Letter: Abortion modern ‘right’ to kill

Thursday, Nov. 2, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

As a man, I will never have an abortion. Therefore for most of my life I was intellectually lazy and accepted the status quo. Like many, to me the thought of abortion was repulsive, but I accepted it legally.

Then a few years ago during the heated partial-birth abortion debates, I decided to take a hard look and let science be my guide to sort out the facts from the fluff on the issue. Using only solid, provable, unquestioned scientific and medical knowledge I sought answers to the following debated questions:

1. Is the fetus living? Medically, yes.

2. Is the fetus part of the woman's body? Medically, no. The fetus is genetically a separate organism that feeds off a woman's body, but not part of her body.

3. Is the fetus human? Genetically, yes.

4. Does an abortion kill the fetus? Obviously, yes.

5. How many abortions are done because of rape, incest or risk to mother's health? From government statistics taken from medical records, 2 percent.

Summary: Abortion is the killing of a separate, living human. Ninety-eight percent of all abortions are done because the child is simply inconvenient. That is not religious dogma; it is honest, straight, scientific truth.

Now when I hear talk of a "woman's right to abortion," I remember history texts about how cattle barons argued they had a "right" to kill Native Americans, or how plantation owners had the "right" to kill their slaves.

The powerful have always killed the inconvenient and powerless, and sadly, legally, they still do.

RODNEY K. SMITH