Women and Children Deserve Protection: Toward Family Restoration in Abortion

Caution: This article contains graphic material.

Senator Mike Lee introduced a resolution last Monday that calls on local, state and federal governments to investigate unsanitary abortion conditions and illegal abortion practices, according to a May 7, 2013 article by Bethany Monk of CitizenLink, which is fully available at   http://www.citizenlink.com/2013/05/07/take-action-support-resolution-calling-for-investigations-of-illegal-abortion-practices/.  She writes:

“The Utah lawmaker is calling on the Senate to protect women and girls from “abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices.” Lee also condemned the deplorable practices uncovered at abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion center. Gosnell is charged with murdering seven newborns and one pregnant woman. ‘The facts of the Gosnell case are disturbing and heartbreaking,’ Lee said. ‘The lack of oversight at abortions facilities puts women’s lives at risk and leads to the kind of unconscionable practices we have seen recently.’  A 2011 Grand Jury report says Gosnell delivered ‘live, viable babies in the third trimesters of pregnancy — then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.’  It also documents that Gosnell’s clinic ‘reeked of animal urine,’ and that furniture and blankets ‘were stained of blood.’ Scattered throughout the center, ‘in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and plastic jugs, were fetal remains.’”

This is not how women and children ought to be treated in any medical facility.  Federal action is not inappropriate in light of federal law that upholds protection for women and children even in abortion.  Monk’s article continues:

“Lawmakers must protect women, girls, preborn babies and newborns from situations like this, the resolution explains. It calls any illegal or dangerous abortion practices ‘violations of law and human dignity.’  ‘Congress has the responsibility to investigate and conduct hearings on abortions performed near, at, or after viability in the United States, public policies regarding such, and evaluate the extent to which such abortions involve violations or the natural right to life of infants who are born alive or capable of being born alive, and entitled to equal protection under the law,’ the resolution states.  Co-sponsors of the federal resolution include Sens. Patrick Toomey, Pennsylvania; Marco Rubio, Florida; Ted Cruz, Texas; James Inhofe, Oklahoma; Tim Scott, South Carolina; Roy Blunt, Missouri; Richard Burr, North Carolina; David Vitter, Louisiana; Mike Johanns, Nebraska; John Thune, South Dakota; and John Boozman, Arkansas. ‘The Senate should formally recognize that this is a problem in our country,’ Lee said. ‘We have a responsibility to investigate the causes, review the effects of certain public policies, and determine what we can do to prevent any woman from being subjected to the reprehensible practices again’.”

You may wish to Contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to support the Lee resolution and Congressional hearings into the abortion industry.  You may also Read the full text of the resolution here.  

Legal scholarship on abortion can focus on the protection of women and children, and you may access such work on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/author=183817.

Family restoration requires that women and children be protected, particularly in abortion.