LETTERS

A call to lead charge 'against culture of death'

Posted 2/6/19

To the Editor: Last week, the New York State Senate passed, and Governor Chris Cuomo signed, what can only be characterized as the most barbaric abortion law in the history of western civilization. This is not hyperbole. Paradoxically termed the

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LETTERS

A call to lead charge 'against culture of death'

Posted

To the Editor:

Last week, the New York State Senate passed, and Governor Chris Cuomo signed, what can only be characterized as the most barbaric abortion law in the history of western civilization. 

This is not hyperbole. Paradoxically termed the “Reproductive Health Act,” the legislation allows for abortion until the day of delivery. If this is not ghoulish enough, the new law enters uncharted territory in two additional ways. 

First, physicians no longer need to be present when an abortion is performed. How this is in the best interest of women’s “health” is anyone’s guess.

Second, and perhaps even more ghastly, the law removes any protection for infants who exhibit the downright stubbornness of surviving an abortion. That’s right, these living, breathing babies are granted no legal protection after they are born, and those in attendance are under no legal requirement to treat the baby when he/she survives this unspeakable process! 

And how did state legislators react to the passage of legislative infanticide? With congratulatory high fives and the lighting of the World Trade Center in pink. Is all this, as Governor Cuomo says, truly in the name of “women’s’ equality”?! We have heard in recent months that it is “immoral…to rip a baby from its mother’s arms” at the border. Apparently, it is now “immoral” only if the baby is being cared for. Taking measures to ensure the death of the same baby is now cause for celebration in New York. 

Throughout the next few weeks, publicly traded US corporations will announce earnings for the fourth quarter of 2018. At Planned Parenthood, profits from abortions make for bullish optimism. For every adoption the agency facilitated in 2018, they performed 82 abortions, or 911 per day. It is clear that “parenthood” is not the end game of any “plan” for this cash cow, which raked in $1.46 billion in income and $98.5M in profits in 2017. Meanwhile, congress has turned a blind eye to such largesse as American taxpayers coughed up $1.5 billion in combined Medicaid and Medicare tax dollars to this organization from 2013 to 2015, a time in which fewer cancer screenings and breast exams were conducted (low margins, don’t you know) but more abortions (higher margins). 

Simply put, Planned Parenthood has degenerated into an evil hedge fund that exploits women at the most vulnerable time of their lives, while proudly proclaiming its history which is rooted in the racist Eugenics movement of the 1920s and 1930s.

Regarding this concept of evil, 18th century Irish parliamentarian Edmund Burke said it best: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

I call upon good men on the national stage such as Congressman James Langevin, as well as good local men like state Senators Mark McKenney and Mike McCaffrey, all fellow Bishop Hendricken graduates, to lead the charge against a culture of death and see to it that New York values never, ever become Rhode Island values.

Thomas G. Harkins

Warwick

Comments

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  • Spartacus

    And here we have another of an endless procession of men who think they have a right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. Forced birth is an anti-American denial of a woman's right to bodily autonomy, end of story. The culture of Misogynist Tyranny denying women's civil liberties needs to be stopped. And the slander against Planned Parenthood, a vital women's health provider, is simply inexcusable.

    I call upon the good men on the national stage to stop tyrannizing the bodies of women.The anti-Liberty, anti-American proponents of Forced Birth and their culture of tyranny are a disgrace to this nation.

    Thursday, February 7, 2019 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    making abortions illegal just makes criminals out of those who get them. the state has no rights in moral questions.

    Thursday, February 7, 2019 Report this

  • davebarry109

    We don't need to make all abortions illegal. But late term abortions are abhorrent and should be illegal. We need to make abortions unacceptable.

    Thursday, February 7, 2019 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    davebarry, so it is a bigger societal question and not a legal question. You need to change attitudes and not laws. Good luck with that.

    Friday, February 8, 2019 Report this

  • KimLorene

    This bill is NOT for women who simply change their mind in the 8th month. If you believe that, you haven't read the bill. If I ever find myself pregnant, and my health is at stake (I could die) or there is no fetal viability, I will be happy this law exists. Some women would choose not to terminate, and that is their right to choose that. But, I should also have the same right to save my own life or not put myself through giving birth to a still born baby.

    Get it yet?

    Friday, February 8, 2019 Report this

  • JohnStark

    So it is now "misogynist tyranny" to request that a baby surviving an abortion be treated with medical care? It is "misogynist tyranny" to ask that a doctor perform an abortion rather than, say, an auto mechanic? Whatever happened to a "...decision between a woman and her doctor"? Occasionally, the far left stumbles into temporary moments of honesty. This is one such time as the extremism of the abortion industry is on full display.

    When feminists marched around in silly pink hats it was, at least, entertaining. My wife and daughter were amused as one highly educated, affluent, white woman after another demanded "equality!!". They are horrified and bewildered, however, that the definition is now equated with post-birth abortion.

    Monday, February 11, 2019 Report this

  • Cat2222

    Just this weekend a friend of my was faced with this reality. She had carried her child with zero issues until 24 weeks. She already has a beautiful and healthy 3 year old. I can't tell you how devastating it was to the couple to find out that the child would be born brain dead. Literally months of anticipating only to have every dream and expectation come crashing down.

    They spoke with their doctors, family and friends. What would be the best course of action. In the end, they made the choice that was right for them. It was a deeply personal and gut wrenching decision. My friend was in induced labor from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening. She finally gave birth to her child, who was brain dead and not breathing. They had a few moments to spend with their daughter and say goodbye. They are now moving into to the grieving process.

    I want you all to understand that she made a choice for herself and her family. It was her choice to make. Not the government. Not the neighbors or the church. It was hers alone. This is what late term abortion is about. Not oops I made a mistake and want to get off this ride.

    According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions after 21 weeks make up less than 1.3% of all abortions in the United States. This means that abortions that occur beyond 24 weeks make up less than 1% of all procedures. There are many reasons why women may need to access abortion later in pregnancy, including maternal health endangerment, diagnosis of fetal abnormalities or restrictive laws delaying earlier access to abortion care. Those exceptionally rare cases that happen after 24 weeks are often because a fetus has a condition that cannot be treated and will never be able to survive -- regardless of the gestational age or trimester.

    Stop treating this issue as if you all have the answers and have the right to make a final judgement on behalf of someone else. I would expect people to use their intelligence and logic to connect the medical dots that are being presented instead of thinking every woman is looking for a way out of pregnancy and is taking the easy way out.

    I saw from first hand experience that there was NOTHING easy about what my friend just went through. The absolute devastation that has consumed this family is difficult to watch and the government should not be telling them how to handle her body or baby. The word abortion needs to stop being associated with women of loose morals or disregard for life.

    Not your body. Not your choice.

    Monday, February 11, 2019 Report this

  • davebarry109

    KimLorene....the bill does give a woman the right to end her pregnancy at any time up to and including birth. You are the one not reading it correctly. And a woman always has had the right to an abortion to save her own life. That has never been an issue in RI. Even Catholics do not deny a woman that right.

    Tuesday, February 12, 2019 Report this