Thursday, December 1, 2022

Note from the author: This will likely be one of my more controversial pieces that I’ve written. I am not writing this from a religious point of view. Nor am I writing it in an attempt to make someone mad due to my opinion of how I think things should be. I am writing it in hopes that some, who may not even think about it, will think about it and form an opinion of your own. That opinion does not have to be the same as mine, but I do feel you need an opinion – man or woman.  I will respond to any comments that you may make. Finally, I have thought about this article before publishing it for 6 days. I wrote in on December 1, 2022 and did not publish it until December 6, 2022.

Press Release:  WAPT TV (ABC Affiliate – Jackson, MS)

Jackson club owner accused of shooting pregnant woman now charged with murder

So that I don’t have to mention names I have attached a link to the article below:

https://www.wapt.com/amp/article/club-plush-owner-carl-powell-charged-with-murder/42113281

I do believe that this man murdered an infant child in the womb of the mother.  It may not eventually be classified as premeditated first degree murder, however, the fact that it is being called murder does raise some questions; at least to me it does.  In addition; according to the laws of the land, the man is actually innocent until proven guilty.

First of all – what on earth is this woman doing inside a club.  If she was drinking (and I have no way of knowing if she was or not), shouldn’t she also be held responsible for the negligence of the child she was carrying.  As I said, I don’t know if she was drinking but why else was she in the club if she was not? Some say, “Perhaps sitting with a friend,” and that may be the case.  I just have no way of knowing. 

This incident apparently occurred due to some trouble between the club owner and a friend of the woman that was shot.  She was rushed to surgery at UMMC where it was found she was 9 weeks pregnant.  This would have been her 4^th child according to the news reports.

Second, this infant was only 9 weeks from conception.  I am not certain the woman (or the shooter) was aware of this pregnancy before the surgery that discovered it, and this could be why she may have been drinking in a club (if in fact, she was there to drink).  In any event that does not make the shooting right.  Why does a man have to shoot another person (man or woman) over a silly argument?

The fact that this would have been her fourth child tells me that this woman does not believe in aborting children – yet many women do.

Now my female readers are probably wondering what gives me (a male) the right to even broch the subject of abortion.  All I can say is us males also have opinions that need to be heard on subjects such as this.

We all hear women who have abortions say, “My body, my right.”  This may be true, though I don’t necessarily believe it to be.  And when is the last time the person who fathered that child was asked if he thought the abortion was necessary.  I realize that some men who father these children actually pay for them – but what about those that never even knew an abortion was being thought about or performed.  Don’t those fathers have a right to say what happens to their child.  After all, there has to be a father for there to even be an abortion.

Now before getting started, you need to know that I have four children and eight grandchildren. Many of these 12 people do not agree with my stance on the subject and take the other side of my argument. That does not mean that I will love them any less or disrespect their opinion on the subject. As it relates to my children, I raised them to think for themselves and to form their own opinions. I also taught them that their opinion does not have to agree with mine.

Abortions in Mississippi:

On June 27, 2022, the Mississippi Attorney General certified the state’s trigger ban, which bans all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person, or in cases of rape or incest that have been reported to law enforcement, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.  As for me this is the way I think it should be.

However, when it comes to Rape, I think the rape must be actual and not hearsay or opinion.  There are many so-called rapes that are nothing more than consensual sex that are decided later to be classified by one of the parties as rape.

As for abortion to save the life of a pregnant woman, laws should not be needed for this.  This should fall under the Hippocratic oath of the doctor which is to “DO NO HARM.”  Naturally if the mother’s life is in danger, you would expect any physician worth his/her salt to recommend abortion of the infant pre-born child.

The Hippocratic Oath:

However, the Hippocratic Oath is, and of itself, very confusing these days.  This is what Harvard Health has to say about it:

As an important step in becoming a doctor, medical students must take the Hippocratic Oath. And one of the promises within that oath is “first, do no harm” (or “primum non nocere,” the Latin translation from the original Greek.)

• Right?

• Wrong!

While some medical schools ask their graduates to abide by the Hippocratic Oath, others use a different pledge — or none at all. And in fact, although “first, do no harm” is attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, it isn’t a part of the Hippocratic Oath at all. It is actually from another of his works called “Of the Epidemics.”

Admittedly, there is similar language found in both places. For example, here’s a line from one translation of the Hippocratic Oath:

“I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.”

Yes, the pledger commits to avoiding harm, but there’s nothing about making it a top priority. Meanwhile, Of the Epidemics says

“The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future — must mediate these things, and have two special objects in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.”

