On May 4, 2018, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the Heartbeat Bill into law which would protect unborn children who have a detectable heartbeat, except "when the abortion is medically necessary" and defines "medically necessary" as cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormality, making the abortion provider the sole arbiter of these determinations.  These exceptions were surprisingly added -- allegedly because certain legislators in the House would not sign the bill without exceptions.

Save The 1 is a global pro-life organization of over 600 of us who were conceived in rape, incest or sex trafficking and mothers who became pregnant by rape, incest or sex trafficking who are either raising their children, birth mothers, miscarried, or post-abortive and mourn the loss of their children.  Additionally, we have hundreds who were told by physicians to abort due to a pre-natal diagnosis, along with their children who were targeted by doctors.  We specialize in defending all of the so-called “hard cases” in the abortion debate through sharing our personal stories, and we additionally act as a support network.  The deadly discrimination contained in the exceptions within the Iowa Heartbeat Law hurts us -- because our hearts beat too!

We discussed what our response as an organization should be.  We could cooperate in order that we may have a "seat at the table" and be invited back to Iowa to speak and to testify again on a future bill.  But to what end?  To have another viral video which ultimately is rendered ineffective in gaining any protection for us and our children?  Do we want to be popular, or protected?

Others would like for us to roll over and play dead.  Sometimes it feels like the game is fixed -- like this is the Harlem Globetrotters and we are merely the Washington Generals.  We aren't supposed to cry foul when our players are thrown to the ground.  Politically, many are quite used to us being the sacrificial lamb, and we are supposed to somehow be understanding and cooperative as we are lead to slaughter.

We are told, "It's nothing against you personally," but we are persons, the attack on our very right to life could not possibly be more personal, and of course we will take it personally!

If it were just us who have already been born and merely a matter of our feelings being hurt, perhaps we could somehow "let it go," but there are others who are yet at risk, who are being targeted for killing, who are just as deserving of protection as any of us, and so, we are fighting back.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland recently filed a lawsuit against the state of Iowa, and we are now filing a motion to intervene as necessary third party intervenors "of right" since the current Plaintiff, Planned Parenthood, clearly will not argue on behalf of our interests.  The exceptions within the Iowa Fetal Heartbeat law violate our fundamental right to life, depriving us of due process and equal protection under both the Iowa and U.S. constitutions.  Thankfully, there is a severability clause in the legislation so that the offending provisions can be severed and the remainder of the law upheld.  We have three attorneys representing Save The 1:  Erin Mersino -- a pro-life constitutional law attorney from Michigan with the Great Lakes Justice Center, Eric Borseth -- an attorney from Iowa and a board member of Personhood Iowa, and myself.

As a pro-life attorney, this is why I went to law school.  While attending Wayne State law school, I wrote what has been for decades the #1-ranked philosophical abortion essay, "The Right of the Unborn Child Not to be Unjustly Killed -- a philosophy of rights approach."  If I can't defend my own right to life in court, then what is the point of being a pro-life attorney?  What is the point of being alive?  Just to be selfish and live my life without caring about others who are yet at risk?  I was protected by Michigan law when my birth mother sought to kill me at two illegal abortions.  As a rape victim, she was not offered any help or hope -- just abortion.  My life was spared for a purpose, and for such a time as this I will use my life, my talents, my expertise and law degree to save others.

The discriminatory language in the Iowa Heartbeat law defines "medically necessary" as cases in which:

a. The pregnancy which is the result of a rape which is reported within forty-five days of the incident to a law enforcement  agency or to a public or private health agency which may include a family physician.

b. The pregnancy is the result of incest which is reported within one hundred forty days of the incident to a law enforcement agency or to a public or private health agency which may include a family physician.

c. Any spontaneous abortion, commonly known as a miscarriage, if not all of the products of conception are expelled.

d. The attending physician certifies that the fetus has a fetal abnormality that in the physician’s reasonable medical judgment is incompatible with life. 

Interestingly, among the bill’s definitions, rape, incest, fetal abnormality and incompatible with life are not included or even cross-referenced with other sections of the Iowa code, as other definitions are cross-referenced.  So the abortion providers get to decide what they deem to qualify as rape, incest and incompatible with life.

