Life In a Heartbeat . . .

Henry McMaster, the South Carolina (SC) Republican governor, is poised to sign the Heartbeat Bill should it reach his desk next year. Having passed the state level House, he anticipates that it will be brought up, debated and voted on next year in the state Senate. Should it pass there as he expects, it will then go to his desk for signage, enacting it as SC state law. (This piece of legislation will continue into next year since SC, as does the typical state legislative session, only runs during the early parts of each calendar year.)

The SC bill is similar, though with some notable exceptions, to the one that recently caused a stir after being passed in Alabama (AL). The AL bill is expected to work its way through court challenges that may then be defeated at the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) That would undercut the hoped for ultimate purpose which is the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the SCOTUS decision that legalized abortion in 1973. The issue has remained one of the most hotly debated in U.S. history.

The Founders stated in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our U.S. Constitution emphasizes specifics. They understood that a Creator created life, and created a right to it.

Pro-life bills are now sweeping the country. What has changed since the passage of “Roe” to cause this? Not surprisingly, the pro-life community has the advances of medical science and technology on its side. The knowledgeable public now knows, for example, that fetuses, or pre-born babies, can feel pain from 20 weeks after conception - at minimum. This has prompted bills such as The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This is a U.S. Congress bill to disallow late-term abortions nationwide from that point on since the child therefore would experience pain during an abortion. This bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but must pass the U.S. Senate before it becomes federal law. Nevertheless, this type of bill is being passed at the state level, reflecting an increasing public concern about abortion itself.

The most recent U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Bret Kavanaugh, stated regarding Roe that he respected “precedent” (what has been decided as law in former cases). But we now have windows into the womb that we did not have at the time Roe was enacted. Technology provides us with 3-D photos, for example, of pre-born children - many sucking their thumbs, one twin hugging another and so on. Such photos give us remarkable images of the child’s facial features, their fingers and toes, and whether the baby is a boy or girl. Furthermore, a number of medical problems can be detected and surgery can be performed while these babies are still in the womb. (You can see actual procedures on YouTube - they are fascinating!)

Such evidence clearly establishes that abortion in 2019 involves a human target. And we must determine as a supposed civilized society whether these new little lives are protected, or whether they can be destroyed and discarded at will. Protecting life at all stages of being is a fundamental policy issue. Those who respect life know this . . . in a heartbeat.