Headlines can make us nuts sometimes; the particular headline I noticed today was nearly impossible to comprehend. Let me explain why before I tell you a bit about what I have subsequently learned.
Some of my favorite people in the whole world are nurses. When our first baby was born in 1969, his godmother, Margaret Jorgenson, was a nurse at the hospital where our son was delivered and her dedication to the sick and the vulnerable made a permanent imprint on my memory. Her very smile exuded true compassion based on her love of Christ the Lord.
Another nurse I have immense respect for lives in Missouri. She has a Down syndrome child and has spent endless hours defending the rights of the vulnerable, always with a smile on her face and enthusiasm that pours forth from every part of her being. She loves life and it shows!
So you can imagine my dismay when I read that Arizona abortion providers might increase. Nurse practitioners could perform first-trimester ones if the panel of the state Board of Nursing prevails. The report, in part, reads as follows:
Without dissent, the board's Advance Practices Committee concluded that terminating a pregnancy during the first three months, using a procedure in which the fetus is vacuumed out of the womb, is within state laws and regulations about what a nurse practitioner can do.
While you may not want to read about this gruesome tidbit of news, it should interest you to know that one Mary Andrews who works for Planned Parenthood of Arizona in Tucson has been doing this very thing for the past eight years. "How could this be?" you might ask.
The answer is that there is no law prohibiting the practice.
In March of this year, the Arizona State House attempted to stop Andrews. House Bill 2269, which would have effectively stopped all nurses from performing abortions, was approved by a State House committee but languished after that, and to this day, has not passed. Therefore, the practice continues unabated.
The debate may center around whether it is actually legal for a nurse to vacuum these preborn children from the wombs of their mothers, but the fact of the matter is, according to the Advance Practices Committee of the Arizona State Board of Nursing, there is every reason to accept the practice. You see, Pam Lotke, a doctor and clinical professor at the University of Arizona, argues that the procedures being done with a vacuum aspirator really should not technically be defined as a "surgical abortion," as no cutting is involved.
So there you have it. Vacuum aspiration of a preborn childĘ- also known as a suction abortionĘ- tears the preborn child apart within the womb and then vacuums the parts of his body out. Ninety percent of all abortions are committed using this methodology. The argument is that since there is no surgical cutting done to kill the baby, even a nurse safely can do it!
This is totally unsafe for the child, of course, but nobody is paying much attention to that during this most recent debate in Arizona.
Perhaps you are already grieving for these children and the state of the nursing profession in Arizona. If that is the case, then please let your voice be heard. Register your concerns over the heartless attitude of some Arizona nurses toward the human dignity of the child in utero by contacting the Arizona State Board of Nursing today:
Arizona State Board of Nursing
4747 North 7th Street
Suite 200
Phoenix, AZ 85014-3653Office: (602) 889-5150
Fax: (602) 889-5155
arizona@azbn.gov