The rape, incest and fetal abnormality exceptions are based upon a fabrication that aborting these unborn children is “medically necessary.”  Not one witness testified in the Senate hearing as to such a medical necessity.  This language was added to appease state representatives in the House who said they would not approve the bill without language that excludes these children from protection.   In other words, the legislative intent was that they believed it was politically necessary – not medically necessary, if they were being honest.  The language not only excludes innocent children from protection, doing so under a faulty premise, but really was intended merely to protect certain politicians and nothing to do with protecting pregnant mothers.

The abortion physician is given the power to decide whether the unborn child has a fetal abnormality and whether the living unborn child with a detectable heartbeat is somehow “incompatible with life.”  These preborn children are actually disabled children, and as such, should be protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Additionally, and equally as troubling, the report of the rape and/or incest merely needs to be made to the “public or private health agency” – in other words, to the abortion clinic.  So the abortion clinic becomes the sole arbiter of whether a woman was raped and whether her child is to suffer the death penalty for the alleged crimes of his or her biological father, with no guidelines provided within the legislation.  This clearly lacks due process and fails to provide equal protection.

The targeting of our people groups for exclusion of protection, and in fact, for state-approved killing is clearly discriminatory.  The sting of this discrimination not only affects every unborn child who is deemed to fit into these legislative categories of rape, incest or fetal abnormality, but is lifelong – affecting every person born who was conceived in rape or given a challenging pre-natal diagnosis by a physician.  Additionally, it causes anguish to the mothers who became pregnant by rape or who were told by doctors to abort.  They grieve at how their children are so quickly devalued by politicians and within the law.

The Iowa Heartbeat bill’s bewildering exceptions legislate extreme and inexplicable hatred toward disabled children in the womb, as well as those conceived in rape or incest.  Prenatal testing -- instead of being used to treat and heal -- is used for search and destroy missions for those with medically identifiable disabilities.  Iowa legislators have now authorized doctors to commit genocide against an entire people group, decreasing their voices and representation within society. 

This deliberate targeting and killing of our people groups also results in doubt being cast upon rape victims for not aborting “like a true rape victim would”, and the “blaming” of parents for not aborting their disabled children who are seen within much of the medical community as a burden on the health care system – much like the Nazi regime which employed the medical designation of “lebensunwertes leben” (“life unworthy of life”), referring to the disabled as “useless eaters.”

Using terminology such as “fetal abnormality” or “incompatible with life“ as classifications for children with disability is deceiving and treacherous treatment from a government which claims its citizens have equal protection under the law.  Born children and adults are treated by some physicians as “incompatible with life,” and doctors and hospitals point to “medical futility policies” in order to justify discrimination against these disabled individuals.  This deadly eugenics is alive and well today in the United States, and now codified in Iowa by the exceptions within this new law.

Physicians’ predictions are not medical certainty and denying the right to life and equal protection to entire groups of disabled children based on an abortion doctor’s best guess is not medical science.  Bias and arrogance of those who wish to promote biological superiority through the destruction of disabled children in the womb brings new meaning to the words biological warfare.  

A child’s God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should never be denied because of his or her disability or circumstances of conception.  His or her value is not based on what he or she is able to do or the behavior of his or her parents; rather, it is based on his or her humanity and that the child has been endowed by his or her Creator with these inalienable rights.

We’ve had parents within our organization who refused to abort and were told by doctors:

 “The only further testing you will receive is an autopsy,”

“If your child is born not breathing, we won’t resuscitate,” and

“Your child has already outlived her life expectancy.”

Some parents have endured others looking at their disabled child in their arms and asking, “Didn’t you get any pre-natal testing?”

The clear expectation and even obligation is to abort.  The Iowa legislature has now codified this deadly discrimination.

Since the government has not done its duty to protect disabled children in the womb, they are also targeted after leaving the womb.  Many children have medical treatments withheld and denied leading to their death simply because they have a disability. 

