Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston
Globe
May 18, 1999, Tuesday ,City Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE; Pg. A18
LENGTH: 356 words
HEADLINE:
The same old abortion scam
BODY:
The wrenching, provocative, and spurious national crusade to outlaw a certain
type of medical abortion has arrived in Massachusetts. The legislature's
Judiciary Committee will consider a bill today that would criminalize what
sponsors call "partial-birth abortion" - a term that is so
vague and medically unsound that the bans have been ruled unconstitutional in 18
of 20 other states where they have been challenged. Massachusetts legislators
must hold firm to the carefully balanced tenets of Roe. v. Wade and reject this
propaganda. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion,
already outlaws third-trimester abortions except to save the life or health of
the mother. This is worth repeating: In Massachusetts, a woman cannot have an
abortion after the 24th week of pregnancy unless her life or health is in
danger.
The sad fact is that in rare cases women who desperately want
their babies run into terrible medical complications late in pregnancy and need
to abort or risk infertility, a punctured uterus, or other severe health
problems. The bill being heard today makes no exception for the health of the
mother. Other women may learn that the fetus is developing without a brain or a
spinal cord, or with other abnormalities that will lead to its death hours or
days after it is born. What purpose is served in forcing these anguished women
to carry such damaged pregnancies to term?
Because this bill is part of
a nationally orchestrated campaign, it is easy to predict what will happen
today. There will be gruesome and graphic descriptions of the procedure,
complete with photos of mangled fetuses and other props. But every abortion
procedure can be made to sound gruesome; opponents will not stop at picking off
one. Governor Cellucci's avowed prochoice position will be a hollow memory if he
takes the first step down that slope by signing this bill.
The fact is
that these rare abortions - known medically as "intact dilation and evacuation"
- are tragic necessities, not capricous acts of barbarism. The decision to have
them must be left between a woman and her doctor.
LOAD-DATE: May 18, 1999 
