There are car seats, clothing and day spas, food for young ones, adults and old ones, and there’s the anti-vivisectionists and the ASPCA which polices cruelty.  It seems like dogs are cared for pretty well, don’t you think?  What I don’t get are the protections we, as a society, provide to animals but not to our babies.

When I wrote this about a year ago, Michael Vick had just been released from prison after serving 19 months for being part of a dog-fighting conspiracy. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love dogs and I don’t want anyone hurting them but, at the same time, did Michael Vick deserve to spend 19 months in prison?

Around the same time, there was George Tiller, a late-term abortionist, who’d been acquitted on 19 misdemeanors stemming from the requirement that he obtain a second opinion from an impartial and independent doctor before performing the procedure.  According to the report in the Washington Post, Tiller’s clinic performed 400 of these abortions every year!

So I said to myself, here we’ve got all these protections for dogs and none for the babies who are still being killed during the birthing process in what’s called “partial-birth abortion.“  I don’t get it.

A bill banning partial-birth abortions was passed in the 90s but President Clinton vetoed it.  Thankfully, President George W. Bush signed the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003” which banned these horrific procedures, except when necessary to save the life of the mother.  The Supreme Court upheld the Ban in 2007.

Every woman I’ve met who has had an ultrasound during her pregnancy, carried that little picture around – some even have it framed – and has always referred to the little one as her baby.  Not one woman has ever called the baby a “fetus.”  I guess when you want a baby, it’s a baby; when you don’t want a baby, it’s not a baby.

What I don’t get is how late-term abortion, under any circumstances, is not considered murder of a human being in the process of being born.  Partial-birth abortion is the killing of a baby, not in the womb, but in the birth canal.  I don’t get why the mother’s life is any more sacred than the baby’s?  Pro-choicers love to throw around the phrase, “it’s a woman’s body.”  Well, I got news for them:  it’s not their body they’re killing, it’s the baby’s!

Today, the Ban is still in place, but in 2008, then-candidate Obama said his goal was to transform America (we already see that happening) and one of the first things he would do in office would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which in the words of Nancy Keenan on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America, would “repeal the Bush-backed Federal Abortion Ban.”  Funny how she doesn’t use the term “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.”  (Hmm, I wonder why?)

So, on the one hand, there’s Michael Vick serving 19 months because he endangered dogs and, on the other hand, there’s Dr. Tiller (doesn’t the Hippocratic Oath apply to babies?) who is allowed to, under the guise of “saving the life of the mother,” pull the baby’s legs out of the mother’s body, puncture the skull while it’s still inside, extract the brain and then pull the dead infant out all the way.

Well, not anymore.  Dr. Tiller was murdered by Scott Roeder while serving as an usher in his Church on May 31st of last year.  At the time, his widow said it was an “unspeakable tragedy” yet the killing of thousands of babies in this shocking manner is not.  Ms. Keenan said, “…our prayers and thoughts are with Dr. Tiller’s family and friends at this moment, a moment that fills us with immeasurable shock and deep sadness.”  I don’t remember ever seeing a similar statement for the babies that were slaughtered by this man.  A year later, Ms. Keenan is still holding Dr. Tiller up as a martyr.

I never wished Tiller dead but I have never wished him well either.  A greater power is now in charge.  He has to explain to God how he only eliminated fetuses – that these were not babies.  Mr. Roeder’s deed was unquestionably wrong and will not bring back the infants.  The laws of man have already tried, convicted and sentenced him to life in prison.  And that’s fine with me.  However, what’s important is God’s law, and while I don’t condone Mr. Roeder’s actions on earth, perhaps a forgiving Lord will look upon his soul when the time comes and consider the number of children he saved by preventing Dr. Tiller from slaughtering more innocents.

For the time being, dogs are safe.  Right now, it looks like thumbs up for the puppies and thumbs down for babies and if you get it, God bless you because I sure as heck don’t.