Matt Bowman, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, attended the hearings regarding the Partial Birth Abortion ban at the Supreme Court of the United States. He made this observation:
Along these lines Justice Antonin Scalia limited himself to comments that illustrated the absurdity of the situation, wherein the Court had to struggle over whether a state may outlaw these atrocities. When Justice Stevens awkwardly insisted that Clement talk of a fetus rather than a child, Scalia remarked that "when it's halfway out, I guess you can call it either a child or a fetus."
This goes to show a social double standard. Any parent would call the unborn child "a child" by 20 weeks. But because the intended destiny for this child is death, then that makes him a "fetus".
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the legality of abortion rests on a double standard, because when abortion is not involved, we treat the unborn child as a person.
Bowman continues:
Or when the Planned Parenthood attorney discussed whether the fetus dies before or after delivery of its ripped-off parts, Scalia resolved the dilemma by pointing out that we generally don't speak of a "leg" dying. And Scalia asked whether it would be criminal to deliver the baby all the way and just let him die. This contextualized the argument that partial birth abortion is the “safest option,” by implying that it is only the safest abortion option. Delivering the baby all the way without puncturing his head would often be the safest "option" at this moment, so as to avoid committing that violent, piercing act so near the woman’s body (sometimes the abortionist even has to hold the head in to prevent the magical occurrence of personhood).
If this does not show the absurdity of this procedure, I don't know what does. The "magical moment" of personhood has to be "stopped" by the abortionist. Outside the womb, the baby, is acknowledged to be a person, to feel pain, and must be loved and taken care of (although babies that survive the abortion are often left to die), but the technicality of being inside the mother's body means that the baby is none of these, even though if there were no abortion people do act like this is the case.
One day we will come to acknowledge this dissonance.
If you are a pro-lifer reading this, especially if you are Canadian, I urge you to blog about these hearings. This is a valuable teaching moment.
