not establish a ban on contraceptives, unless they would take a life. The most popular form of contraceptive, the pill, has been argued to be both a contraceptive and an abortifacient, and until hard facts come in proving otherwise, it should be viewed as a contraceptive. Science and life experiences have shown that the pill ends in pregnancy 1% of the time and the percentage goes up with the misuse of the pill. Studies show that abortifacient properties are not proven, see: http://www.aaplog.org/position-and-papers/oral-contraceptive-controversy/hormone-contraceptives-controversies-and-clarifications/ We see, that when taking the pill, that if conception has not been prevented—pregnancy results.
Stem cell research would be changed with this amendment. See https://cbhd.org/stem-cell-research/overview The unethical practice of taking a human life to harvest stem cells would not be available. Embryonic stem cell research, while always giving the false hope of promise, has run into many obstacles in being able to produce benefits. Non-embryonic stem cell research has given many benefits to patients, and is the hope for healing.
The life of a child should not be a political ball game. It is not a republican, democratic, libertarian, or Independent issue. We are talking about a human life that is completely independent of mother, but yet dependent on her. It is not her body, but the body of her child. Either we have the freedom that grants us a right to life, and a right to live, or we have no freedom for “all.” Moving the marker on a life timeline, does not make the baby on the far side of it less human. It just makes us less human.
We are not asking you to decide whether a child is a human life from beginning to end, but, rather, that the evidence is there to show that the amendment has merit and should go before the people of Montana for a vote.
