Don't say you weren't warned.  After one attempt to email Chuck Schumer, requesting support for a congressional bill that seeks to ban abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization or more, a swift response arrives:

Dear Ms. Miller:

Thank you for sharing your comments on the issue of abortion.

As the father of two girls, I share your deep respect for the sanctity of life, and I realize the importance of honoring ones moral and religious heritage.  But I also value the freedom under the law that all American citizens have to base our personal choices on our own values and moral convictions.   I also believe that the decision to have children ought to be a personal one based on a woman's own religious and moral beliefs, not those of the government or outside organizations.  Having said that, I support measures that aim to reduce the number of legal abortions, and I believe that education and prevention are critical to achieving that.

The decision to have an abortion will never be an easy one, nor should it be, but I believe that every woman should have the option to make her own determination in counsel with her minister, priest, or rabbi, her physician and her family.

Again, I thank you for voicing your opinion on this issue.  Please keep in touch with your thoughts and opinions.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer
United States Senator

So much for gaining even a speck of support from the N.Y. senator for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  Despite voting against it last year, he deplorably continues to share his "deep respect for the sanctity of life" with anyone who's still willing to listen.  Inconsistently, Schumer can't resist defending the significance of science.  He's accused Donald Trump of "denying the science" of "the severe and immediate impacts of climate change."  Yet when it comes to the facts of fetal life, he turns a blind eye.  The severe and immediate impacts of unrestricted abortion don't seem to rank high enough on the Schumer Scientific Scale.  Then again, population control has always been an integral part of the save-the-planet initiative.  Just ask Bernie Sanders. 

Now for some real science: Research has demonstrated that sensory receptors for pain (nociception) exist throughout the skin and mucosal surfaces by 20 weeks.  The networks between the spinal cord and thalamus (which functions in pain recognition in fetuses as well as in adults) are also just about integrated at this point.  The U.S., despite being remarkably advanced in concern for the helpless, is one of only seven countries that tolerates elective abortions after 20 weeks — more than halfway through pregnancy.  This doesn't seem to bother Schumer, who by default has already nayed this year's Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. 

Says the senator: "But I also value the freedom under the law that all American citizens have to base our personal choices on our own values and moral convictions."

It is disturbing that the intensely amoral notion of causing pain and ultimately death to a human body has become purely one of a subjective nature.  Meet the kind of moral relativism justified by advocates for abortion on demand.  Out of the millions of abortions performed, it cannot be reasonable to assume that their motives excuse the slaying of innocents.  Research demonstrates that a vast percentage of abortions are done out of financial stress, the desire to continue education, or just not feeling prepared. 

"I also believe that the decision to have children ought to be a personal one based on a woman's own religious and moral beliefs, not those of the government or outside organizations."

For some reason, Chuck takes pride in the fact that, unlike China, this country has never imposed birth control on its occupants.  While mass shootings and the alleged separation of children from their parents at the border immediately warrant Mr. Schumer's outrage, the slaying of fetuses on American soil has him spewing sentimental statements on the government's rightful role.  The usual big-government interventions are instantly replaced by an appeal to individual decision-making.  The rationalizing won't help, because the obvious reality remains: one's "own religious and moral beliefs" cannot be allowed to dictate decisions that are no longer religious or moral.  The celebrated choice to cut a life short will never vindicate itself.  Our country's heritage happens to be founded on the basic sanctity of individuals and their natural rights from womb to tomb.  

A 2008 press release depicts a passionate Schumer questioning the FDA about its relaxed stance toward bisphenol A, the toxic chemical found in plastic baby bottles.  "If there is any serious risk at all posed by this chemical, it is simply unacceptable to allow Americans, especially vulnerable infants, to come into contact with it."  The report then shuns a previous FDA study as having "minimized linkages between the substance ... and developmental problems for young children who were exposed to the chemical in the womb."  Somehow, a fetus confronting a chemical is more of a concern than him facing an abortionist's forceps. 

Heaven forbid that Mr. Schumer should employ his power to direct public consciousness toward a place of humanity.  Instead, he pretentiously reassures us that "infanticide is already illegal" — as if feticide were, too. 

"Having said that, I support measures that aim to reduce the number of legal abortions, and I believe that education and prevention are critical to achieving that."

Yes, Schumer is providing sound education on the subject matter.  He intelligently imparts the good tidings that a woman has the right to choose "before that moment before the child is born." 

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deuteronomy, 30:19)

From the Creator's mouth to your ears, Chuck. 

Charles Schumer once declared: "The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty[.]"  Oddly enough, his passionate embrace of those huddled masses yearning to breathe free never extended to the "masses of cells" Americans dare think of as babies. 

Image: Lorie Shaull via Flickr.