They’ve scored some major victories already, but pro-life Wisconsin Republicans aren’t finished yet. The Associated Press reports that state senators Glenn Grothman and André Jacque have introduced legislation that would recognize unborn babies as human beings for the purposes of letting parents file wrongful death claims on their behalf, regardless of developmental stage.
So far, the state legislature’s GOP leadership hasn’t commented on the proposal, and Gov. Scott Walker’s office hasn’t yet had time to examine it. Curiously, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin isn’t opining yet, either. But Democrats are letting Rep. Sandy Pasch give what will undoubtedly be the consensus pro-choice narrative:
Democratic Rep. Sandy Pasch, who serves on the Assembly’s Family Law Committee, said she hadn’t seen the bill. But she said giving fetuses a status equal to their mothers would be a backward move that would chip away at women’s rights. “I’m concerned if those politicians are really concerned about the well-being of women and their families,” she said.
Granted, it might just be the AP’s paraphrasing, but it’s generally a good indicator that you’re on the right side of something when your opponent tries to come up with reasons why some groups of humans shouldn’t be considered “equal” to others.
You may recall Pasch’s rationale as the same one Barack Obama used to justify inaction on letting newborns who survive abortions starve to death: we can’t afford any compassion for unborn babies, even the ones who are wanted by their mothers and don’t threaten their “bodily integrity,” because it might someday justify people in re-evaluating open season on the babies we want to keep killing.
Good luck finding a more blatant example of politicians throwing out nonpartisan, commonsense decency in favor of slavish devotion to ideology. Sorry you lost your daughter to medical malpractice, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but we can’t let you seek damages because that could lead to people in the future having difficulty disposing of their kids. You understand, right? I’d talk more, but I’m late for a NARAL luncheon.
The practice they claim to be defending doesn’t deserve any respect to begin with, but even putting that aside, how sick is it to be such an unfeeling absolutist on abortion that an indirect, hypothetical, and non-binding counterweight to its legal rationale is of greater concern than the real and present suffering of families who lose children? How can pro-aborts’ claim to respect and value all reproductive choices be true while they so readily dismiss women who choose life and have outside wrongdoing take that choice away from them?
The compassion is empty. The moderation is fake. The thoughtfulness is fleeting. Abortion is what really matters to these people – so much so that choice itself must yield whenever the two come into conflict.
