I am always surprised when I read the abortion debate continues to focus on when a human life begins. Doesn’t life begin at conception? We no longer can enter the abortion debate with intellectual honesty unless we agree on this one point. The beginning of a human life is the only point supported by science, therefore reality.
What we disagree on is the value of life or the baby’s viability and the woman’s right to access abortion. There is actually three lives involved in a pregnancy; mom, dad and baby. It’s complex and should be. Some state legislation offers the baby protection after 22 weeks because of their viability, and other states seek law to protect a child after their heartbeat is detected because of their value. Most of the states require parents to be notified when their minor child is being advised and considering an abortion.
Vermont, along with eight other states, legislate solely on women’s right to access abortion. Vermont, along with the eight, allows any unknown adult to counsel and transport any unknown pregnant minor to access an abortion without their parent’s knowledge — protected within confidentiality. Because abortion is a right doesn’t mean there should be no limits or no discussion.
Neither mom nor child walk out of an abortion unscathed. If you have never witnessed a late-term abortion, please google and watch one. These abortions come with risks to the woman’s emotional and physical health. Yet, some babies actually survive these late-term abortions. Are they viable/valued now? Then there are partial-birth abortions. At this point the baby just needs to be allowed out of the womb. Are they viable/valued now? The debate isn’t over when life begins, it’s over when we can end a life. H57 has no limits.
Vermont H57
Sec. 2. 18 V.S.A. Chapter 223 is added to read:
CHAPTER 223: REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Subchapter 1. Freedom of Choice Act 11
§ 9493. INDIVIDUAL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 12
(a) Every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization.
(b) Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an abortion.
(c) A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus shall not have independent rights under Vermont law.
Carol Kauffman
Addison