No Abortion Law in South Dakota

Today, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signed a law that bans all abortions except where the procedure is necessary to save the mother's life. Of course, Planned Parenthood and all the Abortion Rights groups are vowing to fight the law in court.

What exactly are they fighting for? The right to terminate a pregnancy, which is medical jargon for killing a baby? The right of a woman for control of her own body? Unless there was rape or incest involved, then exactly how did the woman become pregnant? Let's look at some facts:

• Approximately 854,000 abortions were performed in 2002.

• A Finnish study released in 1997 shows that a woman's risk of dying within a year after an abortion was 3.5 times higher than the risk of dying after childbirth, and the risk of death from suicide within one year of an abortion was more than seven times higher than the risk of suicide with a year of childbirth.

• A doctor's graphic description of a partial birth abortion as well as a "normal" abortion (warning - this is sickening!).

• The fetus is capable of experiencing pain.

• In the only major study of pregnant rape victims ever done, Dr. Sandra Mahkorn found that 75 to 85 percent chose against abortion.

Yes folks, I am NOT in favor of abortion. Here's why: If you take the position that all the cells within a person's body are human, then a fetus is made up of human cells, although quite a bit younger. A fetus has the potential for growing into a person. Thus, a fetus could be called a very young person (a child or baby in the making). Willfully killing a person is defined as murder. Ergo, abortion is murder. Somewhat simplified, but I'm a simple person at heart.

I am aware of the argument that in the beginning stages, this group of cells does not resemble a human being in any way. That's not the point! The cells are human in origin, and there should be no argument against that. However, it should be noted that most abortions take place when the fetus does have distinguishable arms, legs, torso, and head. How anyone could look at a fetus at this point and not recognize it as being a person in the making is beyond me.

I am also aware of the movement for reproductive rights of the woman. That is fine by me - take the pill, wear a diaphram, have the guy wear a condom, practice the rhythm method, but do not kill a baby just because you made a mistake! As my father would say, two wrongs don't make a right.

Let me put this in perspective: A person can live (for argument's sake), 85 years. That's 1020 months. Nine months out of that 1020 is 0.88% of a person's life. What is that compared to giving a gift that no one else can give?

To put a further perspective on things, what if your parents had decided to abort you? You certainly wouldn't be reading this now, would you? Wouldn't you rather have been adopted? Would you want to deny that of anyone for your own convenience? If so, then you had better find a concience. A couple of stories in closing...

Being young and stupid at least once in my life, my girlfriend and I thought she was pregnant. We talked about abortion, and decided against it. If she was and carried the baby to term, we were going to put the baby up for adoption. We could not stomach killing an innocent. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

I have a couple of friends that have confided in me that they had abortions. They told me that not a day goes by that they either thought about what they did or thought about the baby that they aborted. They wonder what that child could have done. (They could have become President of the United States - Gerald Ford did, and he was adopted.)