Editor’s note. The following remarks were delivered by Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life Committee, at a rally preceding oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Good morning! Thank you all for being here on this historic day; a day that is so important to vulnerable preborn members of the human family!
America needs to know what is being argued here today so I’m going to read the opening section of the Mississippi law under debate.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) This section shall be known and cited as the “Gestational Age Act.”
(2) Legislative findings and purpose. The Legislature makes the following findings of fact and incorporates them herein by reference:
(a) The United States is one (1) of only seven (7) nations in the world that permits nontherapeutic or elective abortion-on-demand after the twentieth week of gestation. In fact, fully seventy-five percent (75%) of all nations do not permit abortion after twelve (12) weeks’ gestation, except (in most instances) to save the life and to preserve the physical health of the mother.
(b) (i) Medical and other authorities now know more about human prenatal development than ever before including that:
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- Between five (5) and six (6) weeks’ gestation, an unborn human being’s heart begins beating.
- An unborn human being begins to move about in the womb at approximately eight (8) weeks’ gestation.
- At nine (9) weeks’ gestation, all basic physiological functions are present. Teeth and eyes are present, as well as external genitalia.
- An unborn human being’s vital organs begin to function at ten (10) weeks’ gestation. Hair, fingernails, and toenails also begin to form.
- At eleven (11) weeks’ gestation, an unborn human being’s diaphragm is developing, and he or she may even hiccup. He or she is beginning to move about freely in the womb.
- At twelve (12) weeks’ gestation, an unborn human being can open and close his or her fingers, starts to make sucking motions, and senses stimulation from the world outside the womb. Importantly, he or she has taken on “the human form” in all relevant aspects.
These are the biologically accurate findings in the Mississippi law. And that is why Mississippi is today asking the Court to allow protections for preborn children before viability. These little ones are members of the human family and deserve to be protected.
Viability is an ever-changing standard and, therefore, unworkable as the timeline or frameworkfor abortion. For many years, babies were thought to be viable at 28 weeks. Now, babies are generally considered to be viable at 24 weeks, but babies have survived at 21 weeks! Viability is not a characteristic of the baby but of how advanced our technology has become.
Mississippi seeks to protect from abortion unborn babies after 15 weeks. By that age, preborn children are fully formed. They have heartbeats, fingers and toes, and functioning organs. By eight weeks gestation, brain waves can be recorded. Life has surely begun, and the state has the right, indeed-the duty- to protect it.
I pray the Supreme Court sees these little ones as the precious human beings they are, regardless of age.