Calvin editorial on Partial-Birth Abortion, November 30, 2003

There's a reason that fetuses look human

Steve Calvin

Published November 30, 2003

The Nov. 20 editorial on abortion clearly demonstrated the deep cultural divide in America.

A confession: As a pro-life physician I have played a minor role in engineering the tactical shift in this debate that has so exercised the editorial staff. This shift came because America finally faced the reality of abortion. Stealth and snookery had nothing to do with it.

The response to passage and signing of the partial birth abortion ban makes clear that abortion advocates demand nothing less than popular affirmation of an unlimited private right to lethal prenatal violence. They aren't likely to get it.

The blunt hammer of the Roe decision left us with a shattered moral compass. We are still picking up the pieces. Medical and technological progress, as well as cultural reflection, has led to a shift of opinion in the pro-life direction.

The destructive procedure affected by this accurately named partial birth abortion ban can be found in obstetrical texts of a generation ago. It was performed on dead fetuses as a way to accomplish delivery without resorting to an abdominal operation.

A decade ago at a national abortion meeting, one enterprising abortionist presented the technique as an easier method of ending life and delivering fetuses in the second and third trimester. To the prolife movement this became the public relations equivalent of a hanging curve ball. They hit it a long way, but the game is not over yet.

I recall sitting at a kitchen table with the attorneys defending the Arizona ban on this procedure. They asked where the line would ever be drawn. Did Roe guarantee a right to not be pregnant, or did it guarantee the right to a dead fetus? At what point in the process of birth would federal judges grant a fetus protection against lethal violence?

We decided that a live, partially born fetus deserved that protection.

The recognition of this doesn't require a dazed public. It requires a public that is awake and on the edge of their seats. And yes, this procedure is gruesome. Common sense and the ultrasonic window to the womb show that human fetuses look human precisely because they are human.

The criticisms of this ban are, at best, inaccurate. Though this procedure is a small percentage of nearly 1 million abortions, more than a few hundred and up to a couple of thousand are done each year. Most are without any significant medical justification.

In rare, tragic situations, I care for women needing to end a pregnancy because of a life-threatening problem. This ban provides the necessary exception for women in these situations and protects those of us who care for them.

The argument that government has no role in medical decision making also rings hollow. In 1997, Congress passed a law criminalizing genital mutilation on women under age 18. The penalty of five years in prison for those performing genital mutilation is even more severe than the two-year penalty in the abortion bill. Pro-choice groups lined up in support of the ban on genital mutilation without complaining about undue interference in medicine.

It is time for the Star Tribune to reassess its position. The persistent blind spot of the progressive left is abortion. It is the height of hypocrisy to advocate for children while supporting a privacy right requiring their prenatal destruction.

It is also time to stop equating "unrestrictedly pro-choice" with "moderate"; this was always wishful thinking anyway. Opinion polls consistently show public opinion on abortion is very complicated.

As the delivery of a victory to its conservative base, the passage and signing of the ban will probably drop abortion much lower on the Republican leadership's agenda. However, the battle over judicial nominations is just the same fight in a different forum.

There is no chance that abortion foes will shred the Constitution. We are simply trying to undo the grotesque distortion that has made the Constitution serve as a prenatal death warrant.

Steve Calvin, a physician, lives in Minneapolis.

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