MY TURN: Killing women will never be pro-life

This weekend at a state convention, the Idaho Republican Party has resoundingly voted to sacrifice our daughters, our wives and our mothers to protect a political concept: absolutely no abortions in Idaho. Idaho Senate candidate Scott Herndon took it further, claiming this is “the greatest (human rights) issue of our time.”

What would Mr. Herndon and the Idaho Republican Party’s idea of “human rights” look like?

When a child is raped, like the 10-year-old girl in Ohio (whose rapist, Gerson Fuentes, confessed his guilt on July 13), her Idaho doctors will be forced to give her parents family planning guidance. God help the victims of incest, who account for 10-20% of American children (source: https://family.jrank.org/pages/846/Incest-Prevalence-Incest.html). The GOP would trap these lambs between an abusive family and an apathetic, tyrannical state.

Is this protecting human rights? Thou shalt be a baby carrying a baby, if you’re unlucky enough to be a little girl who has already had to suffer the psychological trauma of being raped in the state of Idaho.

When, tragically, a baby dies before birth, as in a miscarriage, sometimes it doesn’t come out naturally. The only procedure to remove that baby is a chemical abortion. Leaving a dead human inside a mother will cause sepsis and almost certainly kill her. This is not hyperbole. This happened to Savita Halappanavar in Ireland, who died after doctors refused to perform an abortion when the pregnancy she desperately wanted was miscarried.

The CDC has shown that 60% of women seeking abortions are already mothers. Opposing abortion when the mother’s death is certain only creates dead mothers and orphaned children.

Is this protecting human rights? Thine dead baby shalt rot within thine womb, so thy state’s GOP can call themselves godly.

Mr. Herndon claims he is only ensuring doctors don’t privilege one life over another by expressly naming the mother. This is absurd double-think, as Mr. Herndon’s statement is only correct as long as Idaho’s current abortion exceptions remain unchanged.

Apparently, the GOP is only pro-life when they feel a baby is being murdered. But the slow, medically neglectful, torturous murder of a mother, ordered by her state government? All in God’s — and the GOP’s — plan.

• • •

Taylor Kowalski is a Coeur d'Alene resident.