One Utah

Always the courageous voice of reason and truth, Utah Representative David Litvack reminded his Republican colleagues of the hypocrisy of their lofty perch on the rickety podium of “protecting the sanctity of human life.”

Listen to his summation in the committee hearing on Paul Rays unconstitutional abortion law, January 31st.

The story made NPR.

Transcript:

The role of government is also to protect rights under the current law. And we struggle with that. And we struggle with that balance here on this issue in particular

We took an oath on the first day to uphold the constitution of the nation. I believe it is extremely irresponsible of us to pass legislation and move forward and, whether it through a litigation fund, and it will use tax dollars to and an irresponsible use of those tax dollars, to defend such a blatantly unconstitutional law.

It seems every year that we have to debate this issue…I’m starting to feel like I’m a bit of a broken record because we know how inadequate of a job we do as a state in preventing abortions. R approach has always been lets make it more difficult lets restrict it lest require court consent, and now we ought to just outright ban it except for the most extreme.

When are we going to start seeing the proposal that says lets spend more time and resources addressing prevention?

Lets spend less time with our head in the sand pretending like sexual activity does not occur among out young population.

Let’s be real, when are those proposals going to come, and show that we have a genuine concern for the unborn. And that we take the resources of this state and put them that we put them toward research driven comprehensive sex education. Not the head in your sand approach of abstinence - don’t do it - and move on. And then we say why are there unwanted pregnancies? Why are their abortions? But we’ll just come back an pass a law that restricts it more.

So when are we gonna be real about it?

When are we really going to show genuine concern for the unborn? When are we going to put our money where our mouth is? I have not seen anything in that direction in 6 years.

We have a lot of individuals, youth in particular that are walking around without accurate information or without any information at all. Because we as a body have made the decision we don’t want to give it out. So when are we going to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions, or the lack thereof.

We’ve heard mention the right to life — always so passionate about the unborn child. But come join me on the Subcommittee for Heath and Human Services on Appropriations.

Sometimes I leave this body wondering, but with this body …and the decisions we make and the time and energy and resources that we spend restricting abortion, does the concern for right to life end after that child is born?

When are we going to do more to address childhood poverty? What about all the children that are going to go to bed hungry tonight, When are we going to do more for that, or the kids living in cars with their family because they’re homeless, or the those who walk out there door and see violence everyday, or in their home?

When are we going to see the same passion and energy and drive to address those issues? What about those children? That’s where our responsibilities lie.

But we seem to be OK with that moving away from that. We seem to be ok wasting the taxpayer’s dollars and resources passing blatantly unconstitutional legislation.

When are we going take responsibility to do more that will really address the underlying problems, that will really protect children, both unborn and living with us today?

This entry was posted Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 3:32 pm and is filed under David Litvack, Utah Legislature, Utah Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.