Butterflies and babies. Both are beautiful. Both develop in miraculous ways. A butterfly emerges after about 12 days in a cocoon, where it began as a caterpillar. A baby takes a little longer, emerging from the womb after about 40 weeks of life as a fetus.
On Jan. 9, Del. Kathy Tran, D-Va., introduced
two bills in the state legislature: one affects butterflies, the other affects babies. According to Tran's website, the first bill's goal is to
"help save ... butterflies by protecting the fall cankerworm (caterpillar)" from deadly insecticides.
The other bill's goal, Tran explained in a now-viral video, is to allow late-term abortion
up until the moment of birth.
If you kill the caterpillar, you've killed the beautiful butterfly.
What a strange and chilling code of ethics to prohibit insecticides while promoting infanticide.
This is not a theoretical debate. According to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, t
here are about 12,000 abortions performed annually after 20 weeks of pregnancy. That's a staggering statistic: 12,000 babies aborted every year in the second half of pregnancy, when many are viable and can survive outside the womb in a neo-natal intensive care unit. Pampers even has a special line of diapers for these "micro-preemies," as they are known.
Comment: With a rapidly changing climate this investment is likely to turn out out to be a seriously costly mistake: