Wednesday, December 5, 2012
This is a question that comes up a lot when you start to talk to people in depth about abortion. I have found personally that many people aren't really aware of the real facts and laws about abortion. Many people still think that abortions are only legal for a certain period of time early on in a pregnancy like in the first and possibly second trimesters. Many think that late term abortions are still illegal at least in most states. So it is extremely shocking to many to find out that indeed abortion is actually legal up until the very moment of birth for any reason and in all 50 states.
So I wanted to make this blog post to help show others briefly what the laws say and to show. As well as that is not just something that Pro-lifer's are making up to try and further our views on the matter. I'm offering just a short summary of the cases here. I won't go into all the legal wording and points of both cases due to time, however I will post links at the end of the post to where if you can find transcripts and the actual audio from both cases if you would like to learn more about them.
Almost everyone has heard of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in all 50 states in the U.S. in 1973, but many have never heard of and aren't even aware that it wasn't the only case that the Supreme Court ruled on in 1973 to legalize abortion. Roe v. Wade actually had a companion case called Doe v. Bolton whose decision in fact was handed down on the same day as Roe on January 22, 1973. The way that the cases were presented and ruled on made it to where Roe actually legalized abortion by ruling that a right to privacy under the >clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion. But that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health. Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this by tying state regulation of abortion to the trimester of pregnancy.
The Court later rejected Roe's trimester framework, while affirming Roe's central holding that a person has a right to abortion until "viability" which they ruled to be "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid", adding that viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks. Now what Roe didn't legalize Doe came in and finished. Doe v. Bolton (again that was decided on the same day as Roe) removed the rest of the restrictions that Roe didn't legalize by it's broad definition of "health" in the life of the mother exception. In the court's opinion in Doe stated that a woman could obtain an abortion even after "viability" if necessary to protect her health. The key to this is their very broad definition of health which they defined as follows...
Wednesday is late term abortion day at Orlando Women’s Center (the clinic where I had my abortions 12 years ago). When I first started visiting the sidewalks of abortion clinics to pray and minister, I had no idea that late term abortions were even legal. I remember hearing about the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2007 and assumed (like most) that this stopped abortions late in a woman’s pregnancy.
Shock can’t even begin to describe my feeling when I first counseled on late term day. “These girls are so pregnant,” I kept thinking to myself. Of course that’s silly since there’s no such thing as being a “little pregnant”, but I couldn’t get over the size of their beautiful bellies so full of life. These women have felt their babies kick. Many of them even know the sex of the child and this is sometimes the reason for the abortion. These girls have carried these babies for six months. They are more than halfway done!
I just cried and cried. I couldn’t even speak at first. Not only is the size of their bellies overwhelming but the hardness of their hearts is just as shocking. I began to think about family members, friends, and co-workers of these girls who know they are pregnant. Is our society so lacking of accountability that they will return to their lives and no one will think this is a problem?
This past Wednesday my friend John posted a picture of a girl who arrived at OWC to abort her twin baby girls. She already had daughters and didn’t want anymore. She was about 20 weeks along, but because she was pregnant with twins, she had a big belly. Within a few hours, the picture went viral. I began to get phone calls and emails from friends who had no idea abortions like these happen. Many offered financial help and many offered to adopt her babies. Thousands of people all of over the world were praying that this girl would change her mind…and thousands were saying the picture was a hoax or that what she was doing was illegal.
I found myself repeating over and over again, “Abortion is legal in America up to the day you give birth.” In fact, in our nation’s capital, there are two doctors who “specialize” in abortions this late in pregnancy. One of those doctors has been working with a suspended license for several years. The Partial Birth Abortion Ban only stopped the use of that procedure late in a woman’s pregnancy. Now, as long as the baby is dismembered before removing him or her from the womb, it’s perfectly legal. Look up the laws in your state. Keep in mind that in any state that has exceptions for the health of the mother, this can mean that if a woman has bad heartburn that’s a threat to her health. A late term abortion starts around $2,000 and can go up to about $15,000 depending on how far along a woman is in her pregnancy.
I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. They have piles and piles of hair shaved off of Jews in the concentration camps. They have millions of pairs of shoes belonging to children who were killed simply because they were Jewish. The pictures of thousands of dead bodies piled on top of each other are shocking and appalling. At one point I decided I couldn’t look anymore. I was disgusted that this could happen without a revolution rising to overthrow a government that would accept murder as status quo.
I know it’s controversial to say this, but abortion truly is the holocaust of my generation. What if we had the bodies of 50,000,000 babies piled on top of each other in a museum somewhere? What if we took all of the clothes they will never wear and toys they will never play with and you had to pay to see them? If each of us had to watch a late term abortion, surely there would be a revolution, right? After the Holocaust ended, German civilians were taken to Buchenwald concentration camp to see the atrocities that happened there. Over and over they were heard saying, “We didn’t know.” Now, because of the internet and social media, we have no excuse for ignorance. The hands of America are covered with blood…perhaps her eyes and ears are covered as well.
