Michigan bishops urge support for bill defining birth in state

Published: 2003-10-02

DETROIT (CNS) -- A bill expected to arrive on Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's desk as early as Oct. 6 would outlaw the grisly procedure known as partial-birth abortion by defining the moment of legal birth in the state. A pastoral letter signed by bishops of all seven of Michigan's Catholic dioceses urging support of the Legal Birth Definition Act was to be read in parishes throughout Michigan at Masses Oct. 4-5. Oct. 5 was the date this year for Respect Life Sunday, observed throughout the Catholic Church in the United States. The measure states: "When any portion of a human being has been vaginally delivered outside his or her mother's body, that portion of the body can only be described as born and the state has a rational basis for defining that human being as born and as a legal person." A partial-birth abortion involves delivering enough of a baby that his or her skull can be punctured and the brain removed by suction. The procedure would be illegal if the bill becomes law.

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