Abortion On Demand

WASHINGTON - The voices of compassion have again been raised in alarm against the Bush administration. Its offense this time is a desire to increase the access that low-income pregnant women have to prenatal care. The problem began when the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to health officials of the states, notifying them of "a new opportunity to provide health care coverage to low-income children through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)." The letter said the administration would propose that "an unborn child may be considered a `targeted low-income child.

WASHINGTON -- For years, abortion rights advocates framed the debate on whether women or the government should be able decide to terminate pregnancies. Now abortion opponents are trying to shift attention to whether the procedure is so vile that it should not be done at all.Because the Supreme Court has said the legislature cannot ban abortion outright, leaders of the new anti-abortion majority in Congress are aiming their fire at a rare, and particularly unsettling, new method used to end late-term pregnancies.

HOUSTON -- Trying to give his troubled candidacy a fresh start, President Bush defiantly predicted last night that he is on his way to the biggest political upset since Harry S. Truman won re-election more than 40 years ago.Mr. Bush broke with tradition by making a lengthy speech to Republican delegates on the first day of the party's convention here. The move was aimed at firing up supporters deeply dispirited by polls that show Democratic nominee Bill Clinton leading the president by a wide margin.

I read with interest Del. Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg's critique of Marta Mossburg's interpretation of abortion law ("Mossburg wrong on Md. abortion law," May 9). Though the lawyer-politician has great knowledge and experience in many areas of Maryland law, his interpretation is not accurate here. In objecting to Ms. Mossburg's statement, "Abortion is virtually available on demand throughout a pregnancy," Mr. Rosenberg cites the specific abortion statute, noting that abortion is legally permissible when "necessary to protect the life or health of the woman or if the fetus is affected by genetic defect or severe deformity or abnormality.

It was the pictures and riveting testimony that convinced a Philadelphia jury that abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was guilty of murdering three infants born alive following botched late-term abortions and also guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Karnamaya Mongar, who overdosed on Demerol during an abortion at Dr. Gosnell's clinic. How ironic that the Gosnell decision was delivered the day after Mother's Day. The two-month trial has reignited the abortion debate. But while many states have managed to impose some restrictions on abortion clinics, establish informed consent laws, and in some cases require a woman to view a sonogram before aborting an unborn child, abortion on demand for almost any reason and at most stages of pregnancy remains legal in every state.

There are flagrant, undefined loopholes in Maryland's abortion law. That's what letter writer Jeffrey D. Meister, director of administration and legislation for Maryland Right to Life, would have us think ("Maryland has de factor abortion on demand," May 17). What do "health" and a minor's "best interests" mean under Maryland's abortion law? Their plain meaning is derived from an ordinary understanding of the words, most often found in a dictionary. That's the analysis favored by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Feminists, health-care providers and government-sector unions in Brazil yesterday attacked a court ruling that abruptly ended abortion on demand in cases where it is known a fetus is developing with grave abnormalities. Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country's highest court, voted 7-4 Wednesday to end the practice, which had been permitted in Brazil since July. The debate on the issue was so contentious that two justices challenged each other to step outside the courtroom for a fight.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and his Democratic cohorts have done it again, increased the gas tax. Will the tax be used to improve our highways? Not if the previous use of the fuel tax is repeated. It is noteworthy that not one Republican voted for the tax which will mostly impact working families. O'Malley is making a run for the presidency, and why not? He will fit right in with the Democratic crowd in Washington who advocate: spend and tax, abortion on demand, same sex marriage, gun outlaw, amnesty and tuition breaks for illegal immigrants, Obama-care, extended unemployment pay and increased entitlements for those who chose not to work.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Which of the following scenarios constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution: (1) aborting a baby with a fully developed nervous system and probably inflicting great pain; (2) killing a nightclub manager in cold blood; (3) taking 34 minutes - twice the normal time - to execute the killer of the nightclub manager? Anti-death-penalty forces want us to believe No. 3. They claim the Dec. 13 execution in Florida of Angel Nieves Diaz took too long and required a second injection, thus violating the Eighth Amendment.

VATICAN CITY -- Fighting from a script written by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican fired a new broadside yesterday against a planned United Nations population conference, attacking the United States in general and Vice President Al Gore in particular.Members of a 17-member Vatican delegation leave today for Cairo, Egypt, carrying papal instructions to unflaggingly oppose a draft resolution for the Sept. 5-13 conference that endorses abortion on demand and takes a liberal view of human sexuality.