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"Please vote yes on HB
1242."
Honorable Representatives,
North Dakota Life League ("NDLL") testified in
favor of HB 1242.
For the record and so that you are aware, NDLL
offered an amendment to reduce the penalty for the mother to a class C
felony which is five years and $5,000. The writers of the bill did not
want to amend the bill.
We support the bill because we must consider the
preborn child first and foremost. To paraphrase a quote from Cardinal
Bevilaqua, current President of the US Catholic Conference, we must
protect the innocent unborn child. Even though we can empathize with the
difficult circumstances that women sometimes find themselves in, this
cannot abrograte our responsibility to provide legal protection to the
unborn.
Thus, pro-life legislators must decide whether or
not to support this bill as it is written.
Charles Rice, a well known pro-life attorney and
professor at Notre Dame University, after congratulating Rep. Sally
Sandvig on a very fine bill and one that the Bishops "ought to have
supported", stated that there never was a prosecution of a mother prior
to Roe v. Wade. Even in states (N.D. being one of them) where
state statutes did penalize the mother, women were always considered the
victim. HB 1242 does not mention prosecution of the mother. Yes, she
could be, but as is proven by the record prior to Roe v. Wade,
the mother was never prosecuted.
We have to also remember, that were this bill to
pass women would not be victims any longer. It would only be by their
own violation of the law that they would become victims and even then it
would -- for all practical purposes -- not be by prosecution but simply
by the effect of the abortion upon their physical, emotional,
psychological and spiritual well-being.
It should also be mentioned that men could also
be prosecuted for their participation in the abortion. For example: Who
paid for the abortion? Who arranged for the abortion? Did the father of
the preborn baby pressure the mother into having an abortion? Did the
father drive the mother to her appointment? These are all prosecutorial
decisions that would go into prosecution. In all likelihood, it would be
the abortionist who would be prosecuted.
While NDLL supported a lesser penalty we urge you
to vote yes on HB 1242 for these reasons:
1. It is almost a certitude that women would not
be prosecuted as is proven by judicial history: prior to Roe v. Wade,
there is not one prosecution of a mother on record in the United States
where the mother was found guilty of the crime of abortion.
2. The only way to stop women from suffering from
abortion (physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually) is to
outlaw abortion.
3. We ask you to remember the preborn child as if
he/she were your own living child.
Please vote yes on HB 1242.
Respectfully,
Timothy Lindgren, State Director
North Dakota Life League |