It IS my business...

[Tom Shaw is an independent candidate running in the great state of Iowa for the Iowa state legislature.  I wish I was part of his district so that I could vote for such a strong candidate.]

Special to AIPNews.com

October 9, 2009

Tom W. Shaw

I have a confession to make. Simply, I have been unworried, untroubled and unconcerned. I was unwilling to take the time to study the subject of life and unenthusiastic about preserving it. Abortion didn’t affect me, so, why should I invest any thought into the debate? Although I did not believe in abortion, I was disposed to allowing the mother to make her own decision … she would have to live with it. In short, it was none of my business.

A few years back, during the process of a sexual assault investigation, I was sent to get evidence at a Planned Parenthood clinic. The alleged victim in the case decided to have an abortion and I was to pick up the aborted fetus and take it to the crime lab for DNA analysis. And to the clinic I went, totally unprepared for what I was to encounter. I told an employee that I was there to retrieve a fetus. I was immediately told that it was not a fetus, rather, it was a “product of conception.” Moments later, I was handed a small, plastic bag. (Another confession: My stomach turned violently and I almost vomited.) I did not see a “product of conception” in that bag, I saw a murdered baby. It’s hard to relate the emotional turmoil that I subsequently went through. I can, and frequently do, deal with dead bodies. But I was totally repulsed by the fact that riding next to me in my patrol car, in a cooler, packed in ice, was an innocent victim who was robbed of the opportunity to live its life.

It is my business. No longer will I allow those who support abortion to dehumanize a baby by calling it a “product of conception.”

It is my business. No longer will I fail to uphold my duty to protect all innocent life.

It is my business. No longer will I violate my oath by not defending the God given right to life.

It is my business. No longer shall I be complacent.