EDITOR:

Proposal 3 will be on the ballot in November. Some will argue, passionately, for or against the Proposal, both opinions believing theirs is right. We all have witnessed, or been a part of, disagreement being debated. One thing holds true of every argument: shouting over each other or pounding the table harder than the one that holds a differing opinion, has never worked, not one time.

Yet, opinions change. They change because somebody set aside their emotions and began to consider the facts. You can ignore objective truth if you want. We’ve all done it. We like our opinion and we don’t want to be “confused with the facts.” Case in point: In college, I debated, in Speech Class, for abortion, using the mantra that sounded good, “my body, my choice” echoed from my mouth as my closing argument. Then the dissenting opinions came in. Obviously, I didn’t know everything about abortion. At the time I didn’t listen to them as objective truth, I simply dismissed them as opinion.

Fast forward through the years since Roe v. Wade. Facts have come in and my old argument of “my body, my choice” no longer means the same thing. Science has now proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that life begins at conception.

Dr. John Bruchalski, a former abortion doctor, explains why he stopped performing abortions and is now a pro-life advocate. At first, he too, dismissed the facts, but they began to ebb away at his conscience. Dr. Bruchalski says, “side effects include psychological trauma, breast cancer and mental illness, and nobody ever mentions these.” He also speaks of the trauma an abortion doctor feels, explaining, “at 11 weeks, you can feel the bones fighting back and it is as though you are in close combat with the child.” On another occasion he explains how he botched an abortion and had to rush the 1.25 pound baby to another doctor in the hospital. The next day that doctor called him into her office to have a conversation with him and the one unforgettable thing she said to him, “John, stop, it’s a baby you sent me, you know this, right?”

To borrow a line from the movie, A Few Good Men, “these are the facts and they are indisputable.” 1) Life begins at conception; 2) side effects include breast cancer, emotional trauma, for both the patient and doctor, including mental illness; 3) At 11 weeks the baby fights back, even at 1.25 pounds. 4) Read Proposal 3 and you will discover the young Mother, not a ‘birthing person’, will be allowed to get an abortion without the consent of the parents. Also, under this proposal, gender changing procedures can be given to children without parental consent.

No, arguments are not won with emotionally charged screaming or fists flying. Rather, when voting this November, please allow the concrete evidence of a former abortion doctor to resonate within your soul, “it’s a baby, you know.”

Mike Cousineau

Escanaba