In Theory: Arkansas bans common abortion procedure

The state of Arkansas last month passed a law banning a common abortion procedure that critics and pro-choice advocates say is the safest method of ending a pregnancy, Reuters reports.

Arkansas Act 45, signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson Jan. 26, prohibits dilation and evacuation, a procedure employed in the second trimester of pregnancy. Anti-abortion activists have called the procedure “‘barbaric,’ requiring the ‘dismemberment’ of the fetus.”

The law, however, does not provide an exception for rape or incest and potentially allows a woman’s spouse or parents to sue an abortion provider, even in cases of spousal rape or incest, the Daily Beast reports.

Q. What are your thoughts on Arkansas Act 45? Should a woman’s spouse or parents be allowed to stop an abortion through legal means?

In the first place, let’s not forget that abortion is never a safe procedure for the fetus (the child) in the womb. In fact, every “successful” abortion terminates a life. In the abortive procedure of dilation and evacuation the woman’s cervix is dilated and then a cannula (tube) attached to a bottle and a pump is inserted into the uterus. The fetus is then torn apart by the vacuum and extracted. Often forceps are used to extract any fetal body parts the cannula did not. A barbaric dismemberment indeed, which no civilized society should ever tolerate. The state of Arkansas was right to ban the practice. God told Jeremiah, “I formed you in the womb” (Jeremiah 1:5). What a marked contrast to a man who rips apart a life in the womb!

In the case of a minor, the parent should be allowed to stop the procedure. The child, even though pregnant, is still under the parent’s authority. And the child in the womb is a much the husband’s as it is the mother’s, so he should be allowed to stop the abortion of his child. Psalm 127:3 says that “children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” If a woman doesn’t want the child she should at least give it the chance to be nurtured and loved in the arms of adoptive parents.

Pastor Jon Barta
Burbank

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Let’s put Arkansas Act 45 into context, coming at a time when abortions in the United States have been steadily decreasing every year since the mid-1980s and are now performed at a substantially lower rate than before Roe v. Wade in 1973. Two-thirds of abortions are performed in the first eight weeks and nearly 90% before 12 weeks, so the act’s limit on second trimester abortions will apply to a relatively small number of cases, often in which the fetus or the mother has insurmountable medical issues.

You would think that the anti-abortion movement who see themselves as pro-life would rejoice at the steep decline in abortions and enthusiastically support the main cause of that decline: better contraception methods more widely available.

Instead, and perhaps because they see their issue disappearing, they seek more and more extreme abortion laws. Arkansas’ has only a limited exception for the health of the mother, and even allows the perpetrator of rape or incest, aka the so-called father, to block an abortion.

I believe abortion is for the pregnant woman to decide, as is whether to seek the opinion(s) of anyone else in her life. No woman wants to have an abortion, trust me. No decision is more private and personal, and deserving of Constitutional protection.

Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose

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To begin, there is no “safe” abortion; it’s always fatal. People forget that the whole point is to end a human life. If no abortion occurs, the child is born normally in the same manner as all of us who sit here now discussing how to “legally” kill her. The messiness of this particular procedure is also especially profane; it’s the stuff of horror movies, only it’s real. The baby is about the size of your hand at this point, and the abortionist tears her apart with forceps until all that’s left is her head; he crushes that then vacuums. Next, he reassembles her lifeless parts to make sure there isn’t a hand or other remnants left in the womb. This procedure has rendered women infertile and even dead despite its common use everywhere throughout our sinful country.

If we are mindful that what we are talking about is a living person, then rape and incest do not change that fact regardless that neither mother nor child had any say in the conception; ergo, it’s immoral to consequently grant the stronger victim a right of “choice” to kill the weaker merely to relieve everyone’s unsolicited responsibility toward a birth. Now, I believe in one exception, and that would be when it truly boils down to a life-and-death situation between mother and child; you always defer to the mother (for obvious reasons) but choosing this must be a grave matter of rarity that should astound us.

As for fathers and parents having rights regarding their genetic offspring, it seems to me fully sensible. All this talk about how it’s only the woman’s decision to kill her husband’s unborn child makes no sense to me, nor how a teenager can sneak off without consent and risk her own life while aborting her parent’s grandchild; it’s all modern legal perversion!

God said, “I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being” (Genesis 9:5). Who is on the Lord’s side?

Rev. Bryan A. Griem
Tujunga

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Women of childbearing age need access to well-regulated, medically safe contraception and abortion. Laws such as Arkansas Act 45 are an assault on the autonomy of women. I think we should trust women who face unwanted or problematic pregnancies to work with medical professionals to make their own decisions rather than have the government act on behalf of a religious minority who want to impose their views on everyone through laws such as Act 45.

Those who, in the name of their religious scruples, claim to want to reduce abortion should focus on making contraception and sex education as accessible as possible. Colorado provides inter-uterine devices and long-term birth control implants to teenagers and poor women. Consequently, the birthrate among teenagers fell by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, and the rate of teen abortions fell by 42 percent, as documented by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. A similar decline occurred among unmarried women under 25 who have not finished high school.

The best way to reduce abortion is to follow Colorado’s lead. In order to achieve the goal of every child a wanted child, I support the provision of contraception and abortion through Medicaid for all or single payer national health insurance. The fact that the same politicians who impose restrictions like Act 45 often oppose the Affordable Care Act gives lie to their claim to be “pro-life.” The best way to support a truly pro-life ethic is to demand that healthcare become an American right, not a privilege.

I choose to belong to a pro-choice denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Assn., because as a humanist, I want to defend our democratic freedoms by preventing the adherents of any single religious belief system from imposing their rules on others. My annual contribution to Planned Parenthood is in the (electronic) mail.

David L. Hostetter
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills
La Crescenta