In the late 20th century, evangelicals won elections by politicizing the suffering of babies and mothers, and traumatizing children by displaying images of dead babies in public. This was acceptable, I assume, well I have no idea why this was acceptable. It like why they thought bringing busload of terrorists to health clinics to attack mothers was acceptable. It was the times, I guess.
So the new thing, evidently, is to prosecute mothers and doctors who have to decide if a new born baby can be saved or if the chances are so slight that the situation is medically hopeless. Obviously the baby is going to receive palliative care, and the parents and doctors are going to have an intense discussion. Obviously sometimes this will result in the medical opinion that nothing can be done to save the baby. We can’t say rarely because due to lack or prenatal care in the US our infant mortality rates are at the levels of developing countries.
Obviously this has nothing to do with abortion, and obviously allowing s non-viable newborn to die is not execution. If one is religious, one can say, for whatever reasons, god has chosen that baby, and we don’t really have the right to go to extreme means to subvert the will of the almighty.
While the exploitation of these babies is disgusting, but par for course for evangelicals, it does leave a door open for liberals to enact policy that will protect mothers and babies, and, politically, will expose the evangelicals as people who do not care about babies, but merely exploit them to maximize personal power.
I believe that Pelosi should draft and introduce a bill or bills that will do three things. End the gag order on doctors and fund abortions, fund planned parenthood, and provide a grant for any families who want to save a baby.
First, we must admit that one reason we have babies suffering with extreme birth defects is that doctors are not allowed to advise terminating the pregnancy when the baby is unlikely to survive. To contract this, and minimize suffering, doctors have to be able to recommend termination when medically indicated. There is no reason a suffering baby should be forced to be brought to term, only to allowed to die hours later. All insurance should cover the procedure when medically indicated.
Second, we have to fund prenatal care through organization like Planned Parenthood. Elizabeth Warren’s idea to fine hospitals when mothers die is crazy, and comes from a person who likely has never seen a mother carry a baby with little medical attention. Hospitals are not killing mothers, any more than they are executing babies. Black mothers die at high rates because they do not receive the care that need throughout their pregnancy. The solution is to fund the organizations that will provide the care. We need more clinics and more accessible clinics. We have two planned parenthoods around a predominately black neighborhood, but it would be great if we once again had a clinic right smack dab in the middle. Fully funded.
Third, there should be a mandate that any state that have so-called born-alive laws also provide grants to families who want to save their babies. I would require states, once a doctor provides a sworn statement that the family has decided to not to execute the baby, provide an immediate and automatic one million dollar grant to be distributed to cover expenses of the doctor, hospital, and future expenses of the family. This grant would insure that the family is not making the decision to execute the baby for financial reasons, but solely for the fact that the baby cannot be saved.