The girl I mentioned earlier ended up aborting the twin girls in her womb even though we had every kind of help she would ever need ready for her. She admitted that she didn’t want girls and that she had no compassion for the babies she was carrying. Through a two day process, she actually had to go into labor and deliver her sweet babies into a toilet. Abortions like these happen all over the country every day. I hope that this girl’s picture made many so outraged that they are provoked to do something. When I spend hours on the Planned Parenthood sidewalk alone, I want to cry out “WHERE IS THE CHURCH?”
This article shocked me even though I knew that things like this do go on all the time but knowing it and reading about the details of it and seeing the picture makes it really hit home even more. This kind of story is playing out all over our country everyday. There countless free programs out there to help mothers with crisis pregnancies, as well as crisis pregnancy centers that offer life giving assistance to women and their children free of charge, there are positive solutions and options available to every woman. And every woman and child deserves better than abortion. There are so many loving people that are praying and waiting to adopt a baby who would love those children that others want to abort with all their hearts as their very own. But there are those out there who like this woman have bought into the lies that have been spread and poisoned so many women's and men's minds in the U.S. since the legalization of abortion, that abortion is a quick and easy fix to their problem.
That is why it is more vital than ever to try to get the truth out there and to stop being silent about this issue! It's time to stop worrying about about being politically correct and worrying if by telling the truth that can save women from so much pain and save so many lives we might hurt someone's feelings. We need to be thinking more about that while we remain silent and don't talk about abortion that close to four thousand more children will continue to be killed in the U.S. everyday and being silent and choosing to ignore the problem is not going to stop it. Make no mistake we will all answer for our actions one day whether we do good or whether we do evil and if we knew to do something good and don't we will answer for that too. This is truly a life or death issue and everyone is needed to help speak out and help to change people's minds and hearts by showing them in a lovingly way the truth about what abortion really is and does. Help pregnant women and their children by showing them that there are healthy and good alternatives that will help them and their babies to live happy lives and that abortion is not the answer. It only hurts the mother and kills the child. Don't be silent any longer you never know just how many lives you can truly change and how many lives you just might save by talking to others about abortion and helping them to see the truth.
There are other ways that each and every one of us can help fight abortion you can call and write your elected officials and tell them to ban abortion and to Defund Planned Parenthood from getting federal funding and using your tax dollars to pay for and further abortion. There are even several organizations that have already done most of this leg work for you and you can easily send these messages to your elected officials both locally and federally by filling out pre-made forms on these issues see these great tools at http://capwiz.com/sbalist/home/ and http://takeaction.aul.org/action/
Every life matters and every life can be touched and transformed by the actions of another. Please come back Thursday for a special post about another thing that many don't realize and maybe have never heard. I'm going to be posting about how both Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton were both based upon lies, deceit, manipulation, and according to one of the plaintiffs fraud from start to finish. It's no surprise that the main stream media has tried to keep this under wraps for so long but its past time that the truth was known and that people really start to see just how corrupt and unjust these laws were and how they were equally and unjustly passed.
The Court later rejected Roe's trimester framework, while affirming Roe's central holding that a person has a right to abortion until "viability" which they ruled to be "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid", adding that viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks. Now what Roe didn't legalize Doe came in and finished. Doe v. Bolton (again that was decided on the same day as Roe) removed the rest of the restrictions that Roe didn't legalize by it's broad definition of "health" in the life of the mother exception. In the court's opinion in Doe stated that a woman could obtain an abortion even after "viability" if necessary to protect her health. The key to this is their very broad definition of health which they defined as follows...
| "Whether, in the words of the Georgia statute, "an abortion is necessary" is a professional judgment that the Georgia physician will be called upon to make routinely. We agree with the District Court, 319 F. Supp., at 1058, that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health." |
With their very liberal and broad definition of health in light of all these factors that they ruled made it to where any condition that might impact a woman's physical, emotional, psychological or financial well being could be used to obtain an abortion. This effectively wiped out the viability restriction of Roe as well as paved a clear path for abortion on demand for the full nine months of pregnancy.
