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‘No-Brainer’ Barbarism: Partial-Birth Abortion and the Courts
Breakpoint with Charles Colson ^ | June 24, 2005 | Mark Earley

Posted on 06/27/2005 6:59:21 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.

Warning: The descriptions in this commentary are graphic and may not be suitable for some readers.

Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Virginia law that banned a barbaric procedure, “partial-birth abortion.” This was the second time that the federal courts had overruled Virginia’s efforts at stopping this practice. The example of “judicial usurpation of politics” is a timely reminder of why we need to rein in the federal judiciary.

When I served as Attorney General of Virginia in 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that state laws, such as Nebraska’s and Virginia’s, banning “partial-birth abortion” placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s “right” to choose.

Back then, I said that “partial-birth abortion” bordered on infanticide, and nothing has convinced me otherwise. Forgive the graphic detail, but it’s important to know just what was being “burdened.” The fetus, “dangling partly out of the woman’s body, and just a few inches from a completed birth,” has its skull crushed or its brain sucked out by the doctor. This, Justice Thomas noted in his dissent, was what the majority ruled was a “constitutional right.”

Well, in 2003, the Virginia legislature tried again, enacting another ban, this time calling it by its proper name: infanticide.

But once again, the courts were waiting and willing to do the bidding of pro-abortion extremists. Two years ago, a federal judge blocked the new Virginia law, calling his action a “no-brainer case” in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s earlier ruling. Last week, his decision was upheld by a divided federal appeals court.

The majority, like the law’s opponents in the state legislature, cited the lack of an exception “to preserve a woman’s health.” Frankly, it’s hard to take this argument seriously. Anyone who has studied the abortion issue carefully knows that “a woman’s health,” as defined, is so far-reaching that it can even include the mental distress caused by not being allowed to have a partial-birth abortion! “Mental health” is the exception that swallows the rule.

In his dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote that the decision was colored by “political ideology” and represented a “momentous step in disconnecting our law from accepted moral norms.” This disconnect is so great that it winds up “[constitutionalizing] infanticide of a most gruesome nature.”

While I wholeheartedly agree with Judge Niemeyer, we need to place the blame for this disconnect squarely at the feet of the Supreme Court. Despite being told by the American Medical Association that the practice wasn’t a medical necessity, five justices made it a constitutional right.

That’s why who is named to the Supreme Court matters. Many of the most objectionable and high-handed decisions of the past thirty years were decided by 5-4 margins. As few as two good appointments can tip the balance. Liberals know this, which is why they have opposed some of the president’s Appeals Courts nominees: It’s a dry run for the upcoming Supreme Court fights.

And we have to be ready, as well. In the struggle to re-connect our laws to moral norms, the Supreme Court has great responsibility. And until it fulfills that responsibility, only then will laws against infanticide become what they should have been all along: no-brainers.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: abortion; breakpoint; markearly; pba
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail. Links to further information
1 posted on 06/27/2005 6:59:26 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
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To: AFPhys; agenda_express; almcbean; ambrose; Amos the Prophet; AnalogReigns; Annie03; applemac_g4; ...

BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

2 posted on 06/27/2005 7:00:09 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (SPC Casey Sheehan died trying to save his buddies. His leftist mom says it "wasn't worth it.")
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To: 2nd amendment mama; A2J; Agitate; Alouette; Annie03; aposiopetic; attagirl; axel f; Balto_Boy; ...

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

3 posted on 06/27/2005 7:00:38 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (SPC Casey Sheehan died trying to save his buddies. His leftist mom says it "wasn't worth it.")
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To: Mr. Silverback

The right of a woman to murder her unborn child is the ONLY absolute right according to the federal judges.


4 posted on 06/27/2005 7:08:12 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
The right of a woman to murder her unborn child is the ONLY absolute right according to the federal judges.

Agreed.

5 posted on 06/27/2005 7:13:04 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (SPC Casey Sheehan died trying to save his buddies. His leftist mom says it "wasn't worth it.")
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To: Mr. Silverback

I think it is even more than child murder. It is child sacrifice. These children are in the process of being born when they are sacrificed to the liberal/socialist god of self.

They will all burn in Hell for this.


6 posted on 06/27/2005 8:36:43 AM PDT by protest1
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To: Mr. Silverback
I watched a TV documentary (summer 2000) It was on UK Channel 4, one program of a series called "Secrets of the Dead", I have it on video tape, It investigated the child sacrifice regularly practised in ancient Carthage and other Phoenicians cities. What horrified me most about this program was the scale, it was far more widespread than I had envisaged. The roots of this child sacrifice go back further to Canaanites and the worship of Baal.

Carthage was a Phoenician city and a rival to Rome before it's eventual destruction. The program was about the excavation of a cemetery in the ruins of Carthage. The cemetery consisted exclusively of 20,000 urns containing the cremated remains of children sacrificed by these barbaric people. This was thought to be over a 200 year time period giving about 100 sacrifices a year every year. Another smaller city was also excavated, here a cemetery with about 6000 urns was found along with a relief stone carving of one of their priests, with a knife, holding a living child. Seems they slit their throat then cremated the remains, sometimes along with animals. Contemporary accounts from the Greeks and Romans bore witness to the child sacrifice they perpetrated. Even they were disgusted by their child sacrifice.

Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician Cities and they spread out over the Mediterranean taking their culture with them and founding Carthage. Tyre and Sidon were founded by the remnants of the Canaanites. As you may know they were driven out from their lands, by God, because of their evil practices.

Eastons Bible dictionary: Canaanites "They were called Phoenicians by the Greeks and Poeni by the Romans. By race the Canaanites were Semitic. They were famous as merchants and seamen, as well as for their artistic skill. The chief object of their worship was the sun-god, who was addressed by the general name of Baal, "lord." Each locality had its special Baal, and the various local Baals were summed up under the name of Baalim, "lords." "

Deuteronomy 12:29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Baal (the Devil) has always demanded child sacrifice, still does today. Now it is called abortion and children die in millions sacrificed on the alter of Baal by his faithful followers.

7 posted on 06/27/2005 8:49:53 AM PDT by protest1
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To: protest1

Well, now we know why the Romans cleaned their clocks so thoroughly. God wanted them out of the way.


8 posted on 06/27/2005 9:48:37 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Imagine Bill Buckley and Condoleezza Rice against Sheila Jackson-Lee and Ted Kennedy on "Jeopardy!")
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To: Mr. Silverback

Will God permit us to be done away with, too, for allowing this abomination?


9 posted on 06/27/2005 10:09:43 AM PDT by victim soul
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To: Mr. Silverback
Senator Coburn introduces Parents right to know act.
10 posted on 07/04/2005 10:56:12 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55 (DON'T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THE CURTAINS THEY ARE WEARING ON THEIR HEADS !)
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