LETTERS: ABORTION VOTE A SAD DAY FOR STATE

To the editor:

What a sad day for Missouri. Faced with the choice to ban a barbaric procedure where an unborn child is butchered seconds before its birth is complete, a small cadre of senators in Jefferson City couldn't muster enough courage to buck the pressure of the governor.

I am talking about partial-birth abortion. For those who are not familiar with this procedure, let me take a moment to describe it in all its hideous detail. The unborn baby is at near-term. This is, it is ready to be born a natural birth. The abortionist intentionally turns the baby in the womb so that the feet will be delivered first. This is a breech birth and is not a desired way for the baby to present to the outside world. But the abortionist does this anyway, because he has other things in mind for this baby, and it is not life. The baby is delivered through the birth canal by the abortionist, but just before the head exits the birth canal, the process is stopped. The head of the baby is prevented from coming out, and the abortionist then takes a pair of scissors and drives them into the base of the baby's skull. After this, he opens up the scissors to spread the hole wider. Then he inserts a tube connected to a suction pump. This pump sucks out the brains of the baby. Of course, now the baby is dead and can be delivered the rest of the way to be discarded in the trash.

The politicians responsible for allowing this to go on have a lot of explaining to do, but they don't have a leg to stand on in defending it. Every one of them, including the governor, knows exactly what I have described above. Yet they have chosen to allow it to continue. Their argument is that this procedure is necessary to preserve the health of the mother. This is a bald-faced lie, and each and every one of them knows it. But the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology have made it clear that there is no medical reason at any time to perform this procedure under any circumstances. These physicians are experts in this field. They are the ones who know what they are talking about in this matter. Yet the governor and his spineless lackeys continue to play a roles in allowing this barbarism to continue.

If you think this is anything other than murder of a newborn baby, then why not extinguish these lives a few seconds after birth? It would be much simpler. A breech birth presentation would not be necessary, and a simple knife would do. Even a bucket of water to drown the infant would be sufficient. The end result is the same: the unnecessary death of a newborn infant carried out by the abortionist in the name of the governor of Missouri.

Ultimately, we all share responsibility before God for allowing this atrocity to continue. What have we as a nation come to?

JOHN R. SCHOENBERGER M.D.

Cape Girardeau