The History of the Death Penalty in Maryland
On January 15th 2009 Gov. Martin O'Malley urged Maryland lawmakers to repeal the state's death penalty, saying it is an issue with “grave moral implications” while calling the punishment "inherently unjust". Sounds like the Governor is genuinely interested in the human rights of convicted murderers. Since reinstituting the death penalty in 1978 Maryland has executed five people. In 2005 alone 38,077 women underwent abortions in the state of Maryland. That means 38,077 innocent lives were extinguished with the blessing of the state. Yes, there is an unjust, and racist death penalty in the state of Maryland - it’s just not the one in the headlines.
On February 18, 1991 another Democrat Maryland Governor, William Donald Schaefer, signed into law SB 162, an abortion bill that went far beyond the 1972 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Under Schaefer’s watch any abortion needed to protect the “health” of the mother became legal. “Health” to the lawmakers in Maryland was defined as “distress...associated with the unwanted child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise to care for ...the additional difficulties of and continuing stigma of unwed motherhood...”. With a newly elected African-American President who was born to an unwed mother you’d think America would revolt against the false logic of abortion laws. But that’s not the end of the hypocrisy. As a part of standard medical practice a patient may sue a doctor who fails to give them all the information necessary for them to provide informed consent. That means the doctor must tell the patient all of the risks involved in any surgery or treatment, as well as alternatives to treatment. However, Maryland’s abortion law explicitly exempts abortionists from this requirement. For the thousands of women who are persuaded to abort their children there is no recourse for the physical and psychological damage exacted by deceptive counseling and botched procedures.
When it comes to parental notification liberal lawmakers devised another loophole. Although Maryland law technically provides a parental notification clause this requirement is rendered meaningless by another piece of legislation known as General 20-103(c)(1) which gives the abortionist sole and unreviewable discretion in regards to parental rights – “the physician may perform the abortion, without notice to a parent or guardian of a minor if, in the professional judgment of the physician: notification would not be in the interest of the minor.” So a teenage girl’s parents could be kept in the dark about an abortion, a medical procedure with grave physical and psychological risks, simply because the abortion provider thinks it’s a good idea. But that’s not all. On May 14, 1991 Gov Schaefer signed HB 1217 removing protection for health care workers who conscientiously object to making abortion referrals. The law specifically subjects health care providers and hospitals to lawsuits despite their personal and religious beliefs.
Each year approximately 22.6% of Maryland abortions are performed on girls 16 and under. The majority of these abortions are performed on African-American children. Each year in the U.S., the abortion industry brings in approximately $983 million through their abortion services alone. If you add inthe $273 million that America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, receives annually from the government, the annual dollar amount moves well past 1 billion. Of Planned Parenthood's 850 nationwide clinics, almost 80% reside in minority communities. Population estimates show that blacks will soon lose their status as the nation's largest minority group, and abortion has been a driving force in this radical population shift.
Abortion is a relic of Jim Crow era laws and scientific ignorance. When Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1921 (then known as the American Birth Control League) it was with the explicit goal of targeting minority populations. "Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying . . . demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism," she wrote in 1922 in the "The Pivot of Civilization." In Maryland we still live under the specter of bigoted thinking and outdated laws. Laws that were imposed before the advent of modern ultrasound technology and other medical breakthroughs that offer indisputable evidence of life in the womb. Yet, our democrat politicians still support Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. For children of all colors there is nothing more “inherently unjust” than that.
Scott Davis
