The Silent Issue

Gigispen - Yes, Illinois does have a ban on partial-birth abortions. And well it should. It is barbaric to think of pulling a baby halfway out then sticking a tool up the birth canal to open up a hole in the brain to decompress it causing a perfectly healthy baby to be born dead.

However, if you were referring to my piece, I was speaking on LIVE-BIRTH abortions, which are still legal in Illinois. Live-birth abortion is a process whereby the doctor medically induces labor by inserting medication into the birth canal near the cervix causing the cervix to be stimulated and open early. When this occurs, the small second or third trimester pre-term, fully formed baby falls out of the uterus. If the baby is still alive and the mother wishes to hold it, she may take it to what one hospital calls the Comfort Room. If she does not wish to do so, a nurse or staff member may do it. If no one has either the time or the desire to do it, the baby is simply wrapped in a blanket and left in the Comfort Room. According to testimony given at the Illinois State Senate Hearing for Bill SB1661, prior to the Comfort Room, babies were just left in the Soiled Laundry Utility Room to die.

If it sounds shocking, that is because it is. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time skating around real-life ugliness and dressing it up with our high and lofty words. In the meantime, babies are living it, then dying. Nonetheless, being horrible does not constitute fallacy. This is a matter of public record for anyone to read. For that matter, so is Mr. Obama's voting record: http://www.ilga.gov/PreviousGA.asp.

The comments about an unborn child being nothing more than "a small cluster of cells lodged inside another person's body" show what the poster thinks of life itself. Not sure if he/she knows, but this cluster of cells has a heartbeat at 6 weeks. And I am pretty confident the poster knows many abortions are performed after 6 weeks (I would guess most abortions are). Pro abortion folks must have a need to describe an unborn child in such a way to make it easier to rationilze the act of abortion, which kills the unborn. Sounds like getting rid of a cancer the way gigispen describes it, and if that was the case we would all be for that. But that is not what an unborn child is, and the description is most likely dishonest (imo). Per that logic we are just large clusters of cells outside of a body. At least make the argument for abortion what it is. Taking a human life that happens to still be in the womb.

An independently viable individual and an undeveloped fetus are not synonymous. Blacks have always been FULLY HUMAN regardless of how greedy businesspeople and their politician apologists wanted to define them. Imo, your analogy is moronic. Of course, you can believe whatever you choose, that doesn't make you accurate...and I will believe what I choose. God will be the judge--not you. I don't think that you have the title. If so, I didn't get the memo.

Those who oppose abortion are not interested in any balancing act between the rights of the mother and the rights of the fetus. They want to force the mother to go through with an unwanted pregncncy and delivery and then either care for an unwanted child, abandon it or find an adoptive parent. That is controlling what that woman can do with her body and her life. If God wanted to prevent abortions, he can do so at any time he chooses. And he probably does..

Roe v Wade attempts to balance the rights of mother and developing fetus by placing time constraints on a woman's right to abort. Not perfect, but a REAONABLE COMPROMISE., IMO.

Abolition of slavery = respect for individual freedom. Respect for individual freedom = PRO-CHOICE. It's a simple as that..

The whole issue of a fetus being 'viable' is a red herring. Just because it can or can't survive on it's own doesn't mean it does or doesn't have a right to life.

Even a healthy 1 month old baby couldn't survive very long without the care of it's mother, and I'm sure no one would want to extend the same logic to that situation.

That partial birth abortion argument against Barack is totally fallacious. ILLINOIS ALREADY HAD LAW ON THE BOOKS PROTECTING THE LIFE OF ABORTED INFANTS THAT ARE VIABLE AND HE DIDN'T SEE THE NEED TO CHANGE THAT.

But people are free to believe what they choose to believe, to delude themselves and others to advance their own agendas. That doesn't change what God knows.

In my experience as a college-aged pro-life activist, most of us understand that being pro-life is about more than opposing abortion....and many, many young pro-lifers I know are voting Obama in this particular election because they know that in order to stop abortions, we have to fix healthcare and poverty in general. Nevertheless, the democratic party is sorely mistaken if they think we are going to become complacent....we definitely need to fix some underlying causes, but legalized abortion is still killing and killing should never be legal in a civilized society. This issue won't go away anytime soon.

Abortion was not a necessary topic to win the election this time. This time its the title fight , the two most fore front minorities battling it out. Women vs. Blacks, its enough to divide us all nice and evenly. One side you have the race card, the other, womens lib.

