Abortion

I fully recognize two sets of conflicting rights on the abortion issue. I believe strenuously
in the right of a woman to control her own body. And I also believe strenuously in an
unborn child's right to life.

I fully reject the concept that a fetus is not a human being. A

fetus is scientifically a human being because it carries the
human genome, it is alive, and it possesses all necessary cells
needed to mature to adulthood under natural conditions. It is
not a part of the woman's body: it resides inside a woman's
body. These things are made quite evident via ultrasound and
photography. From the moment of conception, an embryo is
scientifically a being of the human specie, and therefore a
human being. To willfully engage in an act which destroys that human being, regardless
of what the law is or should be, is morally, murder unless there are compelling reasons. It
is the same as killing a grown person or a child in cold blood. And I counsel any woman
not to get an abortion unless her life and health are in serious jeopardy.

Nevertheless, the individual rights of the fetus should never rightly be construed as
empowering the state to seize control of a pregnant
woman's body. Instead of wrangling over the
personhood of the fetus, which to me is self-evident,
we should simply acknowledge that because of its
situation that the fetus has rights that it is difficult or
impossible to enforce in a free society.

Left to the States

Abortion should rightly be left to the states and to the people to legislate. All the aspects
of abortion, whether it is to be considered murder or a form of homicide, whether it is an
acceptible medical procedure, et al., should rest on the state level as those decisions are
state decisions and not federal in all other like cases. States are empowered to determine
what is and is not murder, as well as what is or is not valid medical practice. Supreme
Court justices with Roe vs. Wade revoked a state's right to regulate this one legal and
medical exception.

Accordingly, I support the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

This does not mean that criminalization of all abortion
could work. That is an issue for the states and for the
people, not judges, to decide. I am more concerned with
preventing abortion than criminalizing it yet having it
continue. There are still a lot of hearts to be won before
we can even consider that major step.
 Different Situations - Different Rights

I believe whose rights are preeminent, the mother's or the child's, should
rest with whom the specific medical action is aimed at. Accordingly, if something is done
to the mother, I believe she has that primary right. But if something is done to the child,
then others may have a rationale at that point step in to defend the child.

Most Abortions Directly Kill the Child

The most preeminent abortion techniques are not things done to

the mother's body. D & C abortions involve the active
destruction of the fetus by literally tearing it apart and shredding
it. Saline abortions involve the poisoning of the child's amniotic
fluid and torturing it to death over the course of an hour. The
infamous D & X technique, or partial-birth abortion, involves
delivery of a child's body through the womb and then sucking
out its brains while still alive with a catheter. Partial-birth
abortions should be banned except in the case of medical
necessity, because they involve slaying the child in utero. A
woman has the right to end her pregnancy but does NOT have
the right to kill her child.

"Life of the Mother"

I'm conflicted on the subject of the necessity of abortion to save the life of the mother.
Certainly, if there were an instance where the life of the mother could be saved only by
abortion, I would acknowledge that it must be legal. However, consider the testimony of
former pediatrician and U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. He says, "Protection of
the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of
pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to
save the mother's life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that
threaten the mother's health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section.
His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby's life is never
willfully destroyed because the mother's life is in danger."

Late Term Abortions

Beginning in the sixth month, everything doable to preserve the life of the child, so long
as the mother is not placed in harm's way, ought to be legally mandatory. By the sixth
month, it is my belief that the mother beyond a reasonable doubt has consented to
continue the pregnancy if both she and the baby are healthy.

Government Funding of Abortion

I oppose all government funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or medical
necessity. The funding issue is not a matter of guaranteeing a woman's access to abortion,
 but a matter of guaranteeing the abortionist a profit, something that should
not be done. It is the responsiblity of providing for this surgery, when it is
elective surgery, of the patient and/or the
providers. Let those who believe in abortions for poor
women finance them with their own funds.

Parental Consent to Abortion and Contraception

I do not believe that the surgery of abortion merits by its

nature a forfeiture of medical rights of parental consent. And
I believe that the age of consent for abortion should be identical to the age of consent for
all other surgeries. I do agree that a judicial bypass should exist for cases where a young
woman would feel put at harm from her parents by her circumstances.

