Search This Blog

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

"Muslims for America" leader speaks on abortion

  "Muslims for America" Leader Speaks on Abortion Bill

An American Muslim leader praised Congress August 4th for striking down the D.C. Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act last week, while pro-life/pro-choice activists continue debating the bill's purpose.

 "I agree with the emotions of the Congressmen who started the bill, but I do not believe they should have brought it before Congress, and I do not believe that Congress should have voted on it," said Seeme Hasan, co-founder of Muslims for America.

"That's up to each woman--her choice, her religion, her faith--different people view things differently," she said.

Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a July 31st statement that the bill would have made it nearly impossible for a woman to get an abortion in D.C.

"As the nation’s leading advocate for women’s health care, Planned Parenthood Action Fund denounces H.R. 3803, a bill that would have banned abortion in the District of Columbia," she said.

According to the actual language of the bill, abortion would have remained legal in D.C., except for one exemption: "abortion shall not be performed or attempted, if the probable post-fertilization age, as determined under paragraph (1), of the unborn child is 20 weeks or greater."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that just 1.4 percent of abortions occur at 21 weeks or more, according to a November, 2006 abortion surveillance survey.

 Richards also said the bill also did not contain necessary health exemptions for the mother: "It would have prevented a woman from ending her pregnancy regardless of the threat to her health."

 However, the language of the bill said the restriction on abortion "does not apply if, in reasonable medical judgment, the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, but not including psychological or emotional conditions."

 The bill also unfairly targets doctors, said Richards.

"It also would have subjected doctors to harsh criminal penalties for performing abortions."

According to the bill, doctors performing abortions on pain-capable fetuses could not be imprisoned for more than two years.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the feminist Susan B. Anthony List, said in an August 2 e-mail that she and her group are extremely disappointed that Congress could not agree on banning abortion only for the pain-capable unborn.

"As you may know by now, sadly and shockingly 156 Members of Congress voted against the D.C. Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act -- a bill that protects unborn children capable of feeling pain from the excruciating torment of an abortionist's instruments. These are abortions on children past 20 weeks of gestation," said Dannenfelser.

 Pain receptors first develop at 7 weeks and diffuse throughout the body by 14 weeks, according to a 2004 paper on fetal endoscopic surgery by Myers et. al published in Best Practice & Research in Clinical Anaesthesiology.

 "The first essential requirement for nociception is the presence of sensory receptors, which develop first in the perioral area at around 7 weeks gestation. From here, they develop in the rest of the face and in the palmar surfaces of the hands and soles of the feet from 11 weeks. By 20 weeks, they are present through all the skin and mucosal surfaces," according to another 2008 paper by Brusseau et al published in the International Anesthesiology Clinics.

 Those nerves link to the thalamus, the brain's pain control center, by no later than 20 weeks, according to another paper by Sheltema et al published in Fetal and Maternal Medicine Review.

Response to painful stimuli occurs from 22 weeks gestation, or 20 weeks post-fertilization, according to another 2008 paper by Gupta et al published in Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care, & Pain.

Hasan said that her religious beliefs do not necessarily coincide with her political beliefs against H.R. 3803: not only does she believe the fetus feels pain after 20 weeks, but she believes abortion is wrong after four months.

"After sixteen weeks the Q'ran says that the angel has breathed life into the fetus. So I look at it at that point, according to my religion, the fetus is a person. So I personally would have a very difficult time at that point having an abortion," she said.

"If you do an abortion after that point, you are really taking a human life," she said.

She said that an abortion after four months will weigh heavily on a woman's conscious, and Congress should make an effort to require education on fetal development for women considering abortions.

American adults favor, by a 3-to-1 margin, a policy of not permitting abortion anywhere “after the point where substantial medical evidence says that the unborn child can feel pain,” unless it is “necessary to save a mother’s life," according to a nationwide telephone poll of 1,010 adults (MOE +/-3.1%), conducted July 12-15, by The Polling Company, Inc./WomanTrend. 70% of women, 55% of men, and 63% of all adults said that after the point of pain, abortion should not be permitted, according to the poll.

No comments:

Post a Comment