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Liz Michael for United States Senate

Abortion

I fully recognize two sets of conflicting rights on the abortion issue. I believe strenuously in the right of a woman to control her own body. And I also believe strenuously in an unborn child's right to life.

I fully reject the concept that a fetus is not a human being. A fetus is scientifically a human being because it carries the human genome, it is alive, and it possesses all necessary cells needed to mature to adulthood under natural conditions. It is not a part of the woman's body: it resides inside a woman's body. These things are made quite evident via ultrasound and photography. From the moment of conception, an embryo is scientifically a being of the human specie, and therefore a human being. To willfully engage in an act which destroys that human being, regardless of what the law is or should be, is morally, murder unless there are compelling reasons. It is the same as killing a grown person or a child in cold blood. And I counsel any woman not to get an abortion unless her life and health are in serious jeopardy.

Nevertheless, the individual rights of the fetus should never rightly be construed as empowering the state to seize control of a pregnant woman's body. Instead of wrangling over the personhood of the fetus, which to me is self-evident, we should simply acknowledge that because of its situation that the fetus has rights that it is difficult or impossible to enforce in a free society.

Left to the States

Abortion should rightly be left to the states and to the people to legislate. All the aspects of abortion, whether it is to be considered murder or a form of homicide, whether it is an acceptible medical procedure, et al., should rest on the state level as those decisions are state decisions and not federal in all other like cases. States are empowered to determine what is and is not murder, as well as what is or is not valid medical practice. Supreme Court justices with Roe vs. Wade revoked a state's right to regulate this one legal and medical exception.

Accordingly, I support the reversal of Roe v. Wade. This does not mean that criminalization of all abortion could work. That is an issue for the states and for the people, not judges, to decide. I am more concerned with preventing abortion than criminalizing it yet having it continue. There are still a lot of hearts to be won before we can even consider that major step.

Different Situations - Different Rights

I believe whose rights are preeminent, the mother's or the child's, should rest with whom the specific medical action is aimed at. Accordingly, if something is done to the mother, I believe she has that primary right. But if something is done to the child, then others may have a rationale at that point step in to defend the child.

Most Abortions Directly Kill the Child

The most preeminent abortion techniques are not things done to the mother's body. D & C abortions involve the active destruction of the fetus by literally tearing it apart and shredding it. Saline abortions involve the poisoning of the child's amniotic fluid and torturing it to death over the course of an hour. The infamous D & X technique, or partial-birth abortion, involves delivery of a child's body through the womb and then sucking out its brains while still alive with a catheter. Partial-birth abortions should be banned except in the case of medical necessity, because they involve slaying the child in utero. A woman has the right to end her pregnancy but does NOT have the right to kill her child.

"Life of the Mother"

I'm conflicted on the subject of the necessity of abortion to save the life of the mother. Certainly, if there were an instance where the life of the mother could be saved only by abortion, I would acknowledge that it must be legal. However, consider the testimony of former pediatrician and U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. He says, "Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother's life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother's health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby's life is never willfully destroyed because the mother's life is in danger."

Late Term Abortions

Beginning in the sixth month, everything doable to preserve the life of the child, so long as the mother is not placed in harm's way, ought to be legally mandatory. By the sixth month, it is my belief that the mother beyond a reasonable doubt has consented to continue the pregnancy if both she and the baby are healthy.

Government Funding of Abortion

I oppose all government funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or medical necessity. The funding issue is not a matter of guaranteeing a woman's access to abortion, but a matter of guaranteeing the abortionist a profit, something that should not be done. It is the responsiblity of providing for this surgery, when it is elective surgery, of the patient and/or the providers. Let those who believe in abortions for poor women finance them with their own funds.

Parental Consent to Abortion and Contraception

I do not believe that the surgery of abortion merits by its nature a forfeiture of medical rights of parental consent. And I believe that the age of consent for abortion should be identical to the age of consent for all other surgeries. I do agree that a judicial bypass should exist for cases where a young woman would feel put at harm from her parents by her circumstances.

