Abortion: Whose Choice is It?
In 1973 the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in the United States. Jane Roe, a single woman who lived in Dallas County, Texas instituted this federal action in March, 1970 against the district attorney of the county.
At the age of twenty-one roe was unmarried and pregnant. She wanted to have an abortion because the pregnancy made it difficult to find or keep employment and she was barely meeting her financial needs. She could not get a legal abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by the pregnancy, and could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction to get a safe, legal abortion. Roe claimed that Texas statutes were unconstitutional and invaded a right possessed by a pregnant woman to choose to terminate her pregnancy. Jane Roe prevailed in the United States Supreme court with a 7-2 decision, which held that the Fourteenth Amendment secures an adult woman the right to have an abortion during the first trimester without an interference by the government, and that during the second trimester the state may limit the right only to protect the woman’s health. This decision has been followed and reaffirmed.
January 22, 2001 marked the 28th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling. The Supreme Court of the United States declared that a new personal right on liberty existed in the constitution – the right of a woman to have an abortion at anytime. On the day of the anniversary President George W. Bush entered into a politically and emotionally charged issue of orders to prevent money from flowing to organizations that provide abortion-related services, even if those services are provided with the agency’s own money. In a statement to anti-abortion marchers Bush said, “We share a great goal, to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in lawâÂ?¦to build a culture of life, affirming that every person at every stage and season of life is created in God’s image.”
Despite the conflict, many doctors still perform abortions year after year. There are four common procedures used.
The D&C or dilation and curettage is carried out before the twelfth or thirteenth week. The uterus is approached through the vagina. The cervix is then stretched to permit the insertion of a curette, a tiny hoe-like instrument. The surgeon scrapes the all of the uterus, cutting the baby’s body to pieces and scraping the placenta from its attachments on the uterine wall. Bleeding is considerable.
Another procedure done during the same time of pregnancy is the suction abortion. A powerful suction tube is inserted through the dilated cervix into the uterus. This tears apart the body of the developing baby and the placenta and sucks the pieces of the baby into a jar. The smaller parts of the body are recognizable as arms, legs, head and so on. More than two-thirds of all abortions in the United States and Canada are done by this method.
The saline abortion or “salting out” is carried out after sixteen weeks when enough amniotic fluid has accumulated in the sac around the baby. A long needle is inserted through the mother’s abdomen directly into the sac, and a solution of concentrated salt is injected into the amniotic fluid. The salt solution is absorbed through the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract producing changes in the osmotic pressure. The outer layer of skin is burned off by the high concentration of salt. It takes an hour to kill the baby. The mother goes into labor a day later and delivers a dead and shriveled baby. Dr. William B. Waddill Jr., an obstetrician in California, was indicted and tried for allegedly strangling to death a baby born alive following a saline abortion.
When an abortion is decided upon too late into the pregnancy to be accomplished by the above procedures, a hysterectomy is performed. This method is exactly the same as a Cesarean Section, with one difference. The Cesarean Section is performed to save the baby’s life. The hysterectomy is done to kill the baby. The babies look like other babies but are small and weigh about two pounds at the end of a twenty-four week period. They are truly alive, but they are allowed to die through neglect or sometimes they are killed by a direct act.
In 1977, a Boston jury found Dr. Kenneth Edelin guilty of manslaughter for killing the product of a hysterectomy. Edelin was the first physician convicted of manslaughter for the death of a baby boy while performing a legal abortion.
On September 21, 1973, a young woman of seventeen years, who was referred to as Alice roe to conceal her true identity, went to the out-patient department at Boston City Hospital seeking an abortion. After a ling examination doctors found she was twenty-four weeks pregnant and granted her an abortion.
On October 1st Dr. Edelin performed a saline abortion which failed. The next afternoon on October 2, 1973, Edelin tried to perform another saline abortion. This one also failed. After explaining the difficulties to Ms. Roe he sought the advice of Dr. James Penza, who told Edelin he would attempt another saline abortion the next morning. Dr. Penza also proved unsuccessful so Ms Roe was scheduled for a hysterectomy. On October 3, 1973 Dr. Edelin performed the hysterectomy.
In the unlikely event that the fetus was living when expelled, it was the policy at Boston City Hospital to send the fetus to the pediatric intensive care unit. Although it was possible for the baby to still be alive Dr. Edelin did not care and he prolonged the procedure with hopes that the baby would be dead when he removed it. After he finally removed the baby he took only about three seconds to test him for signs of life. He stated the baby was dead and gave him to a nurse who put him in a paper box and transferred it to the pathology department. There the baby was examined by Dr. Frank Juliano Fallico, who put the baby boy in a bottle that contained a preservative solution of ten percent formalin to prevent decay. The fetus, in the bottle, was transferred to the morgue on October 5.
The question still remains as to whether or not the baby was born alive and died of neglect, or if it had died in the womb.
In February, 1978 the baby was still in the bottle on a shelf in the Suffolk County medical Examiner’s Morgue. No one would sign his death certificate, so he could not legally be buried.
Dr. Kenneth Edelin was subsequently acquitted by the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Many people say abortion is not murder. Is this belief out of ignorance or denial? The fetus is deemed a human-being, a person at conception. When an abortion is performed a life is taken, they are put to death – the definition of murder.
What is the difference between abortion and a young girl who hid her pregnancy from everyone and went into labor at her high school prom? She had her baby on her own in the restroom and flushed it down the toilet. The difference is that she went o jail for taking her child’s life, but over a million other mothers do the same every year by having an abortion and it’s legal. This gives the insinuation that killing a baby is legal as ling as it’s done in medical surroundings.
God gave us his love and he chose us the moment we were conceived, and we became his child, a child he created with great love. He didn’t wait until we were more than a blob of tissue in the uterus because at conception we were indeed alive. God is the one who gave us life, so shouldn’t it be his choice to end life?
Although the absolute number and the rate of abortions among women aged fifteen to forty-four had declined somewhat in the 1990’s, by 1996 almost half of all women in that age group in the United States had had at least one abortion. Those babies could have changed the world if they would have been given the chance to live. They could have been presidents or doctors, but we will never know because the United States legalized abortion and took away the rights of innocent babies. The law says it is the mother’s choice but deep down even the law-makers know its God’s choice.
