I know that these commentaries reach a national and even an
international following on the world wide web.
So, I thought long and hard about whether to deal with an
issue that, at first glance, appears geared toward an audience primarily
residing within the State of Illinois.
Having moved from that state not too long ago, the people
and its issues still hold a special place in my heart.
One topic I’ve been following closely, even though I now
dwell 800 miles away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is the state’s attempt
to pass legislation banning so-called "live-birth" abortions.
This is a procedure where a live-birth is prematurely
induced and the baby enters this world with no medical assistance, to die
alone. What made the already heartless action doubly hard to stomach was the
fact that it is routinely practiced at a suburban Chicago health care center
that operates under the name above all names…Christ Hospital.
The world would never have known of this grisly procedure
had it not been brought to life by a courageous delivery room nurse employed
by that hospital, Jill Stanek. For her whistle-blowing actions, Nurse Stanek
has suffered intense pressure from her superiors intended to stifle her
one-woman crusade. She spent one year on probation. She has also been the
target of scorn from some co-workers.
But the local media picked up her story, ran with it and
Jill Stanek has now shared her story on national TV and before a
congressional committee.
Here’s where the story turns parochial, not in the
religious sense (although there are certainly Christian overtones to this
story). Rather, the parochial or local angle deals with the latest news from
Springfield, Illinois, where the house Judiciary Committee has killed a
series of bills, which would have outlawed live-birth abortion in the Land
of Lincoln and protected the rights and status of every human who is born
alive.
Here is how those bills were described by our friend Dan
Zanoza at RFM News:
Senate Bill 1093 would have required a separate physician,
who is not involved in the abortion, to be on hand in the event the abortion
might result in a live birth, for that doctor to make an independent
evaluation of the viability of the infant and to provide medical care if
required.
Senate Bill 1094 would have created a cause of action in the event an
induced labor abortion resulted in a live birth and the doctor or health
care provider harmed or neglected the infant or failed to provide proper
medical care to the child after its birth.
Senate Bill 1095 defined a "born-alive infant" to include every
infant member of the homo sapiens species who is born alive at any stage of
his/her development.
Neither the sponsor of the bills, Senator Patrick O’Malley,
who has announced plans to run for Governor of Illinois, nor the Speaker of
the House, Mike Madigan, could be reached for comment.
There you have it. Legislation that establishes the
protected status of a human being is quietly killed by state lawmakers
without giving it so much as a decent burial.
Yes, this is an Illinois story. But the statement it makes
about the inability or unwillingness of our elected officials to determine
right from wrong and act accordingly speaks volumes. It speaks to our
hearts, no matter where we live. And it grieves us at the very core of our
beings.
When the most helpless and innocent among us has no legal
standing or strong advocate, how can we be certain those legal rights will
continue to be extended to the rest of us?
We hope the Illinois legislature will reconsider these
landmark laws and that they will sprout in state houses across the country,
as well.