By Jack DeVine
Two weeks ago, relatively unnoticed behind breathless news coverage of the government shutdown and the Pelosi vs. Trump firefight, New York State’s Reproductive Health Act became law. It deserves serious attention.
The new legislation, passed by a wide margin in the state Assembly and signed into law by Governor Cuomo, is a horror show; it’s baby butcher Kermit Gosnell back in business, repackaged, sold and celebrated as a brave and shiny step forward.
The RHA actually has little (arguably nothing) do with reproductive health. It’s a political action, designed to normalize the killing of unborn children. It undermines our common commitment to protecting the vulnerable among us, and it is a chilling indicator that America is backing away from our bedrock principle of liberty and justice for all.
The Act turns reality on its head. In stunning contradiction to common sense, it declares that the tiny infant child in its mother’s womb is not a person; until natural live birth, it has no legal standing, and evidently no moral significance.
Forget everything you know about DNA, beating heart, and sensitivity to pain; in New York, the little child with eyes and ears and fingers and toes, the one squirming about waiting to be born, is not a person at all. He or she is disposable.
In New York, killing an infant in the womb is no longer homicide – even an assailant’s attack that kills a pregnant woman’s unborn child is not considered homicide. In New York, an infant that survives a botched abortion attempt need not be saved; after all, it’s not a person. In New York, those lives don’t count.
In effect, the RHA permits terminating the life of an unborn child at any point during pregnancy. The only fig leaf of legitimacy is that after the 24th week, the abortion must be determined ‘necessary for the mother’s health’ by the attending professional; but with no guidelines or criteria and no penalty for misjudgment, the new law is nothing less than a blank check for the latest of late term abortions, for virtually any reason.
Upon passage of the RHA, Governor Cuomo took the stage like a conquering hero, trumpeting New York’s leadership and urging the rest of the nation to follow. Legislators jumped to their feet with thundering cheers and applause. He then directed that the World Trade Center and major NYC bridges be illuminated in pink, flaunting his triumph to everyone in the city – including those nauseated by their state’s newfound disregard for human life.
Numerous polls indicate that while a majority of Americans consider themselves pro-choice, they also believe that reasonable abortion restrictions and controls are warranted; four of five Americans oppose late-term abortions.
In the real reproductive health arena, there have been amazing strides by modern science and medicine in diagnosis and treatment of tiny infants in the womb – including remarkable procedures such as heart surgery and full transfusions – all with rigorous protection of the mother’s health. Today there are diminishingly few circumstances (some experts say none) in which an abortion is needed to save a mother’s life.
Despite these positive trends, pro-abortion advocates have been pulling the other way. There was the Kavanaugh insanity, setting aside civility, basic fairness and due process in a fierce attempt to block a Supreme Court nominee who might someday take an unfavorable position on Roe v. Wade. In 2018, Planned Parenthood set a new record in number of abortions performed and profits from their grisly work.
In Hollywood (just the place for moral guidance) abortion celebrations are now in vogue.
Late term abortion is one of those issues on which Americans must cut through our divisive politics and start pulling together. Those concerned about children temporarily separated from their illegal immigrant parents can surely recognize that unborn children are also defenseless persons needing protection. Those who maintain that there are too many guns in American should agree as well that 61 million abortions are far too many.
New York’s radical new law and Governor Cuomo’s shameless celebration of it is a blaring wake-up call. All Americans – not just Catholics, not just conservatives, not just Republicans – should stand together in opposition to the escalating barbarity.
I’ve believed for decades that future generations will look back at today’s America – just as we are now looking back 150 years at the atrocity of slavery – and wonder ‘what were they thinking?’.
We kill our young. It’s that simple. And it’s wrong.
Jack DeVine worships in St. Catharine Parish in Spring Lake and also St. Mary’s Help of Christians, in Aiken, SC. He is a retired executive and writes bi-weekly opinion columns for the Aiken Standard and on occasion for other news outlets.