Abortion or Infanticide?

Don’t underestimate the significance of the Supreme Court's consideration on the fate of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.

Here’s the problem:  Partial-birth abortion sounds like an abortion, but it looks like infanticide.

Consequently, if this ban is supported, then late-term abortion rights seem much less credible, because butchering a living child fully inside her mother’s womb (D & E abortion) seems just as bad as suctioning the baby’s brains when 2/3s outside her mother’s body (D & X, or partial-birth abortion).

However, if the ban is struck down, then outright infanticide becomes much more credible.  Since the baby is just one contraction away from full birth, why not give one last push, completely deliver the child, then take her life?  Call it a “post-natal abortion”—arguably the safest procedure yet.

Ideas have consequences.

Comments

[Chris]

Melinda - You must have been reading the Supreme Court transcripts from the cases - that's exactly how it's being argued complete with prompting by Justice Ginsberg. Justice Scalia and at times Chief Justice Roberts tend to point this out, but Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginberg seemed determined to make it a completely "safe" procedure - for the "mother". The term "mother" at this point seems completely oxymoronic, and is a overlooked "fact" in their quest for legal certitude. They can't even grace the "fetus" with acknowledgement as a "baby", but the woman is still called a "mother". Just incredible.

I still have to read the second case but the whole first transcript struck me as being completely callous, even on the part of Paul Clement. I couldn't read it through in one sitting (I got nauseous, and I don't easily get sick).

Come six months, we'll truly know where things are heading.

[Cliff Mather]

I like the "Daddy, can I kill this?" illustration from STR. I.e., the only question that matters is "what is it?"

If a fetus isn't a human person, then why not just grind them up into dog and cat food? If you support abortion but find this suggestion morally repulsive, then you might want to ruminate on the reason for your discomfort.

[James Craddock]

Please review this link and do a blog on it!

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37080