Children conceived in rape are often called dehumanizing names such as:

“Demon seed,” “evil seed,” “horrible reminder,” “rapist’s child” (an insult to every rape victim mother who knows that this is her child,) “monster’s child,” “demon spawn,” “Satan’s child,” “tainting the gene pool,” and on and on.  The exceptions within the Iowa Fetal Heartbeat law suggest there is something inherently different about the child conceived in rape that they would be unworthy of protection.  To legislate that aborting us is "medically necessary" further suggests that we are somehow medically harming our mothers -- furthering the notion that we are somehow the ones raping our mothers.  But we are entirely innocent and we plead our innocence.

While some states like Michigan, Georgia and Nebraska do not have a single rape exception within the law, there are other jurisdictions where the child conceived in rape is singled-out and systematically targeted for extermination.  This lack of equal protection undeniably feeds into the discrimination within the culture.  It codifies hatred, fear and prejudice against an innocent child.

 

A civilized nation must protect the lives of the innocent and disabled child, not target them for extermination and codify hatred.   It is barbaric to punish an innocent child for someone else’s crime.  The legislature should focus on punishing rapists, not babies and the Court must focus on protecting lives of the innocent and not the careers of politicians or interests of the abortion industry.  More violence does not bring healing, but only more pain, more destruction and a less empathetic society.

Given that there was no testimony before the Iowa legislature from physicians or expert witnesses to suggest that denying equal protection and due process for our people groups is somehow a “medical necessity,” it is impossible for the state to claim even a rational basis for the violation of the most fundamental right.   For the disabled unborn child, the state cannot claim any sort of governmental interest in codifying eugenics, and certainly not a compelling governmental interest.  Assuming medical necessity based upon faulty assumptions is deadly, and must not stand as a basis for violating the right to life and equal protection of the laws.

As far as we know, this is the first time in the U.S. and even globally that a group of people like us has defended our own right to life in court.  To every legislator nationwide who wants to target our people group within pro-life legislation:  we are united, we have a voice, and we will fight back!

BIO:  Rebecca Kiessling, conceived in rape, is a pro-life attorney, international pro-life 

You can measure the value of a society by how the weakest members are treated.  Since 1989, Chile has been a country that protects these precious souls, but President Bachelet of Chile has decided to join the sick and depraved people of this world who have targeted disabled children for annihilation.  Chile’s Cámara de Diputados has linked arms with President Bachelet to vote for a bill that would allow disabled children to be killed in the womb by legalizing abortion in these cases.  Does a decent society protect or destroy its most vulnerable citizens? 

My wife and I have a little girl named Faith -- now 7 years old.  While Faith was still in the womb, doctors believed that she was facing a grave medical condition called Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome.  This is a chromosome abnormality that is often referred to as “Incompatible with Life” or a “Fatal Fetal Anomaly.”  We were pushed to have testing while she was still in utero because they wanted us to end her life, but we were not interested in ending her life, and we knew that even performing this test would risk Faith’s life so we opted for no testing. 

When Faith was born, everyone saw that something was wrong.  We found out a couple of weeks later that Faith, in fact, had Trisomy 18.  Even at this point after Faith was born, we were being encouraged not to treat our daughter.  Doctors did not think that we should offer her even some of the most basic medical care to help our child live and thrive.  We even had a doctor who told us that “you will only prolong her life.”  Seriously, isn’t that what the medical industry is all about, prolonging life?

You see, in the USA, we have allowed this perverse and demented view of life to take hold in our country through legalized abortion.  We have created a culture of death that causes many in our society to think of life as having little value and they are willing to judge the worth of another person’s life based upon their valueless view.  So now in the United States, doctors kill over 90% of children like my daughter Faith who have a disability.  Before they can even breathe their first breath, doctors murder our disabled children in the womb. 

When I was a young boy in 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States.  Where I grew up in Ohio, we had a local school that sent buses around to pick up disabled children and take them to be taught.  Today, the school no longer exists because our culture has literally wiped most of the disabled children from the face of our nation.  This is the legacy that we are leaving because abortion has created a selfish, narcissistic people in the USA -- so consumed with selves that citizens do not even care about the most vulnerable people among us.

The world has become a very scary place for disabled children.  Good people of Chile, do not let your president turn your country into a killing field for disabled children.  Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived that this is the best choice for everyone involved.  This is a LIE.  Your country will not be made better through abortion; rather, it will become degraded and dehumanized.  Your people will not have better lives because disabled children do not exist; they will simply have been deprived of the opportunity to develop compassion and to know the unconditional love of a disabled child who has only love to offer.

