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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Thanks, Nick! As always, well researched and well
reasoned. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Debi R-S</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ngier006@gmail.com href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com">Nicholas Gier</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 22, 2015 8:56
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] A Barrage of
Attacks on Roe v. Wade</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT face=georgia,serif>Dear Visionaries,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=georgia,serif></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=georgia,serif>I'm appending a longer version of the column
that appeared in the DNews this morning. The Sandpoint Reader is started
up again after a 6-7 year hiatus, and they invited me back for 800-word
columns. The links at <A
href="http://www.NickGier.com/abortion.pdf">www.NickGier.com/abortion.pdf</A>
will not be operational until I return from Mexico next week.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=georgia,serif></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=georgia,serif>Today, on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade,
GOP Congresswomen </FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>blocked the introduction of
bill to establish 20 weeks as the cut-off point for abortions. They cited
alienation of women voters as their reason. Perhaps America will truly make a
significant turn in support of a woman's right to choose.</FONT>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif>nfg</FONT></P><FONT face="Times New Roman">
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><B><FONT
face=georgia,serif>A BARRAGE OF ATTACKS ON ROE V. WADE</FONT></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT
face=georgia,serif>by Nick Gier, the Palouse Pundit</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT
face=georgia,serif><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">As we celebrate a woman's
right to choose on the 42</SPAN><FONT size=+0><SUP><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">nd</SPAN></SUP><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">
anniversary of Roe v. Wade, much effort has been exerted to undermine that
right. As a constraint to this legal over-reach, the Supreme Court ruled in
1992 that states could not place an “undue burden” on a woman's access to
abortion.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>During the past four years
over 200 laws in 22 states, more than in the previous decade, have been passed
restricting access to abortions. Recently, the most common tactic has been to
require abortion clinics to conform to standards that the medical profession
considers arbitrary and unnecessary.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>Requiring that clinics be
upgraded as surgical centers, and requiring clinic doctors to have admitting
privileges in local hospitals, have forced hundreds to close in recent years.
In Virginia the clinics would have to spend about $1 million each to
comply.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">States have also passed laws that limit the use of
drugs, such as RU-</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">486, a safe
prescription drug approved for abortions by the FDA. Although the drug can be
administered by a nurse, or even self-administered after consultation, these
new laws require that doctors dose them in their offices. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">In 2012</SPAN><FONT color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"> the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a
unanimous decision in favor of Pocatello resident Jennie Linn McCormack, who
had been prosecuted for taking RU-486 at home. Noting that only two of Idaho's
44 counties have abortion clinics, the judges ruled that the denial of
self-administration placed an “undue burden” on Idaho
women.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>A report on the public
health threat of all this legislation, authored by doctors from three states,
warns that these laws amount to a “stunning incursion into the physician's
exam room,” and “blatant contradiction to evidence-based medicine.”</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Several states have required that abortions be
performed earlier than the 24-26 weeks prescribed by Roe. A cut-off point of
20 weeks has been based on the unfounded assumption that the fetus feels pain.
A study published in the</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"> </SPAN><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Journal of the American Medical
Association</SPAN></EM><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"> concluded that
the fetus does not feel pain until 28 weeks. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>In Arkansas abortions must
be performed within 12 weeks, and, incredibly enough, North Dakota legislators
have stipulated 6 weeks, using a fetal heart beat as the standard. Animal
fetuses, however, have hearts and they also feel pain.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>Rational abortion
legislation requires that we must stipulate a moral and legal distinction
between animals and human persons; otherwise we would be compelled to extend a
right to life to most animals.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">One reassuring electoral result has been the
defeat of “personhood” amendments in Mississippi, North Dakota, and Colorado
(twice rejected). </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">The people at
Personhood USA use the first dictionary definition of a person as “a human
being,” but in the second definition, a person is a “self-conscious, rational
being,” which is the one that conforms with English Common Law. This
definition does not apply to the fetus until it has undergone significant
brain development at the beginning of the third trimester.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in" align=left><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><FONT face=georgia,serif>If conservatives want to
abide by the original intent of the Constitution and what the Founders
believed at the time, they would find that they essentially agreed with Roe v.
Wade; namely, that the fetus is not a person until late in fetal
development.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Conservatives legislators claim that they are only
thinking of maternal health, but evidence shows that mothers around the world
suffer horribly where abortion is illegal. </SPAN><FONT color=#000000><SPAN
lang=en>The Guttmacher Institute reports that in developing countries
“complications of illegal abortion account for two of every three maternity
beds in large urban hospitals, consuming as much as one-half of obstetrics and
gynecology budgets.” </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif><FONT color=#000000><SPAN
lang=en>In Latin America the Guttmacher Institute has estimated that 800,000
women are hospitalized each year for abortion-related complications. In Peru
240 mothers out of 100,000 die giving birth, and a</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal">n estimated 1,500 Mexican women die every year due
to the complications of unsafe abortions. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>By a vote of 5-3 the
Supreme Court voted to allow an appellate court decision to overturn a Texas
law, which would have led to the closure of most of the state's abortion
clinics. During Senate nomination hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts assured
liberal senators that Roe v. Wade is “settled law.” Presumably only three
justices—Alito, Thomas, and Scalia—disagree.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>Let us hope that the five
other justices rule that all of these laws constitute an “undue burden” on a
woman's access to safe, legal abortions. </FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif>P. S. GOP Congresswomen have blocked the introduction of
bill to establish 20 weeks as the cut-off point. They cited alienation of
women voters as their reason. Perhaps America will truly make a significant
turn in support of a woman's right to choose.</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" align=left><FONT
face=georgia,serif></FONT><FONT face=georgia,serif>Nick Gier taught religion
and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. For all of his column
on abortion see <A
href="http://www.NickGier.com/abortion.pdf">www.NickGier.com/abortion.pdf</A>.</FONT></P>
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align=left><BR></P></DIV></DIV>
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