Consider the case of Haleigh Poutre. The 11 year old adopted daughter of Holli Strickland, Haleigh was apparently kicked and beaten, nearly to death, by her adopted parents in September. She currently lives in a vegetative state, kept alive by a feeding tube.
Today the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowed the State Department of Social Services to remove Haleigh's feeding tube, so that the girl may find peace in death that her adopted parents apparently stole from her in life.
CNN Reports:
Stepfather wanted sayHaleigh was adopted by her aunt about five years ago after Avrett moved to Virginia with a new boyfriend.
Jason Strickland, who never formally adopted the girl, argued that as the stepfather, he should be considered a de facto parent and allowed to have a say in whether she lives or dies.
Strickland's lawyer, John Egan, insisted his client isn't motivated by the chance he could be charged with murder if the girl dies.
"We should be coming down on the side of life as opposed to death," he told the justices during last month's hearing.
But the court said in its ruling that it was impossible to consider Strickland's intentions without also taking into account the criminal charges he might face if she dies.
"To recognize the petitioner as a de facto parent, in order that he may participate in a medical end-of-life decision for the child, is unthinkable in the circumstances of this case," the court said.
Here we see the "Culture of Life" being used to defend the rights of the likely murderer of an 11-year-old girl. If Haleigh is allowed to die, her stepfather will almost certainly be charged with capital murder. Does a parent who mercilessly beats his "de-facto child" to the brink of death deserve to prolong her vegetative life to protect himself from criminal prosecution? So argues the "Culture of Life".
Clearly and plainly stated, abortion is the law of the land. Roe v Wade has been upheld nearly 40 times, making it what Supreme Court Nominee Sam Alito jokingly called a "Super-Duper Precedent".
Nonetheless, those who oppose abortion on absolutist grounds fail to take the realities of human life into account. Just as there will be poor always, there will be unwanted pregnancies always. The way to reduce unwanted pregnancies is not to outlaw the procedure or curtail it's availability. The way to reduce unwanted pregnancies is not to vilify pregnant women during the most difficult and often desperate decision process of their lives. The way to reduce is to invest in education and a healthy middle class. The most stridently anti-Roe areas of the country have the highest rates of teen pregnancy, the highest rates of child abuse, and the lowest rates of literacy.
Increased ignorance is not the answer, and every day the "Culture of Life" proves itself to be more and more pretty lipstick on a very, very ugly pig.
The extremists of the reactionary-right co-opted the term "Culture of Life" to encapsulate the misnomer that those who support choice and intelligent decision making are somehow devoted to death, killing, and the wholesale slaughter of unborn children.
The lies of the right are crisp, clear and magnificent in their simplicity. So clear and simple, in fact, that the concepts can be used wonderfully by the most brutal and heinous abusers of children to defend the most murderous of actions.
While the reactionary minority that calls itself a "Culture of Life" weeps for zygotes and promotes a wholesale second-class status for women, America weeps for Haleigh and will see justice done.