Unborn
Beauty and a Chance to Give it Life
Published in Marietta (GA) Journal, 3/17/19
State Representative Ed
Setzler is a man of science. An
architectural engineer, he also has a degree in physics. Setzler is serving his
15th consecutive year in the Georgia House.
His District 35 covers the northwest corner of Cobb County, including
the cities of Kennesaw and Acworth.
Neither
Setzler’s practical, scientific bent nor the precision of his line of work has
kept him from appreciating beauty and wonder. Accordingly, Setzler is not cagey about the
subject of abortion. He introduced and
led the fight for House Bill 481, the so called “Heartbeat bill,” which is
actually titled “Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act.” The bill’s acronym (LIFE) is further evidence
of Setzler’s belief, and agreement with author Ian McEwan, that an unborn baby
reveals “a stately ship of genes dignified by unhurried progress.”
Setzler’s
bill has already passed the House by a vote of 93 to 73 and has been forwarded
to the Senate. 105 House Republicans
voted for the bill; 75 Democrats voted against it. Five other Southern states plus Ohio are also
considering “Heartbeat” legislation.
Setzler’s
language in HB 481 is neither ambiguous nor squirrelly. Unlike the weasel word language of Planned
Parenthood defenders who object to the words, “partial-birth abortion,” and
argue that “intact dilation and evacuation” is more precise, 481 reads, “It
shall be the policy of the State of Georgia to recognize the presence of a
fetal heartbeat as the point of fetal viability…” The bill goes on to reject
the concept of “potential ability to live outside the mother’s womb,” since “not
even healthy full-term infants can always do so, without artificial aid.”
Anyone
who has ever attempted to read legislative bills knows that their totally
unnecessary ponderous language is daunting.
HB 481 has its share of gobbledygook, but its purpose is clear. For instance, the bill lucidly declares: “No
abortion is authorized or shall be performed if the unborn child has been
determined to have a heartbeat,” and “early infants in the womb are a class of
living distinct human beings … that have their own distinct blood type, organ
system, central nervous system, unique fingerprints … and detectable
heartbeat.”
The
bill references the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment: “No state
shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of
law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the protection of the law.” To Setzler, “the child in the womb … has a
right to life that is worthy of legal protection.” But “Not so,” say the Democrats in the
Georgia House.
One
of the “fanatics for choice” (columnist George Will’s phrase), former National
Abortion League president Kate Michelman, once declared that in abortion, the
baby “merely undergoes demise.” Will
posed the question, “Does Michelman say herbicides cause the crab grass in her
lawn to ‘undergo demise’?”
Thanks
to Governor Cuomo of New York and Governor Northam of Virginia, whose public
comments on the unborn – and the recently born – have been abhorrent, Rep.
Setzler and other legislators are creating momentum, aided by the fact that
“fanatics for choice” have gone from “safe, legal, and rare” to “keep the
newborns comfortable” while the doctor considers infanticide.
Regarding
the beauty of the unborn, Swedish photojournalist Linnart Nilsson has deeply
affected our thinking about abortion. In
“Life Magazine” in 1965 Nilsson gave us the first photograph of a living fetus
in the womb. Nilsson died in 2017 at age
94, leaving us with pictures of a 15-week old and a 28-week old fetus. Nilsson was deeply disappointed that, while
photographing the 15-week-old, his camera malfunctioned just before he was to
snap the baby sucking its thumb.
Even
the Washington Post heralded Nilsson as “a photographer of genius who revealed
unborn life.” Nilsson’s compilation of
his work was published in1965 and titled “A Child is Born.” This little volume plus more modern
fetal-imaging technology haven’t made life easy for “abortion rights”
advocates.
Rep. Setzler probably knows that Nilsson’s
photos were challenged. After Nilsson’s
death, “Atlantic Magazine” claimed his photos were staged with aborted
material. Both “Life” and “Time”
defended Nilsson.
Photojournalism
and modern technology are on Setzler’s side.
So are voters in many states, or why else are more and more state
legislatures toughening their laws on abortion?
At
a time when so many have lost their moral compass regarding infant life, we
should be grateful for photographers and politicians who engage our moral
sense. That’s exactly what Nilsson, Setzler,
and HB 481 have done.
Roger Hines
3/13/19
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