Abortion Woes Anew

President Bush signed a bill into law this week that bans a procedure known as “intact dilation and extraction” or partial birth abortion. I generally agree with President Bush on most things, but this is one area where we are going to have to differ.

There is no provision in this law for allowing for the health of the mother. The procedure is already a rare one and is generally only performed on women who are going to die before the baby can be born. It is generally only performed when a doctor and a family has to make a choice, one life over another.

I also have concerns that congress did not speak with doctors who had performed this procedure before passing the law. If you want to know about the procedure and under what circumstances it’s performed, wouldn’t you want to talk to someone who’s done it? Wouldn’t you want to have their expertise backing up your decision?

This decision was made on a very narrow scale by some very narrow minds. Yes, there should be a point where it’s too late to voluntarily abort a pregnancy. But, when it comes down to a choice between the life of the mother or the life of the child that decision and the procedure used to save either life, are none of the government’s business. Nor are they any of ours. That’s a private, family matter and that is where such things should stay.