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Earlier this month the Maryland Legislature was considering what they called the "Pregnant Person's Freedom Act of 2022" which cleared the way, legally, for infanticide.
It seemed too evil to be true.
It wasn't just another abortion expansion bill, it actually let responsible parties off the hook when a child born alive from abortion is allowed to die or is actively killed, even weeks later due to neglect.
Fortunately, Maryland's Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, was pro-life enough not to approve it---so he vetoed it.
But California is another matter. As it moves its bill to "Permit Infant Death by Neglect," the Governor is waiting to sign it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is insisting this kind of legislation become the global norm.
Be informed, not misled.
Writing for the National Review on Friday, Wesley J. Smith warned of how this is becoming a pattern.
Fortunately, the Maryland bill was killed by their governor.
Smith says, "One blue-state bill that would allow a born baby to be neglected to death might be an anomaly. A second that does that---and perhaps could be interpreted to allow infanticide, also---is a pattern."
"The cultural Left is blazing new grounds of depravity," he says.
Wesley J. Smith is an author and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.
Smith is also a consultant to the Patients Rights Council. In May 2004, because of his work in bioethics, Smith was named one of the nation’s premier expert thinkers in bioengineering by the National Journal. In 2008, the Human Life Foundation named him a Great Defender of Life for his work against assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The bill is beyond belief.
"First," Smith says, "it would seem to create a broad claim for 'people who give birth' to choose not to be a parent that is not limited to not getting pregnant, or in the context of the overall bill, abortion. Somehow, this is called 'reproductive justice' and given a racial tinge."
From AB 2223:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Reproductive justice is a framework created by Black women in 1994 to address the intersectional and multifactored issues that women of color and their families face in society.
(b) Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all people, particularly women and girls, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities in all areas of their lives. At the core of reproductive justice is the belief in the right to bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children we have with dignity and respect in safe and sustainable communities.
(c) A critical part of realizing reproductive justice for people in California is clarifying that there shall be no civil and criminal penalties for people’s actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcomes.
Perhaps that wording just applies to preborn babies or the right not to get pregnant at all.
Smith says he'd hoped that was the case, but it's not. "Nope. It also applies to perinatal outcomes, as well as 'postpartum care.'"
As Smith points out, the Legislature finds and declares that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to personal reproductive decisions, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.
We must assume the bill means what it says.
Here is the key passage:
(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty or otherwise deprived of their rights, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.
No one doubts that California Governor Gavin Newsome will sign this bill. Last Tuesday he signed legislation to make abortion cheaper for patients who have private insurance plans.
All this is a purposeful move to boost California's abortion infrastructure and heavily promote the procedure where its laws are some of the most relaxed in the world.
Specifically, the WHO has issued new guidelines that demand countries legalize abortion without any gestational time limit.
New guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) claim laws preventing abortion at any point during pregnancy risk violating the rights of "women, girls or other pregnant persons."
The WHO document recommends "full decriminalization of abortion" and the scrapping of laws and regulations that "prohibit abortion based on gestational limits" and "restrict abortion" on any grounds.
It says a review of 21 studies found that when women are denied later terminations it "can be viewed as [being] incompatible with . . . international human rights law."
That isn’t all. The WHO also wants to curtail medical conscience rights and permit sex-selection abortion. Specifically, the organization wants to:
- Stop women requiring approval from a doctor or nurse to have a termination;
- Roll out ‘pills by post’ schemes so that women can be sent abortion medication after a phone call;
- Curtail medical professionals’ rights to refuse to take part in abortions on conscience grounds.
Takeaway
It's almost certain this legislation will pass in California. Personally, I believe that will open the door to more of the same in states like Oregon, maybe Washington, and other Democrat-controlled states.
There's a good chance the Supreme Court could overturn, or greatly diminish Roe v. Wade. I pray that will happen.
Conservatives have been actively trying to pass legislation that will counter some of these barbaric activities. In 2019 the US Senate failed to pass the "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act." It not only failed to pass by unanimous consent but also failed to overcome the filibuster. It failed again in 2020.
To this day, the bill has not been able to receive a vote in the Democratically-controlled US House of Representatives.
In 2014 Smith published a book titled, "The War On Humans." In it, he investigates the views of anti-human activists who want to grant legal rights to animals, plants, and "Mother Earth," who want to reduce the human population by up to 90%.
Jeremiah, the prophet, wrote (Jeremiah 1:5): "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet ..."
God knows each of us from before He formed us in our mother's womb. And He has a plan for each of our lives---a plan for good, not evil.
He has sanctified human life, and so must we.
Jesus Christ did not die for the rights of animals, plants, or Mother Earth---He died for humans like me and you because we are made---male and female, in His image and likeness. And we need to be saved from our sins---and from ourselves.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.