The Observer received a communication this week from members of the pro-life community that a bill, similar to the one in New York that allows abortion up until the moment of birth is being drafted for Illinois. 

 

According to the Reproductive Health Act signed into law by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a woman could choose to undergo an abortion any time after 24 weeks of pregnancy if a health care professional determines the health or life of the mother is at risk, or the fetus is not viable. Basically, all a woman has to do is visit the abortionist and say she will be better off minus baby.

 

By 24 weeks of pregnancy babies weigh about 1.3 pounds and are about a foot long. According to studies from 2005, about 80  percent of babies born after 24 weeks survive outside the womb. With today’s technology, I’m sure the number is the same or higher.

 

However if the mother decides she is not mentally ready and her medical professional concurs, she can have the child’s life ended in utero and then deliver her dead child. 

 

Do we really want this for Illinois? Does the average person really understand just how brutal a late-term abortion is? 

 

As a mom I will never understand the argument that a late-term abortion is better for the health of the mother than delivery and adoption. In a late term abortion procedure, the child is killed by extracting it, usually piece by piece, and crushing the skull. Former abortionists have testified that the pain for the mother is still the same and the hormonal disruption is not pleasant either. (Ask those of us who have miscarried or look online). And let’s not forget the pain to the child who the medical community says does feel pain.

 

I write about this for several reasons. 

 

First, can’t we find another cause for Illinois? Our governors, both Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker, have already extended the reach of abortion and made sure we foot the bill, like it or not. 

 

Enough. It seems the more advanced we get as a society and the more options we have, we still fail to understand that abortion is another word for death — a death by mother’s choice. 

 

And if we cannot understand that killing a fully formed human being inside his or her mother is wrong, how can we ever fully begin to eliminate racism, poverty, bullying, human trafficking, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual exploitation and abuse of minors and adults, elder abuse, or any other affront to the rights and dignity of all human beings?

 

Second, I write as a mom of four children and a grandmother of one 3-year-old granddaughter and a 25-week in utero grandson. My grandson is busy rolling and kicking his mommy to the delight of his sister. We have photos of his pudgy face and him sucking his thumb. 

 

As stressed as my working-mom daughter might be at times, there is no thought of interrupting nature and ending his life. To all of us, he is as much a part of life on the inside as he will be outside his mom. I would say he is safer in the womb but that is not entirely true thanks to laws like New York’s and quite possibly soon in Illinois. 

 

It really is time to change the conversation about this. It really is time to stand up and say that abortion is death and stop hiding behind the old argument of “I don’t personally believe in abortion but I won’t get in the way of someone else getting one.” I wouldn’t personally step in front of a bus but I am also not going to make it easier for others to do so! 

 

Tell our lawmakers enough is enough. We are tired of handing over our future, emptying the schools and neighborhoods of our state one abortion at a time.

 

We know a lot more than we did in 1973. We have choices. Women and men have choices, including natural ones that work with our faith, that keep them from sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy. Let’s help each other and our state choose dignity for humans over birth control by deadly abortions.