One day you are a child, and the next day you are not
Consistency has never been a strong characteristic of our legislature. However, what is transpiring over the next few days in the statehouse is reflective of a person’s worldview being fragmented and incoherent over the question of what it means to be human, and furthermore, what is the role of government in protecting human life.
Today, Thursday, December 5, the Senate Labor Committee heard testimony and voted on Senate bill 2978. The bill’s description by the Office of Legislative Services puts forward a positive view of preborn children being alive, and in a real sense recognizes the personhood of babies in the womb.
Senate bill 2978 – Concerns bereavement leave for death of child, miscarriage, stillbirth, and certain other circumstances
Language within the bill will change employment family leave to include:
Section (4)(C), “Family leave” also means leave from employment for bereavement purposes due to the miscarriage, including chemical pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, and molar pregnancy, or termination for medical reasons of a pregnancy.
What does that mean? It will allow women time to grieve over the death of their child in the womb, and rightfully so! During the committee hearing, women shared their heartbreaking experience of the sudden loss of human life during their pregnancy. As one woman said, “The baby in my womb died.”
This bill acknowledges the trauma and pain associated with a death of a child due to miscarriages and medically involuntary abortions, but it fails to recognize the life and premature death of a child due to other abortions – even though the lives of both types of preborn children end abruptly at the same time of gestational development. The life developing in one womb is deemed worthy of respect and the appropriate time of bereavement leave for a parent to grieve the loss of that life – the other baby is considered “not-alive” and therefore has no equal protection under the laws of our state.
The inconsistent treatment of the unborn is a grave injustice to the dignity of the child. The death of any child, and the grief of any mother, should not face any form of discrimination.
This upcoming Monday, December 9, the hypocrisy will infuriate you. After the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee just recognized human life in the womb today, and the grief associated with the death of that human life by an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy loss, the Senate Health Committee will hear and most likely pass:
◾Senate bill 3492, to increase the number of abortions in New Jersey by allocating funds to establish new abortion centers throughout our state through the “Reproductive Health Care Facility Loan Program.”
◾Senate bill 3496, that will establish a special fund for taxpayers to personally underwrite the deaths of babies by receiving a tax deduction on their state tax return for giving money to abortion centers.
The reality of human life, and the responsibility of government to protect human life, should not be determined by feelings or the day of the week, but by objective science and natural law. Labor Laws are not within our scope of advocacy, but we will be present on Monday to defend Life in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
