OPINION:
For nearly 50 years, Roe v Wade was the law of the land, ensuring abortion was legal, accessible and common in the United States. The great political fights over the years were about whether and when a fetus, the code word for baby, was viable in the womb. Unless a baby could live outside the womb, it was argued, it had no right to life.
For 50 years, political conservatives proclaimed themselves to be Pro-Life and railed against abortion. Some, like President Ronald Reagan, put their money where their mouth was and unabashedly stood up for the value of life from the moment of conception. Others, like former Ohio Governor John Kasich, liked to proclaim themselves Pro-Life but folded when opportunity knocked. In Kasich’s case, the then-Governor vetoed a bill his legislature had passed that would have outlawed abortion after a fetal heartbeat was detected. So much for standing up for the innocent.
In 2022 Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. The opportunity for each state to decide what was their individual answer to abortion has led to a dizzying array of laws. Some states want abortion available on demand up until the birth of the child. Others are limiting abortion to when the heartbeat of the baby can be detected. Still, others are testing the waters on an outright ban.
The 2024 Presidential sweepstakes has brought discussion of the issue to the forefront among would-be GOP nominees. Should there be a federal standard? If so, what should it be? Virtually all GOP candidates proclaim themselves to be Pro Life, but what exactly does that mean? Many are rallying around Senator Lindsey Graham’s Senate bill that would limit abortion to the first fifteen weeks of pregnancy.
During the first Republican debate and on the campaign trail, candidate after candidate proclaims himself or herself Pro-Life, so as to appeal to socially conservative Republican voters. This is typically followed immediately by some disclaimer about protecting and respecting women and, finally, some version of why they support Senator Graham’s bill.
Is fifteen weeks really what Pro-Life advocates fought 50 years for? Is that the best conservatives can hope for in a post-Roe world? More importantly, is that the best the babies who can’t speak for themselves can expect?
Let’s compare this brave new “Pro-Life” fifteen-week standard with the rest of the world. France legalized abortion in 1975 through ten weeks of pregnancy. It was later expanded to twelve weeks, and most recently, this most liberal of nations has extended the limit for ending pregnancy to 14 weeks. Their progressive effort to expand rights is still more restrictive than the so-called Pro-Life bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate.
In Germany, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. There is, however, a loophole that allows abortion within the first twelve weeks after mandatory counseling. The doctor needs to see a certificate proving that the pregnant woman has undergone counseling at least three days prior in a state-approved counseling center. In the counseling, the woman is informed of her options, where she might find additional mental health care and what financial assistance may exist if she decides to have the baby. Counseling also discusses adoption as an option. In the United States, pro-abortion groups scream bloody murder if any of those topics are broached with a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy.
In Spain, abortion is available without restrictions for the first fourteen weeks of a pregnancy. The Spanish culture, however, is one where not only do women have a right to choose, but so do doctors. Most physicians choose not to perform abortions. A female gynecologist from northeast Spain was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “We are doctors, our calling is as physicians, and we are here to help people live, not to decide this one lives and this one dies.” Her comment recognizes point blank that in an abortion, someone dies.
Even in Russia, hardly known for its nurturing care and love of the frail and innocent, abortion is restricted to the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. Exceptions can be made up until twenty-two weeks if the pregnancy was the result of rape or for the medical safety of the mother. Russia is three weeks more restrictive than the Graham Senate bill.
In Ireland, abortion was made legal by public vote in 2018. It is free and available for up to twelve weeks. It is allowed after that only if there is a risk to the mother’s life or the baby is not expected to survive.
Twelve weeks is also the magic number in Lithuania, with extensions for risks to the mother’s life through the 22nd week.
In Poland, abortion is only legal in cases where the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act or when the woman’s life is in danger. That seems considerably more “Pro-Life” than the fifteen-week bill being touted by America’s GOP candidates.
In Brazil, home to Carnival and all of its public sexual antics, abortion is legal only in cases of risk to the mother’s life, when the pregnancy is the result of rape or if the baby is anencephalic.
If we jump to West Africa, Ghana says abortion is illegal except in the case of rape, incest, fetal abnormality or defilement of a female idiot. Even those rare abortions must be performed by registered and trained health personnel in an approved facility.
The bottom line is that countries with abysmal human rights records have more restrictive abortion laws than what the GOP is proposing. So do sexually promiscuous countries. Well-educated and uneducated countries both surpass the proposed U.S. protections for the unborn. Left-leaning ultra-progressive countries that are actually expanding abortion rights remain more restrictive than what is being proposed in America.
The fifteen-week abortion ban being proposed by Senator Graham and embraced by so many of the GOP candidates isn’t a Pro-Life bill. It’s aimed more at finding the politically palatable middle ground that its supporters can sell to voters of all stripes than it is about protecting the unborn. It is not about saving lives. It is not Pro-Life at all. It’s a sham. It keeps America as one of the most permissive abortion nations on the planet.
If just one Republican candidate has the backbone to stand up with an actual Pro-Life agenda, one that protects innocent babies in the womb, it will force every other member of the GOP to clarify whether they support infants or whether they support abortion on demand. Anything less is just a charade.
- Tim Constantine is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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