By Ed Kroll published in the News Herald, copied with his permission
August 5, 2022 at 6:49 a.m.
Thank you to Jackie Martin for the June 29 article regarding the Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, which had effectively made abortion legal in the U.S. for all nine months of pregnancy for any reason.
I am grateful for the quotations in response to that decision of so many of our Downriver elected officials. These Democrats (U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib, state Rep. Darrin Camilleri, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer) can no longer hide behind a rhetoric of vague compassion. Their words tell clearly that they are in favor of allowing and encouraging through the power of government, the annual slaughter of nearly 1 million babies in the womb. These children, the future of our country, are being murdered daily for their crime of being inconvenient, the wrong sex, or imperfect.
This November, we voters have the responsibility to replace these legislators by electing candidates who will defend the weakest members of society. Only the Republican party platform of 2016, reissued in 202,0 reiterates the Declaration of Independence that declares the inalienable right to life as well as the need to strengthen families of a mother and father with their natural children as the means to give more children a path to success which in turn strengthens our country.
In that same issue of The News-Herald, columnist Craig Farrand expressed his flawed opinion and disappointment at the SCOTUS decision. He touts the core foundations of “personal freedoms, privacy, a separation of church and state, limits to government intrusion and, ultimately, the right to live your life as you see fit – as long as your beliefs don’t translate into actions that inflict themselves on anyone else.” But that’s the flaw because abortion is an action that directly kills the unborn child, a separate person from the mother.
I was most offended by his flawed analysis when he claims that three justices were illegitimate appointments because he did not consider President Trump to have been properly elected. Following the wisdom of the Constitution and election laws governing our republic, Donald Trump was duly and legally elected. There is no reason to continue the sour grapes attitude and disrespect of our former president.
I do agree with Mr. Farrand that we should “elect people at the national and state levels who will defend … the rights of minorities, the weak and those in need.” Unborn babies and their mothers certainly fall into that category.
The people of Michigan have a long history of defending a culture of life.
• 1846 – Michigan law banned abortion
• 1931 – When the Michigan legal code was updated, the 1846 law was unchanged
• 1972 – Ballot proposal that would have legalized abortion was defeated 61% to 39% (This was invalidated by the Roe v. Wade decision of Jan. 22, 1973.)
• 1988 – Through a petition drive and vote of 57% to 43%, a ban on tax-funded Medicaid abortions was enacted
• 1998 – Vote of 71% to 29% made assisted suicide illegal
• 2013 – A successful petition drive for initiated legislation eliminated (Obamacare) mandated abortion coverage in health insurance plans
There are 150 pregnancy help centers in Michigan (1-800-57-WOMAN) with four of them Downriver. They offer material help and various levels of medical help and support for mothers and families in need. They are prepared to expand their services to help more mothers during pregnancy and after their baby’s birth.
In 1980, the Democrat party made the choice not to defend the lives of the unborn. Although Downriver has long been a Democrat stronghold, it is time to change that for the most foundational issue of justice in our time. We can debate policy, taxes, how to fund the roads and other issues, but protecting human life is nonnegotiable.
During the ratification process of the U.S. Constitution, George Washington wrote the following which is still good advice:
“No one can rejoice more than I do at every step taken by the People of this great Country to preserve the Union — establish good order & government — and to render the Nation happy at home & respected abroad. No Country upon Earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wonderously strange then, & much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means, and to stray from the road to which the finger of Providence has so manifestly pointed. I cannot believe it will ever come to pass! The great Author of all good has not conducted us so far on the Road to happiness and glory to withdraw from us, in the hour of need, his beneficent support. By folly & misconduct (proceeding from a variety of causes) we may now & then get bewildered; but I hope, and trust, that there is good sense and virtue enough left to bring us back into the right way before we shall be entirely lost.”
We will continue to pray and work to defend the lives of the innocent babies in the womb who have no voice.
Ed Kroll is president of Upper Downriver Right to Life.
Downriver Activism & Empathy 