Last night, the Health Committee of the House of Delegates advanced this year’s pro-life bill (SB 597) after the defeat of numerous amendments that were merely desperate attempts by pro-abortion lawmakers to derail the measure.

Sidebar.

I hate to write what I just did, “this year’s pro-life bill.”  Has business been limited to one bill?  Has coal?  Education?  Certainly not, yet the 70%+ of West Virginians who support life, marriage, and religious freedom are given a chance at maybe one bill.  That is what the Family Policy Council of West Virginia is committed to changing.  One of our strategic goals is to make government start with the family and respond to the family’s active stewardship of government.  Will you invest in our efforts?

/sidebar.

Back to the story.

The bill is now expected to advance to the Judiciary Committee where more histrionics will be levied against this simple measure by doctors and the abortion industry and feminists and the ACLU and . . . and  . . . and . . .  In some ways, it is remarkable that this bill has survived this long given that, as I looked at the audience in the committee room last night I saw lobbyists from the ACLU (x2), WV Free (x3), Planned Parenthood, Fairness WV, the State Medical Association, Wheeling Hospital, and many others.  West Virginians for Life, who is leading the efforts on this bill, myself (and I had to leave early), and a priest were there in favor of the bill.  Outnumbered and outspent.

Here’s how the Daily Mail starts their story today:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — House Health Committee members spent more than three hours Monday locked in contentious debate before moving a controversial bill that would require physicians to offer women receiving abortions the chance to view an ultrasound of the fetus.

The legislation, which passed out of the committee by a 16-to-9 vote, would only apply to situations where an ultrasound was already ordered. The woman could choose not to view the image.Delegate Bobbie Hatfield, a former nurse, fought back tears as she delivered an impassioned speech against the legislation.

“You all have laughed about this bill as if its nothing – giggling in the halls, thinking youre cute,” said Hatfield, D-Kanawha.

“You offend me. You offend the women I have stood on this floor for 18 years and tried to defend.”Although committee members considered a half-dozen amendments, only one passed that made a minor change to phrasing in the legislation.

via House committee advances abortion proposal  – Statehouse News – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports -.

No, Del. Hatfield, you offend me and the millions of dead children who’s voices now scream to us from the grave because of the barbarity – in the name of “reproductive justice” – that is abortion.  Here’s how the Charleston Gazette reported others in opposition to the measure:

But Hatfield said the measure insults her intelligence as a woman and as a nurse, saying medical professionals already know how to fully inform patients about procedures.

Other lawmakers also called the bill insulting to women, including Monongalia County Democrat Barbara Fleischauer.

“This reminds of me of potty training,” she said, “when you take somebody’s nose and rub it in the poop.”

Yep, you read that right.  Pro-life = rubbing a child’s nose in poop.  (Which makes me wonder, is that how Del. Fleischauer potty trained her children?  I don’t know a single responsible parent who forces their children’s noses in their own fecal matter, do you?)

Why spend 3 hours in one committee meeting on this topic?  Why endure the ethics complaints that pro-abortion lawmakers have filed against one of our lobbyists and against West Virginians for Life?  Why bear being compared to a ruthless parent who unlovingly rubs their child’s nose in their own excrement?

Because all innocent human life is worthy of protection.  The reason we do not yield to the intimidation of WV Free, the ACLU, and the rest is because when women see the images of their unborn children, they are more than 60% likely to provide that child life outside of the womb.

More than 60% likely.  Let’s assume there are 1 million abortions every year (which is close to accurate).  That means, if all 50 states implemented such measures, more than 600,000 lives would be saved from the abortionist’s curette.  More than 600,000 mothers would begin that precious bond with their children after being privileged to see the face of their children and hear their heartbeat.  In reality, that’s 1.2 million lives (600,000 mothers + 600,000 children) left unscarred and unscathed from the nefarious, and often invisible, effects of abortion.

If I had a complaint about how this legislation has been advanced, it would be that the focus has been on the doctor, his or her rights, his or her fears over the non-life threatening prospect of a lawsuit.  Focusing there has removed our attention from the young woman, typically alone and frightened, that is repeatedly told the life within her is merely a blob of tissue in need of being excised.  It has removed our focus from the life that hangs in the balance, one who’s scream is silent and who’s voice is found only in those who are willing to be compared to poop rubbing chauvinists.

If that’s what it takes to save just one pre-born life, I gladly bear such titles.  The bill is not perfect; yet, if we err, let us err on the side of life.

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