The Democratic Abortion Extreme:
Unrestricted Abortion Without Exceptions
Comments this week have put the
issue of abortion at the forefront of our national dialogue and have led some
people to decry the Republican Party Platform by erroneously stating that it
would ban abortion even in cases where the mother’s life is in jeopardy or in
the cases of rape and incest.
Earlier this week, the Republican platform
committee met and endorsed the adoption of a Human Life Amendment to protect
unborn children and reverse Roe v. Wade. The platform endorses the principle of a
Human Life Amendment, but does not support a particular version of the various
Human Life Amendments that have been put forward over the years, some which
have included exceptions for the life of the mother and in cases of rape and
incest. Additionally, the platform
support of reversing Roe v. Wade
would simply return the decision to the states – where it was prior to 1973.
In 2005, the Guttmacher Institute,
the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, issued a report that showed rape
and incest abortions account for 1% of all abortions. Another indicator of the
small number of rape/incest abortions annually compared to the 1.2 million
annual abortions is a look at the current Medicaid expenditures under the
federal Hyde Amendment, which pays only for abortions for life of the mother
and for rape and incest. Between FY1994 and FY2007, those types of abortions
have ranged between 112-458. To put
these numbers in perspective, there were 33 million Medicaid recipients in 1995
and 50 million today.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee, supports a rape and incest exception for laws that
generally protect unborn children. Romney’s position is the same as that of
former President George W. Bush, who signed into law the ban on Partial Birth
Abortions and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
In spite of this fact, individuals are
unfairly attacking the Republican Party Platform as extreme while ignoring the
fact that President Obama and the majority of Democrats in the Congress support
abortion-on-demand, even for sex-selection, and even of unborn babies that are
capable of feeling pain.
A solid majority of House Democrats
voted on July 31, 2012, against the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn
Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803) which would have banned abortions at 20 weeks
and beyond based on scientific evidence that unborn children at this stage are
capable of feeling pain. According to
recent poll by The Polling Company, Inc./WomanTrend, respondents favored, by a
3-to-1 margin (63-21%), a policy of not permitting abortion anywhere “after the
point where substantial medical evidence says that the unborn child can feel
pain,” unless it is “necessary to save a mother’s life.” In the poll,
women said “should not be permitted” by a margin of 70-18% percent, while men
had the same response by a margin of 55-25%.
Earlier this year, the U.S. House held
votes on the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) that would have banned sex
selection abortions. President Obama and
a majority of Democrats opposed the legislation. On the eve of the vote, the
White House released a statement by President Obama opposing the bill saying, “The government should not intrude in medical decisions or
private family matters in this way.” A May 2012 poll found that 77% of the public (80% of women, 74% of men) favor
banning the use of abortion for sex selection.
Closer to home, as Charlotte prepares to host the Democratic
convention, we find that the Democratic Platform supports abortion-on-demand for
any reason – no exceptions, not even for unborn children who can feel pain or
who may fall victim to sex-selection. It
is obvious that it is not the Republican platform but the Democratic Platform that
holds the extreme position on abortion – a position that continues to be far
outside the mainstream of public opinion.
(This Op Ed by Barbara Holt ran in the Charlotte Observer in advance of the DNC holding their convention in Chalotte.)
