By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although Chairman Barbara Boxer expressed frustration when the unborn’s right to life emerged as a topic of discussion during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting, she herself repeatedly admitted that a pregnant woman is carrying a child, despite her reputation for being staunchly pro-abortion.
Her admission happened while the Senate panel was reviewing a bill involving the dollar value assessment the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assigns to human life in environmental decisions. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), an established pro-life advocate, wanted to amend the bill to include considerations for unborn life.
“My amendment directs EPA to also establish and properly consider the statistical value of the conceived, unborn life,” said Sen. Inhofe. “Given this Committee’s recent focus on children’s health it seems only consistent that we would want EPA to also properly value the life of the least protected class – the unborn children.”
Sen. Boxer became clearly vexed at the mention of unborn life, saying, “Even the Bush administration has never brought the question of when life begins to an environmental regulation. It was my understanding that you were not going to do this, and now you’re doing it.”
While Inhofe’s amendment was ultimately rejected, Boxer herself introduced an amendment stressing that the valuations should cover pregnant women, whom twice she characterized as carrying unborn children.
At one point during the meeting, Boxer said, in reference to pregnant women, “You can talk about it any way you want, but she’s carrying a child.” A second time she said, “I would just like to state the obvious. When a woman is pregnant, and I was, you’re carrying a child and if you protect the pregnant woman, you’re protecting that whole entire pregnancy.”
Boxer’s comments recognizing the presence of a child and not a mere fetus in the mother’s womb stand in marked contrast to earlier discussions in which she vehemently refused to acknowledge the personhood of a preborn baby.
In 1999, while the Senate was debating the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, Sen. Rick Santorum questioned Boxer as to when a child assumes e the Constitutional right to life. Boxer refused to answer, despite Santorum posing the question about a dozen consecutive times. (see https://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/notansweringboxersantorum.html for a transcript of the exchange)