Posted on 11/19/2013 10:30:52 PM PST by Morgana
After a monumental battle that saw national pro-life groups and abortion supporters engage in a furious fight in the state of New Mexico, voters in Albuquerque today defeated the nation’s first city-wide ban on late-term abortions. Initial results from 50,000 early and absentee ballots showed 56 percent of voters against the proposal, while 44 percent supported the ban on most abortions after 20 weeks. The totals from voters casting ballots on election day didn’t change those percentages much and, with 28 of 50 precincts tallied, the vote remained 55-45 against the ban.
Some pro-life advocates are asserting the results are something of a moral victory because Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates were forced to spend $1 million or more on defending late-term abortions, though pro-life groups also spent considerable sums of more meager resources.
The defeat of the ban may provide more ammunition for those pro-life groups that say ballot measures are not the best method of attempting to end or limit abortions. The Albuquerque late-term abortion ban joins multiple California ballot proposals, a limit on taxpayer funding of abortions in Oregon, and personhood amendments in Colorado and Mississippi in the losers bracket.
On the other hand, the loss comes at the same time the Texas law to limit abortions — which has already closed or halted abortions ant numerous abortion clinics — won another victory, this time at the Supreme Court. The results may go to show that focusing on electing pro-life candidates and passing pro-life laws in Congress and state legislatures are the more successful route to stopping abortions.
The ban, had it been approved, would have far-reaching effects, as it would prohibit the kind of abortions done at Southwestern Women’s Options, a notorious late-term abortion facility that kills unborn babies by shooting them through the heart with poison. It is considered the largest late-term abortion facility in the United States.
“It’s very troubling, very barbaric, very unnecessary procedure that the public needs to [talk] about,” said Elisa Martinez of Protect Albuquerque Women and Children.
Approval of the law will lead to a legal battle, though a liberal activist web site admits the late-term abortion ban will likely turn out to be constitutional. Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life legal group, is preparing to defend any legal challenges that follow its passage.
The organization tells LifeNews it is uniquely positioned to shepherd the ordinance through any legal proceedings, having already defended the act against an attempt by Albuquerque City Council to prevent the matter from being included on the ballot.
“This municipal election is one that carries national import,” explained Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Dana Cody, “because Albuquerque is home to the largest late-term abortion clinic in the nation. If Albuquerque’s voters pass this ban, it can be read as a clear statement that they no longer wish to be known as America’s late-term abortion capital. The lawyers of Life Legal Defense Foundation are ready to protect that decision on their behalf.”
A recent national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a law.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council puts the vote in context.
“Although the referendum is technically a local one, Albuquerque’s initiative would be felt throughout the whole country, since the city is home to some of America’s only late-term abortion providers. For too long, the city has been a destination for death, as moms travel near and far to take advantage of the area’s loose laws,” he said.
The bill is similar to Congressional legislation that would also ban abortions after 20 weeks — which the House has approved and is pending in the Senate.
During the hearing in the House, former abortion practitioner Anthony Levatino told members of the committee the gruesome details of his former abortion practice and how he became pro-life following the tragic automobile accident of his child.
Another bombshell dropped during the hearing came from Dr. Maureen Condic, who is Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She testified that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain as early as 8-10 weeks. This is when most abortions in America take place.
The bill relies on the science of fetal pain to establish a Constitutional reason for Congress to ban abortions late in pregnancy. The science behind the concept of fetal pain is fully established and Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into it. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for it.
He has testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.”
He and his colleagues Dr. Vincent J. Collins and Thomas J. Marzen were the top researchers to point to fetal pain decades ago. Collins, before his death, was Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois and author of Principles of Anesthesiology, one of the leading medical texts on the control of pain.
“The functioning neurological structures necessary to suffer pain are developed early in a child’s development in the womb,” they wrote.
“Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation. Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus before the 9th week of gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th and 10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal column takes place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body,” they continued.
With Zielinski and his colleagues the first to provide the scientific basis for the concept of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand of the University of Arkansas Medical Center has provided further research to substantiate their work.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
“The neural pathways are present for pain to be experienced quite early by unborn babies,” explains Steven Calvin, M.D., perinatologist, chair of the Program in Human Rights Medicine, University of Minnesota, where he teaches obstetrics.
Dr. Colleen A. Malloy, Assistant Professor, Division of Neonatology at Northwestern University in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2012 said, “[w]hen we speak of infants at 22 weeks LMP [Note: this is 20 weeks post fertilization], for example, we no longer have to rely solely on inferences or ultrasound imagery, because such premature patients are kicking, moving, reacting, and developing right before our eyes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
“In today’s medical arena, we resuscitate patients at this age and are able to witness their ex-utero growth and development. Medical advancement and technology have enabled us to improve our ability to care for these infants…In fact, standard of care for neonatal intensive care units requires attention to and treatment of neonatal pain,” Dr. Malloy testified. She continued, “[t]hus, the difference between fetal and neonatal pain is simply the locale in which the pain occurs. The receiver’s experience of the pain is the same. I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to horrific procedures such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection.”
>Tell the hos to keep their legs crossed
That covers about half the problem. What should the studs be told to do?
