<strong>To the editor:</strong>
Indiana Code 16-34-2-1.1 codifies that life begins at conception.
Rep. Curt Nisly has introduced House Bill 1134, the Protection at Conception bill, which would protect all unborn babies at conception.
Unfortunately Rep. Ben Smaltz, who chairs the House Public Policy Committee, plans to let House Bill 1134, and the 8,000 Hoosier babies it could save every year, die in committee, without a hearing and without a vote.
Smaltz questions the fact that the bill contains no exemptions for cases of rape, incest or saving the life of the mother, and is concerned about the constitutionality of the effort.
I would remind Smaltz that the right to murder human beings is not in the constitution. I doubt that Smaltz would endorse the death penalty for rapists, yet he is willing to impose it on 8,000 innocent Hoosier babies every year to avoid the dilemma of the 1 percent conceived in rape.
Regarding the life of the mother, Smaltz should consider that Everett Koop, M.D., former U.S. Surgeon General, noted in1980, “In my 36 years in pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life.”
My blood boils over pro-life pretenders who refuse to defend life with the same passion that pro-choice advocates defend murder. To make matters worse, Smaltz’s faulty excuses for killing the bill are right out of the Planned Parenthood playbook. Consequently Planned Parenthood is singing his praises while the cries of dead babies fall on deaf ears.
<p style="text-align: right"><strong>Jim Arnold</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: right">Muncie</p>
