How low can the Dems go?

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – I have expressed in this space many times my concern about the extreme direction of the party of my former loyalty. My displeasure originally centered around its increasing support of abortion which is now turning into a full-blown war on babies.

Exhibit 1 is a bill in the California legislature, AB 2223, which recently passed out of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee on a straight party-line vote. Under the bill, according to pro-life attorneys in California, it may soon be legal to deliberately allow an already born baby to die, and those responsible for the death might be eligible to a cash reward from anyone — state officials included — who attempt to investigate.

Think of it this way: Remember former Virginia Gov. Ralph “Blackface” Northam, who once opined that a baby born after a botched abortion should be made comfortable until its mother and doctor decided what to do? Well, this is much the same with two changes: First this will apply to all such children, and second, it applies not to mothers, but to all “birthing persons.”

What the bill does, in effect, is that it bans investigations into any perinatal death, which under state law could include deaths occurring 60 or 90 days (pick your code section) after birth. According to the proposed bill, which amends the existing state health and safety code:

“Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty…based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.”

Why? Because the state’s Democrat Party has found a new cause célèbre, reproductive justice, which they wrote into the bill’s findings:

“Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all people, particularly women and girls, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities in all areas of their lives. At the core of reproductive justice is the belief in the right to bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children we have with dignity and respect in safe and sustainable communities…. “A critical part of realizing reproductive justice for people in California is clarifying that there shall be no civil and criminal penalties for people’s action, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcomes….

“Also across the country, pregnant people are under threat of civil penalties for their actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcomes and civil penalties have been threatened against people who aid or assist pregnant people in exercising their rights. . . .

“Civil and criminal penalties imposed on pregnant people is a critical issue for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of systemic racial inequities and are more likely to be under scrutiny of state systems like child welfare or immigration.”

So, there is to be no investigation of fetal or perinatal deaths in the state, and should there be one the target or targets of the investigation have license to sue the investigator, be it a beat cop, social worker, or hospital medic.

Explains Susan S. Arnall of the Right to Life League in a statement appearing on the league’s website:

“Under Section 7 of AB 2223, if a 28-day-old baby dies from abandonment or the mother’s neglect and police investigate and eventually arrest her for the baby’s death, the mother can sue the police for monetary damages plus attorneys’ fees. Nor can the state prosecute other people complicit in committing perinatal deaths.”

She notes that the Democrats in the legislature have proposed more than 12 pro-abortion bills during the current session “to fully fund their atrocious and sweeping attack on the most innocent people among us.” The worst of these bills, she says, is AB 2223 which “actually legalizes infanticide, potentially allowing the killing of a baby up to two months old.”

 This “radical” abortion legislation is being pushed through the legislature at “warp speed” by a coalition of Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, she said.

The bill decriminalizes infanticide, she says, and it does it by eliminating any penalty, civil or criminal, for abortions or perinatal deaths, which are defined as a deaths occurring 30 to 60 days after birth, depending on code section consulted. She opines that the legislature can further expand “reproductive justice” by simply redefining the word “perinatal” more expansively.

Additionally, the proposed law also protects those that assist the “birthing person” to do away with a troublesome pregnancy or child.

“In California under AB 2223, former Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who murdered three infants born alive after botched abortions, could not be prosecuted. And incredibly, someone like Gosnell who helped a California mother kill her newborn after birth will actually have a cause of action to sue police for investigating the matter if AB 2223 becomes law,” she said.

LifeSiteNews contributor Ashley Sadler, who recently joined us on the Faith On Trial radio program, reported that noted California attorney Charles LiMandri, a special counsel for the Thomas More Society, as well as a recent guest on the program, has opined that the bill does open the door to infanticide: Including the word “perinatal” in the bill expands its reach beyond abortion.

Of course this is not limited only to California. The Democrats in Maryland have introduced a similar measure in that state, Senate Bill 669, which party leaders claim they have the votes to override an expected veto by GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. Well-known pro-life writer Wesley J. Smith noted that 669 “effectively decriminalizes death by neglect for the first 28 days of life.”

Obviously these, and similar bills like them are being promoted as Dems fear the Supreme Court will strike down Roe v. Wade when it rules on the controversial Dobbs v. Jackson Woman’s Health Clinic later this year. Thus countless number of pro-abortion groups are gathering their political allies as a buffer against any loss of abortion “rights” by a potential court ruling.

Abortion has been seen by many as a personal right that should not be tampered with; concepts of bodily freedom and self-determination have played an important part in shaping the attitudes of countless voters, including Catholics, many of whom see this as just a political issue.

Needless to say, it is not a political issue, nor is it a partisan issue, and those who believe it to be so have a staggering misconception of the faith. Clearly it is a moral issue which requires a high degree of moral certainty to publicly oppose, even, unfortunately, within Catholic circles.

My hope is that the blatant immorality of these bills will finally shock the consciences of even those liberal Catholics who have refused, up to this point, to recognize what this debate is all about, the value of human life, and it is not something that can be traded in the political marketplace for any other secular issue.

Hopefully our Church leaders will wake up as well. For too long they have seemed far too willing to adopt a laissez-faire attitude toward abortion. Now is the time for them to speak out, not only against the moral atrocity this represents, but against those who promote it.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com).