Sunday, January 20, 2013

QUESTIONS WORTH PONDERING - ON THE EVE OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V WADE




Tracy Marciniak, hold the body of her son,
Zacharia. Ms. Marciniak was seriously
injured, and Zachariah killed, by an assault
during her 9th month of pregnancy.

On the eve of the fortieth anniversary of Roe v Wade, a decision which created unimaginable rivers of blood, the media is reporting that more Americans than ever now either oppose abortion or support increased restrictions on it.


This support has led to a record number of new laws aimed at limiting abortions, from informed consent to increased licensing restrictions for abortion clinics, and even made TIME magazine take note in an unprecedented cover story entitled: “What Choice? Why Abortion-Rights Activists Have Been Losing Ever Since Roe v. Wade.”

Ironically, the media also reported that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, during the same period (2011), performed a record high 333,964 abortions, while also receiving a record high $542 million (45% of its revenue) in taxpayer funding.

It certainly makes for a curious picture: record high public opinion opposing abortion and  a record high number of pro-life laws, yet record high numbers of abortions, record high public funding of abortion, and the re-election of a blatantly pro-abortion president along with several new just as blatantly pro-abortion members of congress. What’s up with that?

Sadly, part of the answer can be found in the Catholic numbers. While the nation as a whole is growing in its opposition to abortion, Catholics as a whole are growing in support of it: 60% of U.S. Catholics now support legal abortion and 83% say church teaching does not influence their political choices (Belden-Rusonello Strategists, Oct. 2012).

However, we needn’t have to look to national polls to see this, we only need to look outside.

Guam has the largest Catholic per capita population in the nation. We also have the most liberal abortion laws in the nation and rank 17th in the world in abortions per capita.  According to Guam Medical Records, a child is aborted every 1.2 days, with one out of every ten pregnancies ending up in the clinic trash - 55% of whom are Chamorro.

Curiously, recent local legislative efforts to limit this silent genocide, this daily extermination of the Chamorro, have been mainly opposed by lawmakers who are both Catholic and Chamorro. Again, we must ask: “What’s up with that?”

This past November, a bill which would have criminalized the harming or killing of an unborn child in the event of a violent attack upon the mother was voted down.  The reason given was that the bill did not fully comport with Guam law - something a few simple amendments would have remedied.

However, lawmakers, probably still smarting from the very public brawl over the recent vote on another pro-life measure, quietly placed the bill in the voting file and voted it down without any discussion.

At least one senator was honest about her “no” vote, saying that passage of Bill 409, the UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT, would “harm a woman’s right to choose.” Her reason for saying so was because the bill defined the “child in-utero” as a legal victim, and in so doing, recognized the humanity of the unborn - and we can’t have that, can we.

The bill contained a provision which excluded any application of the terms and provisions of the bill from being applied to a legal abortion. Nevertheless, and even though Guam law already elsewhere defines the unborn child as a human being, and even though science has long since proved this fact, the majority of Guam lawmakers saw this bill as another chink in the armor of Roe v Wade and voted NO.

Ironically, while opponents argued that Bill 409 would harm women’s choice, the bill would have actually increased a woman’s choice: the choice for a woman to pursue an attacker for the damage done to her unborn child or at least see that justice was done.

Suppose the child survives the attack but is born with mental or physical disabilities due to it? If Bill 409 had passed, a woman could have at least sued her attacker for damages and perhaps realized some financial award which could have been used to seek help for her injured child.

Or, suppose the child dies and the mother chooses to bury the child instead of leaving it for the hospital incinerator. Had Bill 409 passed, she might have had legal recourse to at least sue for the cost of the delivery of the dead child, the funeral, and the burial plot.

However, even though federal law and 36 states have accorded women this right, Guam, “Catholic” Guam, said NO.

Why Catholic support for abortion is growing even while the rest of the world is moving in the opposite direction, and why Guam continues to protect an industry which is exterminating the Chamorro population at an alarming rate, are questions worth pondering on this fortieth anniversary of Roe v Wade.
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