April 24, 2007

Don't Tell the People Too Much

by PG

Prof. Keith Burgess-Jackson posts,

According to Robert Novak, 61% of Americans want partial-birth abortion (i.e., infanticide) to be prohibited by law. See here. The main Democrat candidates for president -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson -- want partial-birth abortion (i.e., infanticide) to be allowed by law. If I’m the Republican nominee, I’m describing the procedure in vivid detail at every campaign stop and pointing out that my opponent wants it to be legal. All’s fair in love and politics.
As a candidate, he's presumably not going to mention that the alternative, still-legal second term procedure (dilation and evacuation) does almost exactly the same thing to the fetus, but inside the woman's body instead of outside it. This increases the probability that a medical instrument or a piece of the fetus will pierce her interior or accidentally remain inside to cause an infection. Because as a candidate, why would he want to point out what really happens when legislation is based on procedures rather than the age of the fetus -- on micromanaging physicians instead of drawing clear lines for the point at which a fetus become a legal person? It's so much easier to demonize one's opponents based on half-truths, and especially to ignore that they are asking only for a health exception. As a candidate, will Burgess-Jackson also be advocating the prosecution of emergency room on-call OB-GYNs who use dilation and extraction to remove terminal fetuses from miscarrying mothers in order to minimize trauma to those women's reproductive systems? Presumably a law professor would want a law, particularly one against infanticide, to be fully enforced.

All's fair in love and the politicization of women's health.

April 24, 2007 02:28 PM | TrackBack
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