Likewise, I believe that the ability to consent to take birth control medications should be equivalent to the right of a minor to consent to take any other prescription. I believe that non-medical contraception, such as condoms, should be freely available for individuals of any age to purchase. I do not believe in state funding of free contraceptives, but do not object to localities deciding to organize free contraception programs. I do not believe that public schools should distribute contraception of any kind.

RU-486 and Abortifacients

Because I believe in the freedom of individuals to medicate themselves, I do not believe RU-486 or other oral medicinal agents which may cause or induce spontaneous abortion of an embryo, should be banned. Many of these medicines have alternative uses also. I do not believe a woman has an obligation to at any time retain or enhance fertility or a receptive environment for a fetus or embryo. However, make no mistake: this is still a reprehensible act to do to a human embryo known to exist, the moral equivalent of bombing a building and randomly killing someone inside.

Gag Rules

I oppose any kind of "gag rule" tying federal aid to what a medical professional can or cannot say. It is a clear violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. Organizations such as Planned Parenthood are known for exactly what they are. Choose to fund them or not, but don't play fast and loose with free speech rights. The decision whether to fund most medical care is an option I would also return to states.

Alternatives to Abortion

The best way to prevent abortions, in additional to education about the fetus, is through insuring the availability of alternative choices to abortion. I would advocate the following reforms of the law and the promotion of the following activities.

We need to reform adoption laws nationwide, to include such alternatives as adoption within families, coparent joint custody arrangements, coadoptions of teen mothers with their babies, and alternatives to total surrender of parental rights by the birth mother. I also support the legal ability for the birth mother to sell parental rights to a child, as even that, as unseemly as it might be, is preferable to seeing the child aborted.

I support the striking down of all barriers to adoption, and support interracal adoption as well as adoption by sexual minorities, and would enact legislation to this effect. I also propose that the unaborted fetus be counted as a dependent for tax deduction purposes from the moment of conception and that the exemption continue as valid so long as the fetus is not electively aborted. I advocate a $5,000 adoption tax exemption to facilitate legal adoptions.

Sex Education

I believe that complete education in sex and sexuality should begin at as early an age as feasible, and absolutely prior to the onset of puberty. I have a strong belief about this: it is impossible for a child to act to make the right choices unless they are fully informed about sex. I do not believe that any sexual topics should be forbidden for discussion, but I do believe that children need to know both the beneifts of various forms of sex as well as the dangers. It is proper to teach that abstinence before marriage as a viable sexuality choice: notwithstanding, I believe that to successfully teach abstinence you must teach about sex. However, I believe the primary right to discuss these things belongs with the parents, and that the parents' role in sex educaton should never be preempted by the state.

Abortion and Libertarianism

Abortion of the healthy fetus of a healthy mother is something WHOLLY INCOMPATIBLE with libertarian principles. Libertarians take an oath not to initiate force to promote or achieve social or political goals. If abortion against an unborn child does not fit the definition of the initiation of force to achieve social or political purposes, I defy you to describe to me any act that does.

I support an amendment to the Constitution which would extend personhood to the unborn child, and allow states to determine exactly how that is to be defined in their localities.

Abortion and Racism

It is often the case that abortion doctors will target poor and minority communities to exploit very desperate people for paltry sums of money, much of it state financed. Indeed, the founder of the group now known as Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a white racist who believed in the science of eugenics, the philosophy that helped birth the Holocaust. Undoubtedly, part of the practice of abortion is offered for the express purpose of racial and ethnic genocide, the killing off of the offspring of people the ruling class perceives as undesirable. In a sense, a woman having had an abortion has not only been tricked into murdering her child, but tricked into participating in the genocide of her own people.

Why Have You Put Pictures Of Aborted Babies On This Page?

I want to discourage any person considering getting an abortion from actually doing it. To quote a former First Lady in time of tragedy, "I want them to see what they have done." If this offends some in the pro-choice movement, I would suggest to them that they are easily offended. Whether this is an act that is legal or not, this is an act that is grossly wrong, and I beg women in no uncertain terms to never have an abortion.

Roe vs. Wade
See: Health Care
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Liz Michael for United States Senate

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