Ombre Ga’chong: Abortion is murder

By Lee Webber

A short period of personal enjoyment on the part of a man and a woman, with the help of God, creates another human being.

Not too many years ago we did not possess the capability to locate and listen to a fetal heartbeat inside of a mother’s womb at the early stages of a pregnancy as we can today.

With the help of a modern sonogram and ultrasound equipment, we can hear the heartbeat and see the emotionally stirring movements of an infant child inside of a mother’s womb.

The heartbeat of a living human being, a very tiny child, that was created – planned for or not – by a man and a woman – two separate human beings have come into exist in the woman’s body.

At some later point in time, technology can even identify if that child will be born male or female.

We are now a heartbeat away from drastically reducing the onslaught of very preventable and senseless killings of innocent, defenseless children. 

In the recent wisdom of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices, the overturning of the infamous Roe vs Wade decision has created a fire storm nation-wide.

A firestorm because the federal government and politicians decided to trod where only God and our God given human freedoms belong.

This change in the Supreme Courts position has transferred the decision to legally allow or disallow the right for a woman to have an abortion into the hands of the individual state and territorial governments.

This fire storm particularly among those who believe that the taking of the life of a child in a mother’s womb is justified, has ensued because of this Supreme Court decision.

In this writers’ opinion, any law that allows for the killing of an unborn infant is nothing more than a thinly veiled scheme to protect murder rights of those who would seek to destroy a life for essentially their own comfort or convenience.

Because of this change in federal statute, Guam and mainland politicians have taken it upon themselves to get involved in what could be referred to fetal homicidal politics!

In our society, generally, if you take a human life, you will bear the responsibility for doing so. 

You generally, in the worst case, potentially face charges of murder or manslaughter depending upon the circumstances of the event. 

If you happened to take the life of a pregnant woman in somewhere around 30 states in the U.S. mainland you may also face the very real possibility of double murder or manslaughter charges because the woman was pregnant with child. These laws are referred to as fetal homicide laws.

Last week eight members of the Guam legislature voted to place the Guam Heartbeat Act on the agenda for further discussion and voting before the close the 36^th Guam Legislature.

It took some courageous effort from Senators Chris Duenas, Telena Nelson, Tony Ada, Frank Blas Jr., Joanne Brown, Amanda Shelton, Telo TaiTague and Jose “Pedo” Terlaje to vote positively to place the Guam Heartbeat Act of 2022 onto the session agenda.

They faced a large crowd of loud and raucous voters/citizens who disagreed with their position on the bill.

These efforts overcame Senator Clint Ridgell’s attempt to block the bill from making it onto the agenda. Ridgell’s efforts were backed by Senators Sabrina Perez, Joe San Augustine, Mary Camacho Torres and Speaker Therese Terlaje.

The Guam Heartbeat Act, authored by Attorney Peter Sgro, would mandate that once a fetal heartbeat is detected, via sonogram, it would place that woman under the guidelines of the Guam Heartbeat Act.

The alternative to the passage of the Heartbeat Act is the reality that incoming Attorney General Douglas Moylan has already publicly stated, his intent to petition the court for the revitalization of the sleeping anti-abortion statute authored by former Senator Belle Arriola. 

The Arriola statute actually criminalizes the action of abortion for both the mother and any physician or person who participates in the act of committing such an abortion.

The Guam Heartbeat Act has no such statutory authority, according to attorney Sgro.

Please take the time to contact your senators and encourage them to vote in favor of the passage of the Guam Heartbeat Act as it will very likely take ten votes to over-ride a governor’s veto of the bill – given her historic stance on such matters – should it reach her desk.

According to Attorney Sgro “on January 1, 2022 it was released that over 10,000 babies’ lives were saved thanks to the Texas Heartbeat Act and the act has never, never been deemed unconstitutional by any court in the nation including the four times it was challenged in the United States Supreme Court.”

Let’s make Guam great again.

Esta.

Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia