Time is now to re-evaluate abortion issue.

Byline: CINDY WEELDREYER For The Register-Guard

RIGHT-TO-LIFE ADVOCATES have established this as Sanctity of Human Life Week to mark the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, which was handed down 29 years ago Tuesday, and to remind our fellow citizens that all life is sacred and a gift from our creator. Abortion and euthanasia are symptoms of a greater problem: Our American culture no longer recognizes the sacredness of human life.

As a public policy maker, I've recently heard citizens pleading with the Lane County Board of Commissioners to adopt stricter regulations to protect health and property from the potentially harmful impacts of cell phone towers, especially near schools.

Just this week, a young mother bounced her tiny child on her knee and shared with the board her concerns about a proposed tower near her house. She feared the tower's effects on her child and on the children at a nearby school. When told that our authority to consider the health concerns surrounding cell phone towers has been pre-empted by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, she said this was simply bad public policy that needed to be changed. She believed the federal government should give greater authority to local governments to respond to citizens' concerns and to consider all the impacts of cell phone towers in our community. I couldn't agree more!

The Roe vs. Wade decision is no different from this and other emotionally charged public policy debates that are raging in Lane County. It's time to restore all decision-making authority to local elected officials so we can be more responsive to our citizens' concerns.

We all know the pendulum of public opinion and law swings both ways. The 1973 Supreme Court decision was made at a time when some women were being maimed or killed by "back-alley abortions." Roe vs. Wade was such a sweeping and extreme reaction to that powerful emotional argument that it totally discounted the value and the civil rights of millions of unborn children in favor of the mother's decision-making authority.

Some states have recognized that partial birth abortions are morally wrong and have moved to ban the practice. However, in June 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the Carhart vs. Nebraska case that individual states may not ban the procedure. It ruled that Roe vs. Wade gave a woman a right to choose, and that banning the procedure placed an "undue burden" on women. In effect, Roe vs. Wade is so extreme that now it is unconstitutional to ban a procedure that kills a nine-month-old baby while he or she is partially outside the womb! Hello? What's wrong with this picture?

Planned Parenthood and other women's rights organizations have wrapped themselves in the Roe vs. Wade flag for nearly 30 years now, willfully ignoring advances in medical research on the impacts of fetal pain. In Oregon, we have led the nation in legalizing euthanasia. The United States is moving forward with stem cell research and legalizing RU-486, which is simply a chemical abortion. I strongly believe that pure science without morals will affect all human beings if one group of human beings is not protected.

Being a faithful reader of the Bible, I know our creator has made it clear that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3), and Jesus warns us against harming children (Matthew 18). I fear that, just as the laws of physics are unforgiving regardless of our personal beliefs and perceptions, the same is true of spiritual laws. If we continue to ignore those spiritual laws it will be to our peril as a culture. The Roman Coliseum, Hitler's Holocaust and American slavery remain significant monuments to the degradation that a society will experience when it does not recognize and respect the sacredness and sanctity of every human life.

Abortion is a public health issue, and our national abortion policy is built upon the judicial assertion that abortion is "safe." If this is found to be false, then national policy must be re-evaluated.

Crisis pregnancy is an emotionally charged moment in a woman's life, and it certainly is not the best time to be making life or death decisions for her baby. In fact, since the 1973 decision, there have been many studies into the aftereffects of abortion that paint a haunting picture of physical and psychological damage among millions of women who have undergone abortions. This is not something women's rights advocates want Americans to know.

Mother Teresa once said, "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

In this new era of enlightenment we're calling the Information Age, and with undisputed medical research showing that by the fifth month of pregnancy a child truly feels the excruciating pain of an abortion that snuffs out its life, we need to re-evaluate our national abortion policy and restore decision-making authority to the states.

Americans are some of the most caring people on the planet, and it is imperative that our public policy pendulum swings back toward the middle to restore some civil rights to our youngest Americans.

For nearly 30 years, the Roe vs. Wade decision has placed them completely at the mercy of their mother's emotional decision about whether they live or die.

The time has come to modify American laws that do not respect the sanctity and sacredness of all human life.

Cindy Weeldreyer of Cottage Grove represents eastern Lane County on the Lane County Board of Commissioners.