The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed a Texas law to go into immediate effect that requires doctors to demonstrate that a fetus is a living being 24 hours before a termination. From the Kaiser Health News story:
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a new Texas abortion law that requires doctors to perform a sonogram and play a sound of the fetal heartbeat 24 hours before an abortion procedure can be immediately enforced while the law is appealed. Opponents hoped to delay the enforcement a few weeks.
This story got me to thinking about the controversy in pro life circles about showing bloody post-abortion photos. I am opposed to it generally—particularly in TV commercials or plastered to the side of a truck driving around town—because it is assaultive, non discriminating, and not from a place of love, so much as of a rage more likely to repel than attract people to the message.
Contrast that to the intent of this law which shows a living and gestating human life. Which do you think is more likely to pierce the conscience? Which has the best chance to persuade?
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