The Arkansas legislature has made me so proud I could cry.  The measure, S.B. 134/H.B. 1037, known as the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, prevents unborn children from being aborted after the person’s heart is beating except in cases of rape, incest, life of the mother and if the child is at risk of not living soon after birth.  If this isn’t good enough, they passed it over the Democrat governor’s veto.  Wow.

These men and women should be praised for protecting the most vulnerable in our society. 

But as we all know the Constitution specifically and clearly, in black and white, enshrines the right to an abortion as a sacred American value that nullifies all other Constitutional rights for babies.  Thus, some pro-abort judge will overrule it.  That’s fine.  These are small battles in a cultural war that spans generations. 

That brings me to the squish pro-lifers.  You probably know some.  Your Congressmen is probably one.  These are the people that are personally pro-life, but publicly pro-death.  You know, the ones that say we have to protect the unborn, but just not during this election cycle, or this year, or against this politician, or in this political race.  They have spurned Abraham Lincoln’s advice to “leave nothing for tomorrow that can be done today” and decided it would be better to do it later.  Always later.

So I couldn’t help but notice the comments of James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel for National Right to Life Committee.  While we have true warriors going to the battle for innocents on the right, we have this NRLC attorney stating: “As much as we would like to protect the unborn at that point, it is futile and it won’t save any babies.”  He goes on to predict that a court will overrule it.  Bopp opposes the law on strategic grounds.  So while we have soldiers out there taking on water, we have this guy distributing friendly fire.

 I assume that Mr. Bopp would encourage us to sit on our asses for the rest of our natural lives wishing and hoping that we get five republican Supreme Court justices that hold our viewpoint.  I assume that he believes that we should hope that none of those five go squishy like Kennedy did when he changed his vote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.  I assume also, that he would want us to support a republican president’s nomination like Harriet Myers, no matter what.  I assume that he would rather wait until tomorrow to get these humane protections put into place.  And that is exactly why his opinion is more worthless than the paper it was released on.

This Arkansas legislature recognizes what most Americans do – that abortions of convenience after the child is alive and kicking inside the womb are barbaric and we should move to prevent them from occurring. 

We can stand around and glance at our watches for the rest of our lives waiting for other people to change abortion policy in America OR we can do what we can to change it.  We can pass laws at the state level.  We can change the political culture surrounding late term abortions.  We can create a grassroots legislative movement from the state level up to the federal level that shows serious laws being passed in defense of the unborn.  Anyone, including NRLC reps that don’t actually believe in the cause should get out of our way.  It will take decades to change the culture, but we are making headway.  What we don’t need is people from groups like NRLC taking your donations while siding with pro-aborts when it counts. 

I can’t commend the Republicans and Democrats who passed this law enough.  I hope the voters of Arkansas reward these great men and women for taking a stand.  I know that God in heaven will.  This is a righteous cause and will continue to become more politically feasible.