DES MOINES, IA, February 12, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Democratic state representative suggested during a debate on the Iowa House floor that babies' persistent cries, habit of interrupting their parents' sleep, and learning disabilities might justify abortion.
Beth Wessel-Kroeschell said that “we as women know about babies – we love them, we adore them.”
“But we also know that they have the challenges they bring,” she continued.
“They have colic, the sleepless nights, the finances, the disciplinary challenges, the education challenges, the birth defects, the mental health issues, the learning disabled – the list goes on and on,” she said.
“What women do know is that we know where our limits are,” she said, “whether we’re physically ready, whether we’re emotionally ready, whether we’re financially ready to be parents.”
“And we have the right to make those decisions,” she added.
Survey data of post-abortive women find the majority of women say they choose to abort for reasons of convenience. According to the Guttmacher Institute, citing a 2005 report, three-quarters of women say they are not ready for the challenges of parenthood, believe “they cannot afford a child” or “that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents.” “Half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner,” a thorny consideration since 85 percent of women who abort are unmarried.
Approximately one percent of abortions are due to rape.
Although abortion activists have increasingly called for “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology,” newborn colic is seldom cited as a rationale.
But pro-life advocates say the abortion industry is uncompromising and fights every legal protection in court. Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League, based in neighboring Illinois, has said, “'Choice' means abortion – any time, for any reason or no reason at all. That’s what Planned Parenthood and NARAL stand for, no matter what new slogans they come up with or old ones they try to dust off.”
Rep. Wessel-Kroeschell's remarks came as the Iowa House voted to pass a bill that would enact a statewide ban on telemed abortions – the practice by which an abortionist at a remote location, often out of state, dispenses an abortion-inducing medication to a woman after a brief video conference.
The bill passed on a largely party-line 55-42 vote, but Democratic Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal has said the bill will likely die without a vote in his chamber.
The state Iowa Board of Medicine voted to end telemed abortions last August, but they are currently being contested in court.
Wessel-Kroeschell has a long history of promoting abortion-on-demand. In 2011, she was one of two Iowa lawmakers to win Planned Parenthood's “Champion Award.”
Wessel-Kroeschell has received campaign donations from Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa (now Planned Parenthood of the Heartland), EMILY's List, the pro-abortion Iowa group DAWN's List, and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, as well as several labor unions.
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She has also supported the state Supreme Court's decision to redefine marriage despite polls showing the majority of the rural, religious state support marriage as an exclusively heterosexual union.
“Sometimes we need to ignore the polls and do the right thing,” she said. “We need to be on the right side of history.”
“Women, here in America, were once the property of men,” she continued.
However, no historical law existed in U.S. history giving men legal ownership status over their spouses.