Tell your Senate to end this self-destructive bill that will eat away at your society until you have no value for life.  Stop President Bachelet from taking you down the road that leads to destruction.  Do NOT become like the rest of the world, but be an example to the world by loving your disabled children.  I can promise you one thing; you will be a better society and people by protecting your most vulnerable citizens.

http://www.salvarel1.blogspot.com/2016/03/un-presidente-que-asesina-sus.html

BIO:  Brad Smith is in sales for a Christian radio station, and a Board Member of Save The 1.  He and his wife Jesi have 5 children, and are bloggers and pro-life speakers for Save The 1.  Their own website is www.keepingourfaith.comwww.keepingourfaith.com.

We have a friend, Kayse, here in Michigan who has a beautiful little 2 year old girl named Lila.  

Kayse sent us an update the other day (Saturday September 27^th) because Lila has been sick for the last couple of weeks.  Most people have read about the viruses making their way around the country and get a little nervous about their children getting one of these viruses that have put so many children in the hospital.  Well, we pay close attention to these updates that we receive because Lila has Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) which is the same chromosome abnormality that our 5 ½ years old daughter Faith has.  These respiratory viruses can be particularly difficult for our children.      

Lila has been hospitalized twice this month for a total of about 11 days for a bronchiole infection and lack of oxygenation. Wednesday evening she was discharged from the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) on a small amount of oxygen. Doctors told Kayse to continue with care at home and to return if she gets a fever of any kind or if she gets worse at all.  Well her oxygen saturation started dropping into the high 70's which is very low since our bodies need to operate in the mid 90s.  Kayse upped her oxygen and gave her a breathing treatment. Then Lila developed a low grade temperature so they called the after-hours pediatrician number, and the doctor asked them to go to the hospital. When they arrived, the resident and attending doctors in ER wanted to have her admitted.  The ER doctors had the PICU resident and attending physicians come down to look at Lila.  In the meantime, the nurse had not come into the room yet, and the respiratory therapist gave Lila a breathing treatment and stated that her lungs sounded coarse which means she had mucous in her lungs.

The PICU doctors arrived and claimed that Lila had a left ear infection and wanted to send her on her way.  Knowing that the respiratory therapist said her lungs sounded coarse, Kayse did not accept this and explained her fears about how many of our trisomy children pass away from respiratory problems, and she did not want that to be Lila.  At that point, the doctor from the PICU looked Kayse in the eye and asked if she knew anything about trisomy 18 children and their life expectancies, and how Lila is past her life expectancy. Obviously, Kayse was very upset and angry.  She understands more about Trisomy 18 than this doctor because she has been living it day in and day out for the last 2 years.  Not only is this an insulting question to Kayse about her understanding, but worse, it is an attack on the value of Lila’s very life.  

Kayse explained that until this illness Lila has been a very healthy and happy child. She has more than proven herself, time and time again…like she should even have to prove herself to earn treatment? Is this doctor the arbiter of whose life is worthy of treatment?  Should Lila now have treatment withheld so she will simply die and go away?  Why should Lila not be offered the same level of care as any other child?  Why shouldn't she be given steroids to help her feel better faster? Why shouldn't they run tests? How is it OK to stick her in a room for 4 hours and never offer her Tylenol for her fever and discomfort? How is it ok that her nurse never even came in to assess her? How is Lila’s life worth less than the other children in the hospital?

As I read Kayse’s update and what this doctor said, I could not help, but think about my own illnesses during my childhood.  I had pneumonia 4 or 5 times between ages 1-7.  My parents were visiting this weekend for my 14 year old son’s birthday so I asked them if anyone ever suggested that I was past my life expectancy or did they simply treat my multiple illnesses?  They made it clear that no doctor ever even suggested such an idea and they simply treated me as a child who needed help.  I had pneumonia more times as a child than my 5 ½ year old Trisomy 18 daughter Faith has had it.  So why was my life worth saving? Is it because I have the ability to write this story?  Lila and my daughter Faith are lovely little girls who have tremendous value because they were created in the image of God.

