OPINION

Jacqueline R. Smetak | Writers' Group

Abortion is in the news with what the pro-life movement considers a foolproof way to reverse Roe v. Wade. They've shoved the standard of viability back to six weeks. A dozen states, including Iowa, have passed “fetal heartbeat” bills

The reasoning, as our governor Kim Reynolds says, is "if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then doesn't a beating heart indicate life?” Except at six weeks, there is no heart. The heart may not be functional until 20 weeks. Further, death is determined by death of the brain, not the heart. And the brain is not functional until weeks 20-23.

Roe v. Wade set viability at 28-29 weeks consistent with the 90% survival rate of infants born at this point. Medical practice sets the limit of viability at 24 weeks when the survival rate is 50%. The connection between presumed viability and Governor Reynolds is likely Planned Parenthood v Casey (2002) upholding the Born Alive Infants Protection Act which defined “alive” as breathing, a heartbeat or both. The law requires these infants be kept alive no matter how hopeless their situation.

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Pro-life arguments based on pseudo-science are not new. Pro-life activists recognize that secular laws based on religious dogma are unconstitutional. They also recognize that picketing, blocking, and firebombing clinics, harassing and threatening patients and staff, and killing doctors is bad optics. It's better to elect pro-life conservatives and pack the courts. Except the current backlash against these laws may be an indication they've hit a dead end.

This gets us to square one. The reasons for banning abortion are based on religion. All other justifications fall apart and those opposing abortion have to depend on God's word, law, and wrath. But there's nothing in the Bible, the Quran, or Jewish sacred texts that deals directly with this issue. While there's lots of commentary and disagreement, that's not God's word. It's people trying to make sense of what they think is God's word.

Except a sizable chunk of Americans don't see it that way. According to a recent Gallup poll, 28% of Americans consider the Bible, disagreements and multiple translations aside, as the absolute literal word of God. The problems this creates in a diverse, modern, secular, and democratic society should be obvious. And when a chunk of that 28% finds itself blocked from carrying out God's commands, the situation is no longer problematic, it's dangerous.

There's increasing talk of a coming civil war. Washington state legislator Matt Shea predicts that Christians will retreat to “zones of freedom”. Michael Brown, writing for “Charisma” magazine, blames the coming civil war on militant abortionists. He warns that abortion is a sign that the demonic spirit of Jezebel is powerful in America. Televangelist Rick Joyner has a prophetic dream: “We are already in the first stages of the Second American Revolution/Civil War . . .We must change our strategy from trying to avoid it, to winning it.” And according to Buck Jacobs, founder of The C12 Group, “National repentance and the restoration of God and His ways as our moral base in Christ is the only hope for our nation”.

For anyone who has ever driven through Missouri searching for a radio station that isn't all about Jesus, this kind of talk is not that weird. It's how these people talk. From Michael Brown, writing for World Net Daily, “Our nation is being torn up by abortion . . . And with every positive, pro-life step that is taken, the militant abortionists are crying for more blood”.

Seems that those who are pro-life are so pro-life that they are willing to kill those who disagree with them. And they justify this with a smear that dates back more that 5,000 years. They may kill their enemies in the name of their god because their enemies sacrifice children to Moloch.

Only this time around the enemy is us.

Writers' Group member Jacqueline R. Smetak lives in Lone Tree.