The state Senate passed a bill March 6 that would give Mississippi the earliest ban on abortion in the United States.
Considering the millions of unborn children who have been killed since 1973’s Roe v. Wade, this is another small step in the right direction toward reversing that infamous and erroneous decision that has caused so much innocent bloodshed.
House Bill 1510 had passed the state House 80-31 on Feb. 2, and the Senate approved an amended version 35-14. They will now go back to both chambers to reach an agreement on the small differences in the two bills.
The main aim is to restrict abortions to within 15 weeks of becoming pregnant. Exceptions would be allowed for medical emergencies and “severe fetal abnormality.”
The current legal limit is 20 weeks, although the state’s only abortion clinic, located in Jackson, only does the procedure through 16 weeks.
The owner of that clinic has vowed to sue if the bill passes, according to a Clarion Ledger story, and opponents claim the bill is unconstitutional based on a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found states could not place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions.
Supporters of the bill say it’s being done to protect the health of women because the risks to them during an abortion increase the longer the pregnancy goes on.
Regardless, there is a higher moral question at play that must be addressed in this nation. Are we willing to continue to allow the taking of innocent human life based in most cases on the inconvenience it causes to the mother? Surely we as a country and a civilization can demand better than that.
The argument that women should have control over their bodies is a dodge; the question regarding abortion is not really about what happens to their bodies but to their unborn children’s bodies. The state must stand up to protect the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves.
The legislature describes the procedure done in an abortion after 15 weeks within House Bill 1510: “The majority of abortion procedures performed after 15 weeks’ gestation are dilation and evacuation procedures which involve the use of surgical instruments to crush and tear the unborn child apart before removing the pieces of the dead child from the womb.
The Legislature finds that the intentional commitment of such acts for nontherapeutic or elective reasons is a barbaric practice, dangerous for the maternal patient, and demeaning to the medical profession.”
That reflects our view on this issue.
Physicians are sworn through the Hippocratic Oath to “first do no harm.” There is no way to rationalize that crushing an unborn child does no harm.
Neither doctors nor our government need to sanction that practice. Any restrictions on abortion are a path to reversing Roe v. Wade, which is long overdue.
