A bill pending in the Oklahoma legislature would provide support for pregnant moms facing pressure to have an abortion when confronted with ultrasound scans showing their baby has severe disabilities.
Whether it’s from doctors, family or society, parents of unborn children with very severe physical disabilities that could claim their lives shortly after birth often face pressure to have an abortion. The pro-life Perinatal Hospice Bill, HB 2685, was approved by the Health Committee to address that.
As Oklahomans for Life tells LifeNews.com, “The bill addresses the rare but tragic circumstance where a pregnant woman is told that her unborn child has a fetal anomaly incompatible with life. Often in such cases the mother is encouraged to consider abortion the “logical” or “humane” response to such a diagnosis. Under HB 2685, the mother would receive information about public and private agencies and services available to her which offer perinatal hospice and palliative care if, instead of abortion, she decides to carry her baby to term.”
“The least we should do when a family faces the heartbreak of such a diagnosis is provide them information about the positive alternative of perinatal hospice, comfort care, and family counseling. Please ask the committee to support the humane, compassionate, life-affirming approach embodied in HB 2685,” the group says. “Our throw-away culture today too often exhibits a coarsened attitude toward the intrinsic value of each individual human life – especially the life of a child with a diagnosis of severe or lethal disability – and too readily regards killing as an acceptable “solution” in such a case.”
“Intentionally taking the child’s life is no answer – any more than killing any other individual with a disability would be justified. “Perfection” is something none of us can claim, and using “quality control” as grounds for aborting a baby is unworthy of a society that respects the sanctity of human life. HB 2685 does not – cannot – prohibit abortion; it simply suggests a positive alternative,” the group concludes.
Tony Lauinger, the president of Oklahomans for Life, asks pro-life people to support the bill:
Please contact the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and urge their support for the pro-life Perinatal Hospice Bill, HB 2685. The committee meets on Wednesday morning.
Please send just one email to reach the committee members at [email protected]. Their support is critical to the bill’s passage. If you sent a message previously, please send another email. This is a different committee with different members.
Your message to the Appropriations Committee could be as simple as: Please support HB 2685. Or, you could point out that even if the prediction of an anomaly incompatible with life is proven true, and even if the baby lives only a short time, there is an infinite difference – emotionally, psychologically, ethically – between losing a child and killing a child.
