Tim Lindgren, Bismarck letter: Anti-abortion bill deserves N.D. Senate approval

BISMARCK — Paul Linton’s letter trying to thwart passage of the Defense of Human Life bill (HB 1450) is completely misguided (“Anti-abortion bill hurt anti-abortion cause,” Page A4, April 19).

Every time a state speaks for life, Linton, a Chicago lawyer, opposes it.

In Nebraska, he tried to convince legislators not to pass the post 20-week abortion ban. He used all the same flawed reasons he used in his recent letter.

Linton was wrong in Nebraska. Legislators there ignored him, passed the post 20-week abortion ban, and it is in effect today. The law wasn’t challenged, and the notorious late-term abortionist, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, moved out of state.

If Nebraska legislators had listened to this naysayer, Carhart still would be doing late- term abortions in Nebraska. Idaho, Kansas, and Oklahoma also passed this abortion ban despite Linton’s arguments.

Linton was wrong in Mississippi, too. Planned Parenthood (the No. 1 abortion provider in the world) and the American Civil Liberties Union agreed with him and filed a lawsuit to keep the Personhood Amendment off the ballot in Mississippi. Judge Malcom Harrison dismissed the case.

Linton argues that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy never will vote in favor of overturning Roe. But in 1989 in the Webster v Reproductive Health Services, Kennedy wrote, “There is also no reason why the State’s compelling interest in protecting potential human life should not extend throughout pregnancy rather than coming into existence only at the point of viability. Thus, the Roe trimester framework should be abandoned.”

Dan Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life, states in a new book that Randy Beck, former law clerk for Kennedy, visited their office and urged them to pass an abortion ban, as he believes that Kennedy is ready to overturn Roe.

Some 20,000 children have been killed in Fargo’s abortion mill. Wouldn’t it be great to see it move out of state or, better yet, close?

North Dakota Life League urges the Senate to ignore this defeatist and join with the hundreds and thousands of North Dakotans who are pleading to take this bill off the table, and let the vote occur.

Tim Lindgren

Lindgren is state director of the North Dakota Life League.

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