Pondering the tragedy, Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, sees cause for hope. "I look at this case that happened in Skidmore, Missouri, and Melvern, Kansas, and I am just aghast at it," Browback told me. "Scott and Lacy Peterson, that trial. You really are seeing a confluence of things confronting the public to deal with the issue of the humanity of the child."
In the new Congress, Brownback will reintroduce a bill he began working on this year to drive the unborn child's humanity deeper into the national heart and mind.
The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would require a doctor who wants to perform an abortion on a mother pregnant for 20 weeks or more to inform her that Congress has determined that a child at that stage of development is likely to feel pain while being aborted. The doctor would also be required to offer her a brochure detailing the scientific evidence for this determination and ask her if she would like anesthesia administered to the baby to lessen his or her pain during the abortion.
"My hope," said Brownback, "is that a number of women getting in that circumstance will say, 'Gosh, if that child is likely to experience pain, I don't want to do this to that child." He also hopes to enlighten the national debate. Citing an observation of Abraham Lincoln, he says, "You move America by establishing a common thought, and I want the people in America to see the humanity of the child in the womb."
Brownback's bill had 22 co-sponsors this year. Rep. Chris Smith sponsored the House version, which had more than 100 co-sponsors. Brownback believes it will be one of the top pro-life bills moved in the next Congress.
On the first Christmas, a poor young mother and adoptive father, forced into a manger in Bethlehem, joyfully welcomed an unexpected Child into their family and their hearts. In a nation so blessed by God as our own, does any child deserve less?