Like the predictability of the change of seasons, social conservative GOP representatives in various State Legislatures have proposed a number of bills in their latest legislative sessions that would restrict, hamper, and even ban outright abortions in their states.
Those same "conservatives" that seek to keep government small and as nonintrusive as possible in the business community's affairs are on a seemingly duplicitous holy crusade, seeking to have Big Brother deny women a choice to abort a fetus and to punish and restrict the freedoms of doctors, social workers, and others who participate in the practice.
This everlasting struggle between pro-life and pro-choice forces continues unabated -- there's no ceasefire in this bloody war. It's a debate that never ends and tears apart the social fabric of our nation.
Lately, anti-abortionist politicians have been successful recently in enacting legislation to wear away at protections afforded by Roe v. Wade, including requiring mandatory ultrasounds, redefining life at the moment of conception, mandating restrictive regulation of abortion clinics, and implementing restrictive regulations that in fact establish defacto restrictions on abortions.
And the epicenter of this acrimonious abortion debate always seems to be Tallahassee. The Florida legislature is awash with the dripping righteousness of religious social conservatives in both parties who have been always hell-bent in making it as difficult to obtain an abortion in the Sunshine State.
This year, there are four anti-abortion bills being considered there by the legislature. One of these bills, representing the anti-abortionist zealot's latest tactic in the abortion wars, is premised on "protecting" the lives of babies actually born during "botched" abortions. HB 1129, proposed by freshman Rep. Cary Pigman, R-Avon Park. His would require doctors to provide reasonable medical treatment and health care to infants born alive during a "botched" abortion procedure.
At that hearing on the bill, it came down to a debate of choice vs. dictum.
When questioned about the law, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Alisa LaPolt Snow told lawmakers that any medical decision to save a fetus during a "botched" abortion should be one made as an individual choice of the doctor, who is already working under ethical standards of medicine, and mother rather than from the dictates of government edict:
Rep. Jim Boyd: "If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?"
Snow: "We [Planned Parenthood] believe that any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.
Pigman argued that the state should be the sole arbiter in protecting the unborn child's existence in such a situation: "In the circumstance of an infant born alive from an abortion, there is at least suspicion that the biological mother may not have the better interest of that born-alive infant in mind."
Abortion is a two-step process. First, a woman has to decide that she wishes to terminate the pregnancy and then, a medical procedure has to be performed to abort the fetus. It's a decision first, and then a procedure to carry out the woman's wishes.
What if you could allow an American woman the continued right to make that decision, and at the same time preserve the life of the fetus? The abortion debate would be over.
It's time for the development of an artificial womb that would allow a woman to terminate her pregnancy, but would ensure the continued development and life of the fetus until it could be "born." As it stands, medical technology and techniques continue to bring down the number of weeks that a premature baby can survive. Unlike 40 years ago when Roe v Wade was decided, it's doable these days.
An initiative to develop an artificial womb, on the scale of our quest to reach the moon, should be undertaken to change this abortion debate. Much like the space race resulted in the development of many technological breakthroughs in a number of varied scientific, engineering, and even philosophical fields and spurred the beginning of the computer age, the development of an artificial womb could see the advent of a new biological age as well and other medical benefits to our society.
If Pigman and other anti-abortion zealots throughtout the nation are truly concerned with saving babies, then they should change their discordant tactics to embrace this constructive, scientific solution toward preserving the lives of fetuses, even from the movement of conception, with an artificial womb.
No more fighting. This spring, the season of birth and rebirth, is the time to start such an initiative.
Steven Kurlander is an attorney and communications strategist in Monticello, New York. He blogs at Kurly's Kommentary and writes a weekly column for The Florida Squeeze. He can be emailed at kurly@stevenkurlander.com