Seriously Representative Ray...?

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11591862

You know this just kills me and is yet another reason our State Legislature drives me nuts. In a year when there is going to have to be major budget cuts, and hard choices to be made, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, apparently has introduced an anti-abortion bill into the State Legislature that would make illegal abortions a second-degree felony. Come on. Seriously Rep. Ray?! Allow me to shoot your bill full of holes.

-First off, all of our prisons are already over-crowded, and will probably become more so due to budget cuts, and you want MORE people imprisoned for something that is ENTIRELY the woman's choice? Not to mention filling up the courts.

-Secondly, in order for this bill to even be enforced you have to: A) monitor all health records for pregnant women, and B) force doctors to violate patient-doctor confidentiality; both of which are illegal under today's personal privacy laws.

-Thirdly, I find it very interesting how the Republican party as a whole prides itself in its ideal of smaller government equals better government. The less government there is, the better people will be. Well just a minute...HELLO! By legislating things that are strictly personal choices and are strictly private choices of those involved, such as gay marriage or abortions, you are making government BIGGER! It is IMPOSSIBLE to legislate "morality" without BIG GOVERNMENT!

-Finally, I find it very asinine when the same people who say abortions should be banned because "life is sacred" are often the very same people who promote the death penalty as capital punishment. You honestly think that revenge killing is better or more politically correct, than terminating a pregnancy as a way to save a mother, escape the responsibilities or consequences of unprotected sex, or any other reasons why abortions are performed? It is a complete contradiction in terms. If you think "life is sacred" then you MUST think ALL of it is regardless of what people do with their lives.


The other bill mentioned being introduced by Rep. Wimmer, R-Herriman, is just as bad and makes no sense to me. Granted I'm not a doctor so I don't know how everything works in a pregnancy but to me anesthetizing the fetus before performing an abortion is just asking for trouble. You can't anesthetize a fatally sick patient to ease his or her suffering and yet you want to do that to a fetus that is joined to its mother? What happens if something goes wrong and the mother is anesthetized, or her health put in some other danger, in addition to the fetus? If the mother dies or is affected by the procedure then is the doctor then guilty of murder? If you value life are you willing for this bill to set a precedent that makes an adult anesthetizing bill more likely to be passed?