Rhode Island Set to Legalize Partial Birth and Late Term Abortions

Tomorrow on January 30th, the Rhode Island legislature will be having a vote on whether to legalize abortion up to birth in the euphemistically named “Reproductive Health Care Act.” The legislation is a radical pro-abortion bill that completely dehumanizes the unborn and would make Rhode Island the 11th state to pass a law allowing abortion up to birth, just days after New York became the 10th.

The contents of the bill are sickening and allow more harm and damage to be done to women. The bill repeals many statutes that criminalize doing harm to an unborn baby or even accidentally killing a woman during an abortion. The new law would make it legal to intentionally or unintentionally kill an unborn child in the womb whether a mother wanted to keep her child or not. For example, if a man assaults a pregnant woman and kills her child, then he could not be held accountable for the murder of the child.

The bill also lifts protections on the mother. It would eliminate the statute of prosecuting any physician who performs an abortion and kills the mother as a result. To make things even worse, the new bill would allow for physicians to perform a partial birth abortion, a practice that Rhode Island refers to as “an abortion in which the person performing the abortion vaginally delivers a living human fetus before killing the infant and completing the delivery.”

In essence, the physician would deliver the fetus half way and kill it before completing the abortion. Partial birth abortions are a complete disregard for human life and is unquestionably murder at this point. The child isn’t even in the womb, but is moving through the vaginal canal. The way that Rhode Island got around this blatant murder is that the bill also eliminates a previous statute (§11-3-4 Construction and application of section 11-3-1) that declared life begins at conception. The Reproductive Healthcare Act intentionally left out a definition as to when life begins, as a way to permit the government sanctioned murder of the unborn during all stages of pregnancy, including up to the day of birth.

The Democrats voting on this bill tomorrow are highly radical and way outside the comfort zone of what most Americans would allow on abortion. In fact, in a recent Marist Poll, pollsters found that the overwhelming majority of Americans support restrictions on abortion. 75% of adults said that abortion should be at the very most, limited to the first 3 months with the plurality of 28% saying that abortion should only be limited to cases of rape and incest. Of the 75% of adults, 96% of pro-lifers and 61% of pro-choicers agreed that abortion should, at max, be limited to the first 3 months.

When separated into political parties 60% of Democrats supported some restriction on abortion up to a maximum of 3 months while 92% of republicans and 78% of independents concurred. Essentially, what the poll finds is that the bill and those who support it are wildly out of touch with the American people and are lacking support amongst the general public, and do not have much supporters among everyday Americans.

The polls also indicate that the pro-life side is the winning side now. The numbers are on the side of life. Biology and science is on the side of life. These radical politicians may win the battle tomorrow, however they are losing the war. The right to life is the most fundamental right and is the precursor to all other rights. It is important to never give up hope and always fight for those who can’t defend themselves.

Call Rhode Island politicians and tell them that the bill is unacceptable and that they should stand for the right to life. Call Senate Majority Leader Michael McMaffrey (401) 739-7576. Call Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere (401) 222-2708. Go visit Planned Parenthood and convince women that there is a better way. Go to your local college campus and preach the virtue of life.

Abortion is the greatest civil rights issue of our time and those being dehumanized have no way to fight back. Therefore it is up to us to stand tall and decry the mass killing of the unborn, just like how the abolitionists stood tall. As Ben Shapiro said in his speech at the March for Life, “righteousness doesn’t have to be popular, it just has to be righteous.” The pro-life movement is righteous and we are the popular ones now. Keep pushing and eventually we will win like those before us who pushed for righteousness.

______________________________________________