Lila is now resting at home with her parents.  Please pray for Lila that she will recover quickly and for her family that they will be able to rest and have peace.

LifeNews Note: Brad Smith and his wife Jesi are Save The 1 (www.savethe1.com) pro-life speakers from Rochester Hills, Michigan.  Learn more about Brad and Jesi at www.keepingourfaith.com.

We thought they were helping.  Every time we took our daughter Faith to the hospital for her illness, they would nurse her back to health.  Faith has Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome).  Trisomy 21 is Downs Syndrome.  Trisomy 18 is much harsher with 90% of these children not reaching their first birthday.  At this time, Faith was 2 ½ years old and began to have some serious illnesses that almost took her life several times.  The hospital did some basic things to help her get over the illness and we thought that they were giving her the necessary care any other child would receive.  However when I had an opportunity to ask Rick Santorum for some advice since his little girl Bella also has Trisomy 18,  Rick gave me advice that I had never heard from the mouth of a single doctor.  I was somewhat skeptical when he first shared the list of things that we should be doing for Faith, but he convinced me with some very straight forward and honest comments.  He said if we didn’t do this that we were going to lose our daughter...now you know how he convinced me.

After receiving this list of items, I went to visit my wife, Jesi, and Faith in the hospital during my lunch later that day.  When we showed this list to the doctors, they told us that NOBODY does this. Huh?  We pushed to get the doctors to help us, but after a third hospital visit and a near death experience for Faith caused by the same problem, we finally figured out that they would not treat her.  I know, I know…why did we go back to them?  Well, you expect your doctors to help you and parents in our situation often trust, but need to realize that trust MUST be earned (as we have learned).

This is when we learned about “Slow Code,” although we had not discovered this term yet.  Because of our experience with multiple hospitals, Jesi and I began a journey to get the law changed in Michigan.  During our journey, Jesi researched medical journals on Trisomy 18 which is when we learned the term Slow Code.  Slow Code is when the medical providers offer the appearance of treatment, but knowingly administer the treatment so slowly that it is useless to the patient.  This may sound crazy and like something we might make up.  We not only learned the term from their industry journals, but we experienced it.  There are times in a hospital where you might hear CODE BLUE for an emergency, but why is it you never hear CODE SLOW?  Hospitals hide this practice in a deceitful way so they can inflict their decision on the patient.  This is not care, but lethal neglect or intentional death which I have always termed murder.

In one article of the Journal of Perinatology, a pediatric ethics committee discussed an option of Slow Code as a possible solution in the case of an infant with poor prognosis.  CPR had been offered to the parents and was later withheld by way of a DNR placed on the patient by doctors.  The committee debated this decision, but only from the perspective that CPR should probably have never been offered in the first place.  So here we have a committee of medical “caregivers” suggesting that forms of care should not even be offered to patients based upon their value(less) judgment.  Withholding  medical care and suggestions for treatment is now the medically ethical way to handle a patient?  In the end, this particular committee decided that it is deceitful to use Slow Code.  Ya think?  The fact that this suggestion was even considered legitimate enough to be discussed is troubling.

This brings us back to our daughter Faith.  We were not even offered what we now know to be pretty basic treatment for today’s medicine.  Our daughter Faith had severe sleep apnea which most novices in sleep apnea could have determined.  She had a small jaw which was obvious to anyone with even a little experience.  Our problem, we were not even novices at this point and we had no clue.  We cornered a doctor for an hour in the doctor’s office before he finally told us that if he were in our shoes, he would go to the other hospital.  Really?  After three trips to his hospital and on the verge of a fourth, we finally had some honesty.  Our daughter needed a sleep study which showed the necessity for a Bipap (very similar to a Cpap) to help her breath at night.  When we reached the other hospital, they could not understand why we were not provided with this help for our daughter.  Faith is now 5 years old and doing things that the first group of doctors said would never be possible.  Well, they were right about one thing.  She never would have started walking or probably even have survived had we followed their advice, or lack thereof.

Brad Smith; Married for 16 years to Jesi and the proud father of 5 children living in Rochester Hills, Michigan; Save The 1 pro-life speaker, pro-life blogger, and Board Member