I was very interested to read the heartbreaking letter in last week’s Times by Pastor Tony Pierce. He bemoaned the “terrible and gruesome times we find ourselves in.” I agreed and thought he must be talking about the government ripping children, nursing babies and toddlers away from their parents and caging them in cold detention centers with no one to comfort them as they screamed for their parents.
And, as if that weren’t horrific enough, they kept no data in order to be able to reunite these children with their parents in the future, resulting in thousands still being separated. These actions violated International Laws governing the rights of children. Amnesty International condemned us as guilty of kidnapping and torture. This was truly a “terrible and gruesome” policy!
Imagine my surprise when I read on and found that the event which so horrified Pastor Pierce was not the kidnapping and terrorizing of innocent children but a law in New York which would allow for abortions in the third trimester if the life of the mother were in danger or if the fetus were so compromised that it would not be viable outside the mother’s body.
Does anyone really believe this to be an unreasonable law? Do you know that we currently lead all developed nations in the number of maternal deaths from childbirth? Do we really want to protect the life of the unborn at the expense of the mother and her already living children?
This shouldn’t be a political issue but a medical one. Any decisions about the birth must be made only by the woman and her doctor. Denying a mother this decision treats her as an incubator and not a human with rights over her own body.
And misinterpreting/lying about this law for political gain is shameful!
