“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Luke 1:41-42

“A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the laws of this State.” Reproductive Health Act in Illinois

That the misnamed and misguided Reproductive Health Act passed the Illinois Senate on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is just one of the sad ironies regarding this legislation. The first quote above is from that day’s Gospel reading and tells of John the Baptist, as a fetus, recognizing with joy the blessed presence of newly pregnant Mary and the growing “fruit of her womb,” Jesus.

Want further ironies? The Act passed out of the Senate Public Health Committee two days earlier. That same Wednesday, you may recall, news broke that the smallest baby ever to survive a premature birth was thriving after being delivered in San Diego in December at 23 weeks gestation. Praise was universal for the efforts of the neonatal staff at Sharp HealthCare now that the girl — born weighing only 8.6 ounces (yes, ounces) — has been sent home with her parents.

There’s more. The bill was being debated in the weeks after a horrific story out of Chicago that involved an unborn child being cut out of a pregnant mother’s womb in a premeditated murder. The baby somehow survived. So in the mad scramble to enshrine abortion in our state law comes this irony: the alleged perpetrators of the grisly crime in Chicago are charged not only with murder, but also with the aggravated battery of a child under 13. We can already hear a defense attorney arguing the latter charge claiming that, at the time of the crime, the fetus had no independent rights in this state.

These are just three examples showing how illogical, inconsistent and intolerable is the RHA. We pray this legislation’s life will be is as short-lived as the lives of so many unborn children it so blatantly disregards.

To all who wrote or called their representatives encouraging a “no” vote, and to all who cast such a vote, we say thank you.  To those who didn’t, we pledge continued prayers and action on behalf of not only the unborn but women and families in need. — Thomas J. Dermody