Abortion bill more worthy of efforts

Local columnist

link Rube Render

In a recent edition of the “Journal of Medical Ethics” two Oxford University medical ethicists argue that “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.”

This leads them to the conclusion that parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed, as ending their lives is no different than an abortion.

Whenever some print media covers the abortion issue, they always put scare quotes around the “so called” partial-birth abortion. One reason they do this is that to call the killing of a fully formed baby in the birth canal what it actually is would be murder. Several states have passed legislation that bans abortion after 20 weeks and the New Mexico Legislature attempted it once again during its just-completed 60-day session.

House Bill 390, a late-term abortion ban that barred abortion after 20 weeks, sponsored by Rep. Yvette Herrell, easily passed the House but died in the Senate Public Affairs Committee.

An attempt by Sen. Bill Sharer to “blast” the bill out of committee to the floor of the Senate, died along a party line vote, with all Democrats voting no except for Sen. Pete Campos.

New Mexico senators who would deny a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks should be asking themselves how they would vote on a bill to ban abortion after nine months.

In addition, the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe should increase its support for anti-abortion legislation. Allen Sanchez, a spokesman for Arch Bishop Michael Sheehan, touts his work with the Catholic Bishops in advancing such important legislation as banning cockfighting in New Mexico, reform of the scholarship lottery and repeal of the food tax. While these are all worthy efforts, the banning of abortions after 20 weeks should take precedence over any of those endeavors.

England, the country that gave the world the Magna Charta and our foundation of common law has abandoned any claim it had to being a defender of the weak and defenseless. Kermit Gosnell, a Pennsylvania physician who was convicted of murdering three infants who were born alive during abortion procedures, would feel right at home there.

The article listed above is, “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva. Google it.

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at:

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