>wonder why God just doesn’t step in and throw thunder and lightning down
Probably the same reason he doesn’t reach down and rescue those dying in the middle of a natural disaster.
“Southwestern Women’s Options, a notorious late-term abortion facility that kills unborn babies by shooting them through the heart with poison.”
Hell on earth is here.
I have family in Albuquerque...when I emailed my sister about the fake blood-spattering on the pro-life people, she said she’d be sure to vote.
Albuquerque is a place of retired government and military personnel and lots of immigrants...problem I see is voter apathy.
I think He is waiting for us to do something nationally.
Don’t know of any civilization that practiced human sacrifice that is still in existence.
God told Moses that if the Israelites did the same things the people of the promised land were doing, Israel would be invaded and judgment would come. king Manasseh did burn his son alive and he ended up in prison in babylon, where he repented and was allowed to return and he tore down all the alters. His great grandson, however, started up the practice again and Israel was invaded. The book of Lamentations is the story of God’s judgment. This was the only time in the Old Testament (Manasseh’s abomination) that the LORD would not forgive Israel and judgment came later.
It has been 40 years for the United States. Any doubts as to why we have the coming World economic collapse? Any doubts as to why Christians warn about the Great Tribulation? Because child sacrifice is now practiced all over the world. God is waiting for us to stop it and tear down the clinics.
“However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the temple (house) of which I said, ‘My name shall be there’.”
“Surely at the command (mouth) of the LORD it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; AND THE LORD WOULD NOT FORGIVE.” (All caps mine) 2 Kings 23: 26 & 27 and 24: 3 & 4
God gave free choice to human beings, and if they are not free to choose evil as well as good, they are not free. If God steps in and stops the evil whenever humans choose evil, then they do not actually have moral and mental freedom. Unfortunately mankind has consistently chosen evil. The Christian view, taken directly from Scripture, is that the Earth is the kingdom of the devil, and will not see real justice until Jesus returns and establishes His Kingdom here.
After the utter evil of World War II, one survivor of the Nazis said, “Tell me, where was God at Auschwitz?” And the answer came: “Tell me, where was man?” In other words, the evil is caused by man, and it is our task to fix it. If we do not, the judgement of God will someday come.
But this is no reason not to pray. The purpose of prayer is not to argue with God and make Him do what we want Him to do; the purpose of prayer is to accord our wills with His and form our souls as He wants. If you give up prayer because God doesn’t do exactly what you want Him to do when you want Him to do it, you’re treating Him like an ATM.
Do I trust election results anywhere in this country anymore? No.
a lot of people are ignorant of what late term abortion even is.....and yet, show them a facebook pic of a little unborn baby at 7-8-9 months and they’re all oohing and ahhing.....do they even realize that a baby could be killed just minutes before it’s born?
In the 70’s the hippies took over the desert and open range with their communes and now their kids are in charge. Why would anyone be surprised?
People in Albuquerque never met an abortion they weren’t willing to fund.
Sad. I went to HS in ABQ in the 60’s and lived there for a while in the early 70’s. Beautiful state but politically, they might as well move to the northeast. Dumbasses!
Did the business community rally for the abortions as the people coming in for the popular procedurer “add to the economy”? Or it’s just that the New Mexicans see this as affirming their “sexual freedom.” It’s always been a largely poor, uneducated state.
Here in Albuquerque we saw:
The pro abortion forces going in force to the UNM campus, telling the students that this measure was just the first step to ban all abortion.
Constant TV commercials of doctors telling heart rending stories of women carrying children with severe birth defects that just “had” to have an abortion, along with an admonition to not let the government get involved in personal health decisions!
The opposition hacked the pro life web site and had all the pro life emails rerouted to them.
Evil running rampant.
“... a lot of people are ignorant of what late term abortion even is...”
I have a new grandson, due the first week of August, arrived the second week of May. Less than three pounds. Those thoughts entered my mind as I sat looking at him, such a wonderous little bundle. It just makes you weep to think about what we are doing as a people.
He weighs 15 pounds now and is about to start cutting teeth. Praise the Lord.
You are right about apathy. The turn out figure was 24% of eligible voters. If they won’t turn out for this reason, they won’t turn out for anything. The turnout for last month’s mayoral election was 20%.
Scroll down in this story for those figures:
http://www.krqe.com/news/local/abq-voters-reject-late-term-abortion-ban
thanks for the info
Ditto. No other words.
I don't have time this afternoon to research the exact numbers.
Most likely, there is no exit polling.
But I do want to check which Hispanic organizations publicly supported the ban.
If any national Hispanic organization supports such a ban, I have not heard about it.
A possibly good frame of reference for this vote might be the 2010 New Mexico governor's race.
Susana Martinez, who won that race, is a centrist Republican, a former Democrat, and is pro-Life.
Martinez's parents are Mexican immigrants.
60% of Hispanics voted AGAINST Martinez!
The only reason she won is because Hispanic voter turnout was very low in that off year election.
The only good thing, such as it is, is theat the liberal babykillers are killing their own spawn, (except for the Abortionators themselves, of course)and so it will be self-liniting, over a long time.
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