Yes life begins at conception but cannot continue on unless the fetus can live outside the wound and techically birth is recorded at the time the infant takes its first breath...The fetus needs to be viable and be able to breathe on its own to be considered born.

I was actually surprised that this topic did not play a bigger role in the campaign. Being a man, sometimes I feel like what I think on this topic doesn't or shouldn't matter. But I think, as a total outsider, that no one WANTS to have an abortion. I don't think that there are a lot of women who use abortion as a form of birth control. But when it really comes down to the fundamental ways of thinking, I think that a lot of people, if put into the situation of rape and getting pregnant, or knowing that a child in the very early stages has many severe problems, cannot bring themselves to put themselves through what lies ahead, and even moreso, to put a child through it. I cannot imagine what a woman would feel carrying the product of a brutal rape inside of her and then bearing that child and not having some unpleasant thoughts at some point about it. Maybe I am wrong and people are just better than that.
But my biggest fascination is that so many of the people who are so protective of this life, think nothing of saying that we should be bombing all over Iraq and Afganistan and killing so many others. If we think that we can ignore the brutal raping and bear a child, then why not forgive the innocent bystanders in a country where we think we should kill those associated with a terrorist?

WITH INSURMOUNTABLE LEADS IN ALL THE POLLS, THE QUESTION IS NO LONGER WHO WILL WIN, BUT HOW BIG OF A LANDSLIDE OBAMA WILL WIN BY: 90%? 80%? 70%? HENCE, IT CAN ALREADY BE DECLARED THAT OUR SAVIOR, BARACK OBAMA, HAS WON AND WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF OUR NEW OBAMACA NATION.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND DEDICATION. WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SMITED THE UNBELIEVERS AND OPENED THE ONE AND ONLY GATE TO HEAVEN. GOD BLESS US, GOD BLESS US ALL.

THE ONLY THING LEFT IS FOR MCCAIN TO DROP DEAD OR CONCEDE ALREADY. WE HAVE WON FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE WORLD!

Whether or not you believe in God...the belief in the sanctity of life is imperative for our survival as a civilization, pure and simple. Anything that erodes that belief will utimately result in the demise of humankind. In the US we are proud to proclaim that "All men are created equal". The acceptability of abortion says a lot about us as a society...inherent in abortion is the belief that some lives are more important than others.

I have heard a lot of arguments from family members, friends, government officials, etc. for abortion. Usually they center around a woman's right to control her own body, and that trumps the right of the unborn baby. I find this argument unconvincing and illogical. We can all argue when "life" begins, but the reality is that no one knows for sure . For that reason, I believe we have to remain on the side of caution and presume that it starts at conception.

I could never support a pro-abortion candidate. For me it is the ultimate issue.

Dear PastorTerrence (et al): Your "biblical" arguments are irrelevant. The "life begins at conception" notion is a religious formulation, and a limited one at that, as many religious people disagree. Either way, since the United States is not a religious dictatorship, your religion has no claim on me or anyone else.

I care nothing for the sayings of your friend in the sky. Keep your religion off my body.

hemi,

I totally disagree with your comments. If what you say is true, then how and why did slavery get abolished? That was a very "personal matter" also. Slave owners felt the slaves were their property and that abolishing slavery was contradicting property rights. But abolition did happen, thank God! Slaves were freed, thank God! And how? Because God fearing men and women of integrity and conviction spoke up and took a stand. They didn't give lame excuses like "I'm personally against slavery but it should be up to each person to decide and not the government" ....now did they? If people truly are Pro-life...why is that? I would assume it's because you believe a human being is being killed. And if that's the case, there is a victim and this isn't just a "personal matter" like whether or not to have cosmetic surgery or laser surgery. Our laws protect innocent victims. Babies are the vicitms of abortion.
Young Hickory, I agree some Republicans could do more also. But Bush and others have at least made sure our taxpayer money no longer supports this bloodshed and that the barbaric partial birth abortion is banned, and that we have parental consent laws in many states which have proven to reduce abortion by as much as 30% in some states. Obama has pledged to his lucrative pro-abortion friends to get all those restrictions removed through the "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA) he said he will sign. That is dangerous and divisive. But it's also hypocritical of people like you to just blame republicans because every time a new justice is to be picked you liberals scream murder that Bush (or other Republican presidents) will put a "litmus test" on those justices concerning this issue. You can't have it both ways.