Let's make that doubly clear just so there is no confusion on that matter their definition and clause of accept in the "health or life of the mother" is not what many think that it means. It does not mean that a woman's life must be in extreme danger as one would logically think by that phrase. No, not at all by the Supreme Courts definition it means she can state any reason that might hinder her well being in anyway as a grounds for an abortion. For an example she could state that she would be put under extreme emotional stress due to financial situations because of the pregnancy etc. and therefore the pregnancy is endangering her emotional and physical health. Another example of how easily this can be manipulated is the mother could say that she is going through psychological problems such as depression or anxiety and the pregnancy is making the condition worse and is therefore damaging to her health. Sickeningly if a woman even said that she had bad nausea and heartburn that could qualify her for an abortion legally. The courts extremely broad and virtually interminable definition of the health of the mother restriction is in reality as you can see no restriction at all. It has allowed abortions to be available to women up until the very moment of birth for truly any reason. In essence Roe opened the door and Doe broke down all the rest of the restrictions and barriers for abortion that were left and that allowed for the system that we still have in place today of abortion on demand and for any reason up until the moment of birth.
I want to share this article that I read several months back on LifeSiteNews.com . It was written by Kelly Clinger and she graciously has gave me her permission to re-post it here. Thank you so much Kelly. Please read this and please share it with others people need to know that things like this are still going on every day all over the U.S. and it's a perfect example of how women are getting late term abortions for any reason.
Twenty weeks pregnant with twins, but last week she had an abortion
by Kelly ClingerLet's make that doubly clear just so there is no confusion on that matter their definition and clause of accept in the "health or life of the mother" is not what many think that it means. It does not mean that a woman's life must be in extreme danger as one would logically think by that phrase. No, not at all by the Supreme Courts definition it means she can state any reason that might hinder her well being in anyway as a grounds for an abortion. For an example she could state that she would be put under extreme emotional stress due to financial situations because of the pregnancy etc. and therefore the pregnancy is endangering her emotional and physical health. Another example of how easily this can be manipulated is the mother could say that she is going through psychological problems such as depression or anxiety and the pregnancy is making the condition worse and is therefore damaging to her health. Sickeningly if a woman even said that she had bad nausea and heartburn that could qualify her for an abortion legally. The courts extremely broad and virtually interminable definition of the health of the mother restriction is in reality as you can see no restriction at all. It has allowed abortions to be available to women up until the very moment of birth for truly any reason. In essence Roe opened the door and Doe broke down all the rest of the restrictions and barriers for abortion that were left and that allowed for the system that we still have in place today of abortion on demand and for any reason up until the moment of birth.
I want to share this article that I read several months back on LifeSiteNews.com . It was written by Kelly Clinger and she graciously has gave me her permission to re-post it here. Thank you so much Kelly. Please read this and please share it with others people need to know that things like this are still going on every day all over the U.S. and it's a perfect example of how women are getting late term abortions for any reason.
Twenty weeks pregnant with twins, but last week she had an abortion
Wednesday is late term abortion day at Orlando Women’s Center (the clinic where I had my abortions 12 years ago). When I first started visiting the sidewalks of abortion clinics to pray and minister, I had no idea that late term abortions were even legal. I remember hearing about the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2007 and assumed (like most) that this stopped abortions late in a woman’s pregnancy.
Shock can’t even begin to describe my feeling when I first counseled on late term day. “These girls are so pregnant,” I kept thinking to myself. Of course that’s silly since there’s no such thing as being a “little pregnant”, but I couldn’t get over the size of their beautiful bellies so full of life. These women have felt their babies kick. Many of them even know the sex of the child and this is sometimes the reason for the abortion. These girls have carried these babies for six months. They are more than halfway done!
I just cried and cried. I couldn’t even speak at first. Not only is the size of their bellies overwhelming but the hardness of their hearts is just as shocking. I began to think about family members, friends, and co-workers of these girls who know they are pregnant. Is our society so lacking of accountability that they will return to their lives and no one will think this is a problem?
This past Wednesday my friend John posted a picture of a girl who arrived at OWC to abort her twin baby girls. She already had daughters and didn’t want anymore. She was about 20 weeks along, but because she was pregnant with twins, she had a big belly. Within a few hours, the picture went viral. I began to get phone calls and emails from friends who had no idea abortions like these happen. Many offered financial help and many offered to adopt her babies. Thousands of people all of over the world were praying that this girl would change her mind…and thousands were saying the picture was a hoax or that what she was doing was illegal.
I found myself repeating over and over again, “Abortion is legal in America up to the day you give birth.” In fact, in our nation’s capital, there are two doctors who “specialize” in abortions this late in pregnancy. One of those doctors has been working with a suspended license for several years. The Partial Birth Abortion Ban only stopped the use of that procedure late in a woman’s pregnancy. Now, as long as the baby is dismembered before removing him or her from the womb, it’s perfectly legal. Look up the laws in your state. Keep in mind that in any state that has exceptions for the health of the mother, this can mean that if a woman has bad heartburn that’s a threat to her health. A late term abortion starts around $2,000 and can go up to about $15,000 depending on how far along a woman is in her pregnancy.
