Life Links 7/22/09

I guess besides thinking that when human rights begin is "above his pay grade," Obama also feels that "rather than wad(ing) into" the issue of whether health care reform legislation will include forcing insurance companies to cover abortion, he'll just not answer the question (transcript here). Typical Obama. Stay away from wading into specifics, speak in vague, ear-pleasing generalities and try to pass desired legislation as quickly as possible.


Meanwhile, five Democrats have proposed in a letter to Nancy Pelosi the possibility of an amendment which keeps the "status quo."

Saying they are "increasingly concerned about potential roadblocks around the issue of abortion" in Congress' health-care debate, abortion opponent Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and four other Democrats propose "a common-ground solution" that would neither require nor ban private insurers from covering the procedure as long as federal funds are not used, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

Matthew Franck provides a nice, indepth tutorial for those (like Judge Sonia Sotomayor) who don't understand or are unwilling to accept that abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy in the United States of America.

When such “factors” as these—“emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age”—are all declared to “relate to health” in the “medical judgment” of the doctors who perform abortions, then it may be fairly said that the rule in Blackmun’s paragraph (c) in Roe’s trimester framework is swallowed up by its exception. If a woman would be distraught by the prospect of becoming a mother, if her boyfriend is threatening to leave her, if she would have to cut short her progress through college, if she simply declares to the abortionist “I don’t want this baby”—any reason the doctor will accept is a perfect and complete shield from the state’s prohibition of post-viability abortions, no matter how close to a timely childbirth the mother is, and no matter how good the prospect for a successful birth with a healthy mother and child. In practice, it will suffice if the woman gives the physician no reason whatsoever. He is in the abortion business, and she has to come to him for the “procedure”; plainly her “emotional” or “psychological” state is such that she associates the termination of her pregnancy with a restoration of her “health.” If an official inquiry were to be made by state authorities after the abortion, the physician need cite no more than his “medical judgment” to this effect.

NARAL has decided to endorse the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States.

NARAL says Sotomayor's (SUHN'-ya soh-toh-my-YOR') testimony during her confirmation hearings shows President Barack Obama's first high court choice is a stronger supporter of privacy rights than either Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito, the previous two nominees. And the group notes that Sotomayor also said several times that privacy rights include a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy.

Wesley Smith notes a new study in mice which shows that pre-implantation genetic diagnosis may be not as safe as some believe.