Let’s vote to protect human life
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Editor,
My Montana education taught me that rights go hand in hand with responsibilities. For instance, the right to vote includes the responsibility to be an informed voter.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court established a woman’s legal right to abortion. The pivotal question: When does life begin? After enormous debate, the Supreme Court chose fetal viability to answer this question. In the 50 years since Roe v Wade, countless medical advancements significantly improved and extended fetal viability.
Hence in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the trimester framework to establish fetal viability and found no constitutional right to abortion. However, the Court empowered the 50 states to decide when life begins. As it should.
Here in Montana, we value less federal interference. Incidentally, total contributions to oppose CI-128: $191,362. Total contributions to support CI-128: $16,482,666. [Ballotpedia] One wonders how much of this is out-of-state interference.
Please read the full text of CI-128. Its drafters apparently failed to do their homework, because this constitutional amendment is based on “fetal viability”. If CI-128 passes, it’ll be tied up in court from its inception. And, our courts are already overburdened.
Roe v Wade (1973), defined life’s beginning as “the interim point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable,’ that is, potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid.”
CI-128 (2024) states “Fetal viability means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
The total of abortions due to incest, rape, fetal or mother health is less than 8%. [Guttmacher]
In 2021, 24% of women had their 2nd abortion and 19% had their 3rd or more abortion. [CDC] That’s 43% of women having more than one abortion. Hey, if it’s legal it’s okay, right?
These days, cats and dogs have more rights than humans. Over 60% of U.S. animal shelters have no-kill policies. Let’s vote responsibly to protect human life from its beginning.
Tam Newby
Polson
