Indiana legislation would lengthen prison terms for those who murder or attempt to murder a pregnant woman and cause the death of her unborn child. The House Public Policy Committee approved the bill which was motivated by the shooting of an Indianapolis bank teller, Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant when she was shot during a robbery in 2008. Shuffield survived the shooting, but the twin girls she was expecting did not. Current Indiana law allows prosecutors to file murder charges in cases where a fetus dies, but only if the mother is at least seven months pregnant.
I wonder how many lawyers would argue that since abortion is legal, there can be no charges against anyone for killing an unborn child – if we are to be consistent in our laws? Until our laws catch up with the scientific, biological reality that human life – indeed human personhood – begins at conception, the dilemma of abortion will forever remain with us. In other words, why is it wrong to kill an unborn baby, but abortion is defended as appropriate and maintained as legal?
Some people will argue, "It is the Mother's right and only the mother's right to choose if she will keep her baby, because at that point it is a part of her body." This is the fallacy. If the pregnant woman is murdered, the point of this new law will be that two persons were murdered. And many pro-choicers are very uncomfortable with this new legislation. The ones who are not should be.
No one makes a gut wrenching decision over removing an appendix or a tumor. An unborn child is its own person. If it were not, then none of us would be persons; we would still be parts of our mother's bodies. If we use the (il)logic of those who say: "It's a child if she wants it, but not a child is she wants to abort it." Think for just a moment about what they are saying.
Would anyone object to me saying, "Personally I am opposed to aborting unborn Jews and blacks, but if you don't believe they are persons, then go ahead - they're not persons according to you"? The right to life does not depend upon someone giving someone the right. It is an inborn, innate given at human conception.
We would do well to remember when Lori Schultz, age 21, of Elk Point, S.D., threw her newborn baby away in a garbage bag rather than keep the child because she feared her boyfriend's reaction to the new addition in their relationship. However, she was charged with second degree manslaughter and could face ten years of prison for the act. Had Lori secured the services of a reputable abortionist none of us would have ever heard of her story and she would not be facing a prison term.
William Wilberforce was opposed for his stance on slavery, yet time has proven he was a political prophet. No one in their right – or left – mind would attempt to justify slavery today.
Of course, abortion is a mere symptom of a deeper moral problem, but many Americans have already turned against the slaughter of abortion. A century from now, the pro-choice opponents of those who hold that preborn human life is human life will be making a new accusation: They will blame the Church for abortion (just like some blame the church for slavery and the Nazi Holocaust). Unfortunately, they will have a point. They will name the prominent Catholics and Christians who supported abortion in our day and hence judge the Church by the actions of the spineless.
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