To the Editor:
South Dakotans will be voting on a critically important ballot issue, Amendment G, in the upcoming November election.
If passed, Amendment G would enshrine in our Constitution, the right to end the lives of unborn babies through induced abortion procedures, with no prohibitions, through the first 13 weeks of their developing lives.
In unborn babies, a pipe-shaped heart is formed during the 6th week and begins to beat with one chamber in week 7. The lungs, liver, pancreas and thyroid gland also begin forming in week 7. By week 9, well-defined fingers and toes are evident and the hearts general construction is complete. Unborn children begin to suck their thumbs, jump, squint to close out light, frown, swallow during the 9th to 10th weeks. Tiny bones begin to form in the arms and legs, and vocal cords begin to develop in the 13th week.
The SD Department of Health 2022 Report of Induced Abortions lists the multiple reasons officially given for induced abortions. The most common reason given in 63.9% to 70.4% of the cases (2018-2022): mother did not desire to have the child.
The second most common reason (46.4% to 51.8% of the cases): mother could not afford the child.
During 2018-2022, 75.3% of aborted babies were of gestational age 10 weeks or younger, well within the first trimester.Amendment G would consecrate in our Constitution the right to abort babies on this type of scale unending, and with no prohibitions.
Amendment G has no regard for the God-given innocence and purity of unborn babies.
President Ronald Reagan declared (1983):We cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide.
Bernie Hendricks
Brookings
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