"If it saves just one life."
By: MARLA FERNANDEZ — AUG. 27, 2022, 7:36 PM
Roe -v Wade has been overturned federally. Voters, legislators, and judges in lower courts in states outside of Colorado will shape their state’s abortion policies in the elections to come. In the states where there is support for late-term abortion, like Colorado, we will not see many dramatic court decisions.
The states that push back against abortion will bring new legal definitions to this arena. Movements to ban abortion will have to create a timeline. There are three things that are certain. A woman conceives; a human grows; then the woman gives birth. Realistically, a healthy woman can conceive and not seek medical attention until she delivers. Growing a human is a straightforward process.
Because the US Constitution guarantees you, me, and every other human the right to ‘life,’ the pro-life movement is going to have to establish ‘life’ on this timeline. Even though I am in Colorado, life begins at the beginning of the timeline, conception.
Some say life begins the moment the baby leaves the birth canal. Many people consider this position absurd. There are legislators willing to take abortion beyond the moment a baby is born. Colorado just heard a bill in its legislative house that championed abortion after a birth. This issue thrives on absurd arguments.
People are concerned about late-term abortion shrinking nationwide. They will champion ‘it’s for the life of the mother.’ Sadly, it is more than likely ‘for the lifestyle of the mother.’ The mother rarely dies if a pregnancy goes forward as nature intended.
Abortion in the early weeks of a pregnancy happens by taking a ‘morning after pill.’ In Colorado, a woman can wait until the third trimester to end her pregnancy. No one has an ectopic pregnancy at this late stage. A baby is complete at the start of the third trimester. At this point it needs to grow larger to increase its chances of thriving. Late-term abortions are complicated and gruesome. No pill does the work here.
As a daughter of an immigrant from Cuba, a totalitarian country, a baby’s right to life is the utmost symbol of liberty and freedom. Once conceived, an innocent, helpless baby needs advocates. A baby is not an illness, cancer, or a lump of cells. We need to start using the same moniker to deter abortion as we do about gun control: ‘If it just saves one life.’