Maggie DeWitte’s speech at the public hearing for the Heartbeat Bill

an issue of civil and human rightsMy name is Maggie DeWitte and I am the Executive Director for Iowans for LIFE and a founding member of the pro-life coalition. Thank-you for this opportunity to speak.

I am here today to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak; to state what you all sitting here know to be true.  When there is a heartbeat, there is a life. If there is a life, that life deserves protection and the rights of all human beings.   

“This is an issue of civil and human rights”

This is not an issue of religion.  This is not an issue of circumstances of how a child was conceived or the world in which they will be born into.  This is an issue of civil and human rights. 

Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King states:

“Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness.”

The human heart is the earliest functioning organ

Embryology textbooks tell us that the human heart is the earliest functioning organ; as a mother of four children, I can tell you the glorious sound of that first heartbeat.  And it wasn’t glorious because I wanted those children or planned for those children or that I had a husband and support.  It was glorious because it is the signal that new life is present.  New life with potential, with hope, with a soul and created for a purpose beyond all our imaginings. 

We have no right to snuff that life out because she may be inconvenient.  As a woman I believe strongly in having the right to make decisions regarding my own body; but my right to control my body ends when it infringes on another body: the life of the unborn child.  A child with her own beating heart, her own DNA, completely separate from her mother. 

Listen to science

Don’t disregard science in order to continue to spread a culture of death brought to us by the abortion industry.  In Iowa, death is determined when the respiratory or circulatory systems stop functioning.  It is logical to conclude that when those systems are functioning and there is a heartbeat, the person is alive.  And if alive, that baby, that unique human person, deserves the right to be protected.

Listen to your head

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you should listen to your heart. But even more, listen to your head. Do what you know to be the right thing- move this bill forward to the house floor and vote YES to a beating heart.    

Be a hero. Stand up for the little guy in the name of human rights. Stand up for the little guy in the name of justice.

[Maggie DeWitte is Executive Director of Iowans for LIFE. She spoke at the Capitol last night at the public hearing for The Heartbeat Bill. IFL’s defense of Life begins with your donation. Help us to continue the fight.]

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