Rather than list the total argument for how hard it must be for a doctor to do no harm, I have included a link to the Harvard article that you may want to reference.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/first-do-no-harm-201510138421

Is it any wonder why some doctors can get so confused and conflicted when it comes to recommending abortion? I would imagine this is why so many now think they need the permission of the state’s board of health before performing an abortion that is needed for medical care of the mother or the infant. At least that is an argument the “pro-choice” people are using for Roe Vs. Wade to be reinstated. They don’t think the doctor should have to get permission – and I agree with them here. Apparently, Roe Vs. Wade must have taken doctors off the hook for recommending abortions for any cause.

Abortion Rules by State

There are 50 states and each state has varying abortion laws.  There are also many sides of the issue of abortion.  Some don’t believe it is ever needed, some believe it can be needed at times, and some believe it should always be the woman’s right at anytime to discard a child in the womb – even up to and including the date of birth.  There are those that think it is a constitutional right to abort a child and for this reason it should be mandated or regulated by the Federal Government (hence Roe Vs. Wade laws).  The U. S. Supreme Court, however, does not feel it should be the “law of the land” and therefore has turned it back over to states to govern, hence the recent over-turning of Roe Vs. Wade.

Here is a map showing states abortion policies after Roe V. Wade was overturned:

https://states.guttmacher.org/policies/oregon/abortion-policies

The brownish red states are the most restrictive when it comes to abortion while the bluish states are considered to be the least restrictive and most protective of women’s so-called rights to abortion. 

Let’s look at three such states laws or policies:

Mississippi:

Abortion policies currently in effect in Mississippi include the following:

• Abortion is completely banned with very limited exceptions
• Patients forced to make two trips—one for in-person counseling and another at least 24 hours later for the abortion
• State Medicaid coverage of abortion care is banned except in very limited circumstances
• Medication abortion must be provided in person because state bans the use of telehealth or mailing pills or requires in-person visit
• Parental consent or notice is required for a minor’s abortion
• Only physicians can provide abortions and not other qualified health care professionals
• Regulations are in force and designed to shutter abortion clinics without basis in medical standards

Nebraska:

Abortion policies currently in effect in Nebraska include the following:

• Abortion is banned at 22 weeks and later
• Patients forced to wait 24 hours after counseling (not required to be in-person) to obtain an abortion
• State Medicaid coverage of abortion care is banned except in very limited circumstances
• Private health insurance of abortion is banned except in very limited circumstances
• Medication abortion must be provided in person because state bans the use of telehealth or mailing pills or requires in-person visit
• Parental consent or notice is required for a minor’s abortion
• Only physicians can provide abortions and not other qualified health care professionals
• Regulations are in force and designed to shutter abortion clinics without basis in medical standards

Oregon:

Abortion policies currently in effect in Oregon include the following:

• Abortion is not restricted based on gestational age
• State Medicaid funds cover abortion
• Private health insurance plans are required to cover abortion
• Qualified health care professionals, not solely physicians, can provide abortions
• State fund helps patients pay for abortion care
• Protections for patients and abortion clinic staff

Now that we know how some states can vary based on laws and policies let’s take a look at some Abortion Facts, I was able to uncover on the internet.

Here are the number of Legal Abortions from 1973 through 2019 in the United States alone.  Remember, in my opinion, “Legal” does not necessarily mean “Right.”

Number of legal abortions reported in the U.S. from 1973 to 2019 (in 1,000s)

When you add these numbers up you come to a total of 41,911,000 children that have been aborted … and these numbers do not include the years 1974, 1976, 1977, or 1979.  Since the turn of the century (since 2000) the numbers add up to a whopping 15,006,000 through 2019.

Based on the years shown in the graph the average number of abortions per year would be about 891,723 per year and since 2000 that rate is 750,300 per year.  Remember, this is only in the U. S. and is “Legal” abortions.  If you search the internet, you will find the #1 cause of death in America to be heart disease at about 635,260 and the #2 cause of death to be cancer at about 598,038 (depending on the website you look at).  However, it appears to me that Abortion far outweighs both of these causes of death.  Like it or not … abortion is death of a living person, even though that person at the time is living within the womb of the mother.

Here’s a recent quote in an article from pbs.org entitled:  U.S. Abortions rose in 2020, with about 1 in 5 pregnancies terminated: “The report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, counted more than 930,000 abortions in the U.S. in 2020. That’s up from about 862,000 abortions in 2017, when national abortion figures reached their lowest point since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.”

But the big question is why?

WHY DO ABORTIONS OCCUR?

