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Q&A of the Day – Is Florida’s Proposed 15-week Abortion Limit Too Restrictive?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Brian, I applaud your willingness to talk about the abortion issue. Open and honest conversation regarding difficult topics is important. I found your depiction of more abortion deaths than Covid deaths interesting. I consider myself prolife, however I have concerns about the legislation being voted on that I’d like to hear your perspective on. I’ve always been supportive of exceptions for those who’ve been victims of rape or incest. As I understand it, the current proposal doesn’t allow for those exemptions. Do you consider the legislation too restrictive due to the lack of consideration for those victims? I’m open to being convinced.
Bottom Line: Your note made me think back to my debate days in school. I’d proven to be highly effective at debating and had a perfect record in competition. But it was with this issue in particular that my debate coach changed the game for me. The coach identified that while I was effective at debating, it was always arguing on behalf of what I personally believed in. I was told that the true test was whether I could effectively argue against what I believed in. Abortion was that issue and debate topic. Long story short, I won this debate arguing on the pro-choice side of the coin. While my coach was proud of my work, and suggested I’d make a good attorney – which I had no interest in being – it bothered me. The lesson was effective for pushing me to think analytically in ways I probably hadn’t previously, but it bothered me that I might have been responsible for shaping anyone’s mind in favor of abortion. For that reason, among others, I’ll be happy to take a stab at making the case for the current legislation which has passed in the state House and is awaiting final votes in the Senate.
Before diving into that aspect of the argument, you referenced what I included in my Top 3 Takeaways yesterday. I’d like to use that point to establish a bigger picture of what goes on here. In December I brought you this info about the number of abortions performed annually: The CDC conducts annual abortion surveys, which rely on voluntary reporting from state health agencies and Washington D.C.’s. California, the largest state in the country, along with New Hampshire haven’t participated with the CDC since 1998. This ensures that the CDC’s annual reporting on abortion is significantly understated. The method of reporting by the Guttmacher Institute is conducted by surveying abortion clinics directly across the country. It’s considered the more accurate of the two and has resulted in a significantly higher total number of abortions annually than the CDC’s reporting. Recently, the Guttmacher Institute’s survey showed 862,320 abortions performed over the past year. That compares to the CDC’s 619,820. These numbers shine the light on another dynamic in the abortion debate, which is how pervasive they are.
We’re right at two years into the pandemic in the United States. Total Covid-attributed deaths in the United States totaled 953,000 as of yesterday. Using the most conservative estimate of abortions there have been 1.24 million over the same period of time. As I said yesterday. We shut down this country over Covid, however there have been hundreds of thousands more lives that have ended due to abortion, than due to Covid during the pandemic. I think the perspective is important because we see how far society, especially leftists who are also the most militant abortionists, have gone to theoretically “protect life”. It’s easy to see the inherent contradictions. If a fetus wasn’t a life, it wouldn’t require an abortion to end it from happening. One of the cancers in our society generally and what often holds people back, is simply accepting a premise, even if it's false, because it's the way that things have been done. Innovation and meaningful change would never occur if everyone simply accepted the established norms.
The amount of information, and specifically imaging, available today to understand what is happening at every trimester is vastly superior to what it was when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion in 1973. Using that additional information, I think is important. The arguments advanced today, and specifically at 15 weeks, isn’t subjective. It’s based on the development of a fetus. This is a practical example of using information we know now that wasn’t known when the Supreme Court set a 24-week standard in 1973. That’s why it was the basis of the Mississippi law currently before the Supreme Court and that’s what’s behind Florida’s law. Polling shows that only 47% of Americans consider themselves prolife, yet 71% oppose late term abortion. Why? Because somewhere along the way morality and physical reality enters the equation. Current information shows that for practical purposes, anything after 15-weeks should be considered “late-stage”.
It's always important go to the source for information. Many years ago, I watched videos of abortions in every trimester, or I should say I tried to. I wasn’t able to complete the exercise because by the 2nd trimester – I became emotionally overwhelmed by what was happening and simultaneously nauseous. I believe everyone who has an abortion should see what actually happens at their stage of an abortion prior to the procedure. I guarantee you abortion rates would plummet. Abortion thrives in darkness and with ignorance. As it pertains to your consideration regarding the exclusions of rape or incest past 15 weeks...15 weeks is a large window of time for consideration, but also to the broader point, at some point we all choose to recognize life. For example, we don’t slaughter babies because they were born under those circumstances. I’d encourage you to see and learn watch specifically happens after 15 weeks and see if your perspective is the same. Btw, for all who want to learn and see but maybe want a somewhat sensitized version of reality...watch the movie Unplanned. Everyone should. And if everyone did, I think this conversation and general debate would look and sound a lot different. The more you know...