Doctor’s advice

At the center of the furious battle over life and abortion in South Dakota, there’s a lot of erroneous information out there. Plenty of it is willful disinformation, distortions that are intended to turn the voters against the life protection law on the ballot in November.

One piece everyone should read is this plea from a doctor in South Dakota who understands what’s at stake in this referendum, and in the lives it will affect.

I want to tell you from a medical perspective that it is very, very rare that a physician would need to choose between the life of the mother and the life of the child. There is almost always something that can be done for both. This has always been traditional obstetric practice.

We now can do amazing things with fetal medicine. Diagnoses are being made earlier and earlier. Treatment interventions are being devised and implemented. Surgery is now being done on unborn babies while they are still in the womb, amazing. Why are all these incredible things being done? Because all life is precious and God given. All children deserve the life that God has planned for him in His infinite wisdom.

Our opponents in this campaign would have you belief that if the law banning abortions in South Dakota is upheld doctors will go to jail and women in South Dakota will be left with no health care. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Currently no South Dakota doctors do abortions; therefore no South Dakota doctors would be prosecuted under HB1215 when it is upheld. The only abortions done in South Dakota are done by 4 physicians from Minneapolis brought in to SF by Planned Parenthood. The bill also specifically protects physicians doing a legitimate medical procedure to save a woman’s life. It protects doctors doing a legitimate procedure where something goes wrong and a baby is inadvertently harmed. South Dakota physicians and South Dakota women have nothing to fear from this legislation.

And that’s a vital point to make, and to get. Because abortion proponents who are fighting to keep abortion on demand as the status quo, are using fear-mongering ad campaigns against this legislation. They are fighting to keep information about abortion away from exposure. But truth fears no discussion of facts.

Here are some facts.

The overwhelming number of abortions done in South Dakota and across our nation are done for expediency or convenience. They are done on perfectly healthy babies and perfectly healthy mothers. They are not done for rape, not done for incest, not done for fetal anomalies, and not done to save the life of the mother. They are done because a pregnant woman feels hopeless or helpless. We as a society and especially a Christian community need to seek out these women and be instruments of God’s grace and compassion.

I have in my practice now a 16 year old mother who was raped by her brother. So here we have in one case the two stumbling blocks that most people have with HB1215. She decided that the only innocent person in this unfortunate situation besides herself was her unborn child. What a brave decision for anyone to make, much less a traumatized 16 year old. I have great hope and faith that if a 16 year old can get it right so can the rest of South Dakotans.

The psychological literature is full of data indicating that abortion following a rape is more traumatic than the rape itself and leads to more long lasting emotional and psychological complications. We have interviewed many women who have told us their child has been the healing instrument from the trauma of the rape. And if it unfortunately happened to them again that they would make the same decision.

HB1215 does contain a specific provision for woman to receive emergency contraception following a sexual crime. We desire for them to receive complete and compassionate medical care and for them to receive justice. An abortion in theses situations is not compassionate and denies justice. An abortion in these situations causes long term harm for the mother and protects the rapist. Is this really what we want to do in South Dakota?

This is a good public examination of conscience that’s overdue in America.

I believe this law protects the women and physicians of South Dakota. There is a provision in the bill to help victims of sexual crimes. The human costs in terms of suffering in our country are enormous .Several years ago I served in the army. There was a saying about the good soldier: The good soldier, the brave soldier was the one who when he heard the sounds of battle, he picked up his weapon and ran towards the sound. In the video you heard from such soldiers. Even though badly wounded they pickup their weapons and run towards the sound of battle.

We need an army of such soldiers as these. We need you. Martin Luther once said “If you are a Christian soldier, and if you are not where the battle is the hottest, you are a traitor to the cause”.

I am a board member of VoteYesForLife.com, a coalition of people from all across South Dakota. We come from all the major political parties, from different denominations and walks of life. We are united in our desire to save babies and women from the harmful physical, emotional, and psychological effects of abortion. We desperately need your help.

You can serve and make a difference right here.