As a pro-life advocate, I find a silver lining in the letter published on Sept. 12 (Texas abortion ban is about money and marginalization.) The writer is against the Texas abortion ban, specifically the part where a citizen can win a lawsuit against the abortion-enabler and win a $10,000 judgment.
The letter posits “If life begins at six weeks then you are a parent six weeks after conception, and should be given the (tax) benefits at that time.” It stands to reason that anyone endorsing parenthood (motherhood) at six weeks after conception is unintentionally admitting that a pregnancy at six weeks is harboring a human being (child) deserving of personhood and full protection of the laws that apply for any just-born child.
This Texas abortion ban is, more to the point, a heartbeat bill and that’s what the pro-abortion rights advocates are attacking. At six weeks after conception, the embryonic heart can be a tubular heart or already have four chambers. Either way, both have a detectable primitive heartbeat. That’s the point of these heartbeat bills.
I have a sneaky suspicion that the underlying reason for the pro-abortion rights coalition’s rejection of heartbeat bills is because they don’t want to acknowledge an embryonic or fetal heartbeat, which would be a recognition of humanity. Planned Parenthood has ultrasounds, not to show a mother her child’s heartbeat in utero, but to guide the clinician as the abortion is performed.
Dan Pryor
Belvidere
