Editor:

Abortion has become a sanitized term in our culture over the past 43 years.  It is often called a “procedure” or a “choice” in polite society, but this careful language is meant to mask the slaughter of a pre-born child each time an abortion is committed.

Perhaps some Hoosiers have become numb to this killing.  The numbers are stark.  In 2013, Indiana reported 83,115 live births.  That same year, Indiana reported 8,179 abortions, which means for every ten live Hoosier births, an eleventh Hoosier baby was butchered in the womb.

Murder statistics offer another way to view the magnitude of abortion in Indiana.  Again for 2013, Indiana reported 330 murders.  This is almost one murder reported per day.  These tragic deaths are generally headline news in the local community.  However, for every murder that makes the news in Indiana, two dozen more pre-born Hoosiers are silently slaughtered.

It is past time to end the assault on our Hoosier babies, and this winter I will author a bill in the Indiana House to provide Protection at Conception.  The Indiana Code already declares that human life begins at conception (see IC 16-34-2-1.1), so my bill will strengthen what is already established law.

I find it objectionable that Indiana acknowledges life begins at conception, but allows for this innocent life to be terminated.  Both the Indiana and U.S. Constitutions prohibit the taking of a life without due process of law.

There are lawyers who speak for condemned persons, but nobody speaks for the pre-born.  Indiana must recognize and protect the natural rights of those not yet born.

We now understand that from the moment of conception, pre-born children are genetically human, scientifically alive, and have DNA that is different from their parents.  Our scientific knowledge has advanced so much since 1973 as to make Roe v. Wade’s musings about when life begins totally obsolete.

Interestingly, the pro-abortion crowd no longer seriously disputes the scientific fact that human life begins at conception.  Instead, these abortion enablers argue cynically that some lives matter more than others.

The Protection at Conception bill removes regulations on abortion in Indiana, and instead clarifies that abortion is the taking of innocent human life.  In the event of an abortion, police would investigate, and prosecutors would have discretion to file any number of charges up to and including murder against anyone who took part in the abortion.

Protection at Conception also grants prosecutors more discretion when people commit homicides against a pregnant woman.  With Protection at Conception, people could be charged with murder of a fetus regardless of the age of the fetus, instead of depending on whether or not a fetus is “viable,” as it states in current Indiana law.  Protection at Conception would make Indiana the 24th state to apply the fetal homicide statute at the point of conception.

In this great nation of ours, we have overcome some mighty injustices over the years.  At one time, the United States sanctioned slavery, discrimination based on race, and the denying of natural rights to some because on skin color, gender, and heritage.

Even worse, the federal courts defended these policies with despicable majority opinions such as Dred Scott v. Sandford and Plessy v. Ferguson.  Fortunately, Americans demanded justice, and these outrageous rules were eventually sent to the ash heap of history.

If mistreatment of others based on race or nationality is wrong, it cannot be reasonable to butcher pre-born babies based on their age, their level of development, or some other arbitrary measure of their value.  Roe v. Wade, the federal opinion sanctioning the slaughter of the pre-born, will meet the same fate as Dred Scott and Plessy.

Ronald Reagan once said he noticed that “all of the supporters of abortion are already born.”  We must remember there are solutions to give a baby life instead of abortion.  I encourage those who were adopted to speak out about how glad you are that your birth mothers chose life.

Indiana has an obligation as a sovereign state to protect the natural right of the pre-born to live.  This year we have the opportunity to make abortion a thing of the past.

Curt Nisly, Goshen
Indiana State Representative, House District 22