Likewise, I believe that the ability to consent to take

birth control medications should be equivalent to the
right of a minor to consent to take any other
prescription. I believe that non-medical contraception,
such as condoms, should be freely available for
individuals of any age to purchase. I do not believe in
state funding of free contraceptives, but do not object
to localities deciding to organize free contraception
programs. I do not believe that public schools should
distribute contraception of any kind.

RU-486 and Abortifacients

Because I believe in the freedom of individuals to medicate themselves, I do not believe

RU-486 or other oral medicinal agents which may cause or induce spontaneous abortion
of an embryo, should be banned. Many of these medicines have alternative uses also. I do
not believe a woman has an obligation to at any time retain or enhance fertility or a
receptive environment for a fetus or embryo. However, make no mistake: this is still a
reprehensible act to do to a human embryo known to exist, the moral equivalent of
bombing a building and randomly killing someone inside.

Gag Rules

I oppose any kind of "gag rule" tying federal aid to what a medical professional can or
cannot say. It is a clear violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.
Organizations such as Planned Parenthood are known for exactly what they are. Choose
to fund them or not, but don't play fast and loose with free speech rights. The decision
whether to fund most medical care is an option I would
also return to states.

Alternatives to Abortion
The best way to prevent abortions, in additional to education about the fetus, is through
insuring the availability of alternative choices to abortion. I would advocate the following
reforms of the law and the promotion of the following activities.

We need to reform adoption laws nationwide, to include such alternatives as adoption

within families, coparent joint custody arrangements, coadoptions of teen mothers with
their babies, and alternatives to total surrender of parental rights by the birth mother. I
also support the legal ability for the birth mother to sell parental rights to a child, as even
that, as unseemly as it might be, is preferable to seeing the child aborted.

I support the striking down of all barriers to adoption, and

support interracal adoption as well as adoption by sexual
minorities, and would enact legislation to this effect. I also
propose that the unaborted fetus be counted as a dependent
for tax deduction purposes from the moment of conception
and that the exemption continue as valid so long as the fetus
is not electively aborted. I advocate a $5,000 adoption tax
exemption to facilitate legal adoptions.

Sex Education

I believe that complete education in sex and sexuality should begin at as early an age as
feasible, and absolutely prior to the onset of puberty. I have a strong belief about this: it is
impossible for a child to act to make the right choices unless they are fully informed
about sex. I do not believe that any sexual topics should be forbidden for discussion, but I
do believe that children need to know both the beneifts of various forms of sex as well as
the dangers. It is proper to teach that abstinence before marriage as a viable sexuality
choice: notwithstanding, I believe that to successfully teach
abstinence you must teach about sex. However, I believe the
primary right to discuss these things belongs with the
parents, and that the parents' role in sex educaton should
never be preempted by the state.

Abortion and Libertarianism

Abortion of the healthy fetus of a healthy mother is

something WHOLLY INCOMPATIBLE with libertarian
principles. Libertarians take an oath not to initiate force to
promote or achieve social or political goals. If abortion against an unborn child does not
fit the definition of the initiation of force to achieve social or political purposes, I defy
you to describe to me any act that does.

I support an amendment to the Constitution which would extend personhood to the

unborn child, and allow states to determine exactly how that is to be defined in their
localities.
 Abortion and Racism

It is often the case that abortion doctors will target poor and minority communities to
exploit very desperate people for paltry sums of money, much of it state financed. Indeed,
the founder of the group now known as Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a
white racist who believed in the science of eugenics, the philosophy that helped birth the
Holocaust. Undoubtedly, part of the practice of abortion is offered for the express purpose
of racial and ethnic genocide, the killing off of the offspring of people the ruling class
perceives as undesirable. In a sense, a woman having had an abortion has not only been
tricked into murdering her child, but tricked into participating in the genocide of her own
people.

Why Have You Put Pictures Of Aborted Babies On This Page?

I want to discourage any person considering getting an

abortion from actually doing it. To quote a former First
Lady in time of tragedy, "I want them to see what they
have done." If this offends some in the pro-choice
movement, I would suggest to them that they are easily
offended. Whether this is an act that is legal or not, this is
an act that is grossly wrong, and I beg women in no
uncertain terms to never have an abortion.