I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. They have piles and piles of hair shaved off of Jews in the concentration camps. They have millions of pairs of shoes belonging to children who were killed simply because they were Jewish. The pictures of thousands of dead bodies piled on top of each other are shocking and appalling. At one point I decided I couldn’t look anymore. I was disgusted that this could happen without a revolution rising to overthrow a government that would accept murder as status quo.
I know it’s controversial to say this, but abortion truly is the holocaust of my generation. What if we had the bodies of 50,000,000 babies piled on top of each other in a museum somewhere? What if we took all of the clothes they will never wear and toys they will never play with and you had to pay to see them? If each of us had to watch a late term abortion, surely there would be a revolution, right? After the Holocaust ended, German civilians were taken to Buchenwald concentration camp to see the atrocities that happened there. Over and over they were heard saying, “We didn’t know.” Now, because of the internet and social media, we have no excuse for ignorance. The hands of America are covered with blood…perhaps her eyes and ears are covered as well.
The girl I mentioned earlier ended up aborting the twin girls in her womb even though we had every kind of help she would ever need ready for her. She admitted that she didn’t want girls and that she had no compassion for the babies she was carrying. Through a two day process, she actually had to go into labor and deliver her sweet babies into a toilet. Abortions like these happen all over the country every day. I hope that this girl’s picture made many so outraged that they are provoked to do something. When I spend hours on the Planned Parenthood sidewalk alone, I want to cry out “WHERE IS THE CHURCH?”
This article shocked me even though I knew that things like this do go on all the time but knowing it and reading about the details of it and seeing the picture makes it really hit home even more. This kind of story is playing out all over our country everyday. There countless free programs out there to help mothers with crisis pregnancies, as well as crisis pregnancy centers that offer life giving assistance to women and their children free of charge, there are positive solutions and options available to every woman. And every woman and child deserves better than abortion. There are so many loving people that are praying and waiting to adopt a baby who would love those children that others want to abort with all their hearts as their very own. But there are those out there who like this woman have bought into the lies that have been spread and poisoned so many women's and men's minds in the U.S. since the legalization of abortion, that abortion is a quick and easy fix to their problem.
That is why it is more vital than ever to try to get the truth out there and to stop being silent about this issue! It's time to stop worrying about about being politically correct and worrying if by telling the truth that can save women from so much pain and save so many lives we might hurt someone's feelings. We need to be thinking more about that while we remain silent and don't talk about abortion that close to four thousand more children will continue to be killed in the U.S. everyday and being silent and choosing to ignore the problem is not going to stop it. Make no mistake we will all answer for our actions one day whether we do good or whether we do evil and if we knew to do something good and don't we will answer for that too. This is truly a life or death issue and everyone is needed to help speak out and help to change people's minds and hearts by showing them in a lovingly way the truth about what abortion really is and does. Help pregnant women and their children by showing them that there are healthy and good alternatives that will help them and their babies to live happy lives and that abortion is not the answer. It only hurts the mother and kills the child. Don't be silent any longer you never know just how many lives you can truly change and how many lives you just might save by talking to others about abortion and helping them to see the truth.
There are other ways that each and every one of us can help fight abortion you can call and write your elected officials and tell them to ban abortion and to Defund Planned Parenthood from getting federal funding and using your tax dollars to pay for and further abortion. There are even several organizations that have already done most of this leg work for you and you can easily send these messages to your elected officials both locally and federally by filling out pre-made forms on these issues see these great tools at http://capwiz.com/sbalist/home/ and http://takeaction.aul.org/action/
Every life matters and every life can be touched and transformed by the actions of another. Please come back Thursday for a special post about another thing that many don't realize and maybe have never heard. I'm going to be posting about how both Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton were both based upon lies, deceit, manipulation, and according to one of the plaintiffs fraud from start to finish. It's no surprise that the main stream media has tried to keep this under wraps for so long but its past time that the truth was known and that people really start to see just how corrupt and unjust these laws were and how they were equally and unjustly passed.
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I don't understand how even people who seem well-meaning and kind are often so blind to this issue. I pray that the veil be lifted from their eyes and that they see this unspeakable crime for what it is. Also that they feel the grief they should feel over the loss of such an unimaginable number of lives.
ReplyDeleteAny country that allows abortion is at war with itself. In principle, according to the laws existing now, all American women could kill off all their children before birth and that would be the end of the nation. And yet abortion supporters will say theirs is the true American way.
It is so false and evil and destructive on so many levels.
Hi Aura all I can say to your comments are AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am attempting to share your story on my facebook page. I am providing necessary credit and hope facebook does not remove it. Several comments have been circulating from last nights debate ridiculing Trump about abortions occurring at 9 months and that they do not occur.
ReplyDelete