The following was found at:  https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/

In 2004, the Guttmacher Institute anonymously surveyed 1,209 post-abortive women from nine different abortion clinics across the country. Of the women surveyed, 957 provided a main reason for having an abortion. This table lists each reason and the percentage of respondents who chose it.  I’ve added my opinions in red.

If you look at the above numbers you will see, that in my opinion, there is a legitimate reason for about 7% to 7 ½% of the abortions carried out.  Thus, I contend that about 92%-93% of all abortions carried out are nothing more than the needless death of an infant, which should have rights like the rest of humanity.  That’s the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that should not be taken away by someone who simply did the deed and is not ready to accept the consequences of the deed, or put the child up for adoption.

Let’s look at one state, FLORIDA, that tracks abortions and the reasons for them.  These are the facts from 2020:

Again, it appears that clearly 91.3% of all abortions in Florida in 2020 were not really anything more than done for “convenience” of the person who was pregnant.  I would also question the 1.88% that has psychological issues … this is why we have legal adoptions.  So, that raises the number to 93.18% of needless, uncalled for, abortions.

Here’s some more statistics from the same website:

• According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 930,160 abortions took place in the United States in 2020—up from 862,320 in 2017. Guttmacher’s selected annual abortion estimates for the last 20+ years are listed below: 

• Based on available state-level data, approximately 887,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2019. That’s up from approximately 872,000 abortions in 2018.
• In 2019, approximately 19% of U.S. pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion.  That’s pretty darn close to 1 in 5 as stated earlier.
• According to the United Nations’ 2013 report, only nine countries in the world have a higher reported abortion rate than the United States. They are: Bulgaria, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine. *

*Though the UN lists China’s official abortion rate at 19.2, China’s actual abortion rate is likely much higher. According to China’s 2010 census, there were approximately 310 million women of reproductive age in the country. An estimated 13-23 million abortions happen annually in China, resulting in an adjusted abortion rate of 41.9-74.2. The abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

• In 2020, the highest percentage of pregnancies were aborted in the District of Columbia (52%), New York (35%), and New Jersey (34%). The lowest percentage of pregnancies were aborted in Wyoming (2%), South Dakota (1%), and Missouri (0.2%). (AGI abortion data + CDC birth data).

Bottom Line:

I’ve written enough about this subject for now.  The bottom line is this.  In my opinion, and you have your own – or at least information to come to your own – I see most abortions as being nothing more than a legal way to kill a baby.  It does not matter if you do it with surgery (a knife) or a pill (poison); or in the case of the news that started this article (with a bullet).  Either way it is the death of a living human being that is in various stages of development inside the womb of the mother.  Just because it is legal – and necessary (sometimes) – does not make it right all the time. 

If a person has an automobile accident and kills a pregnant woman (or even if he/she, does it on purpose) should he/she be held liable for two deaths of vehicular homicide; when the pregnant woman, because it is inconvenient at the time to have a child, can abort it, and not be held to the same standard of being accused of homicide the child? According to the “Pro-Choice” crowd the answer is, “No, they are not guilty of murder or homicide – their body their choice.”

You will have to decide for yourself, and I will not hold that decision against you.  However, if I’m ever asked to serve on the jury of one who committed murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, and this person is being tried for two murders, this is certainly a thought that would be going through my mind when it comes to finding one guilty of murdering the unborn child: 

How can one person kill another (and call it abortion) and get away with it?  Just because it is legal, does that make it right?

The creation of a living human being from the fertilization of a sperm cell and an egg cell is one of the great miracles and wonders of life. Is it always right to destroy that beautiful miracle, just because in may not be a socially convenient time to have the child be born? It simply amazes me that some of the same people who are opposed to stringent abortion laws when it comes to a human being are the same people who are opposed to killing an animal for food and the survival of human beings.

So, the questions remain …

If an abortion is not really needed for health reasons, rape or incest … Is it murder/premeditated homicide or not? I know my answer, but you will have to do some soul searching for yours. And, to be honest, I am still struggling with abortion for “adult-rape” cases. I understand it is probably not something the mother asked for and that rape is wrong and illegal – but, is it the child’s fault and should the child be stripped of the right to live because of it?

I do think that it is not the governments job to mandate abortion, and have the governments laws on abortion supersede state laws. Legally, according to the Federal Law, it okay for a person to own a firearm and to carry that firearm wherever they go. But on the state side of things, many states have outlawed or greatly reduced a person right to own and carry a firearm. If state law can supersede Federal Law in the case of guns, then why shouldn’t state law supersede Federal Law in the case of abortion?