Stand for Life Hawaii

Sadly, while Hawai‘i’s culture values life in many respects, its people have not codified their values into law, with the practical effect that the most vulnerable members of Hawaiian society are left defenseless. The pro-life organization Americans United for Life ranks Hawai‘i 49th among the 50 states in its “Defending Life 2009 State Rankings”—meaning that our state has failed to protect life in the most fundamental of ways.

Hawai‘i lacks the most basic protections for women, unborn children, the elderly, terminally ill, and the disabled. Our state laws fail to provide informed consent for women considering abortion and do not require parental involvement in a minor girl’s abortion decision. They do not ensure that abortion clinics maintain minimum health and safety standards. Hawai’i state law also fails to ban destructive embryo research, human cloning, and assisted suicide. Much work is needed to change this situation, but by standing together for life, it can be done. Most importantly, regardless of the law, we must pray that our society will increasingly value life and work to educate our community about the incomparable worth of each person at all stages of life.

The number one cause of death in America is abortion. Conservative estimates put the number of deaths at approximately 50 million since abortion was legalized in all 50 states on January 22, 1973.
43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic.
At current rates, one in three women will have at least one abortion by age 45.2
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the U.S. According to its most recent annual report (2007-2008), 305,310 babies were aborted in its facilities during the last fiscal year. This was done with $350 million in federal, state and local taxpayer funding.¹

At the same time, Planned Parenthood made just 4,912 adoption referrals and helped just under 11,000 women with prenatal care and pregnancy help services—a tiny fraction compared with the number of abortions it performed. Planned Parenthood, like all “women’s health” clinics reveals by the statistics in its own annual report that its true agenda is to perform as many abortions as possible, not provide true family planning services or offer legitimate choices to women in need.¹
In the U.S., the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and its companion decision, Doe v. Bolton, make it legal to abort an unborn baby up until the day of birth for any reason.²
Although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban in 2007, this late-term abortion procedure may still be performed. During a partial birth abortion, also called a dilation and extraction (D & X) procedure, babies are “partially birthed” so that the head is still inside the mother, but the body is outside the birth canal. While in this position, the skull is crushed and brains sucked out, thereby killing the baby. The baby receives no anesthesia and suffers through this horrific, inhumane procedure until death claims him or her.
According to the article “The Vagueness of Partial-Birth Abortion Bans: Deconstruction or Destruction?” by Maureen L. Rurka in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the United States is the only country in the world where it is still legal for a woman to obtain a partial birth abortion. The procedure is allowed if continuing the pregnancy “jeopardizes the woman’s health” however, Doe v. Bolton defines a woman’s “health” to include mental health, spiritual health, age, and well-being in addition to her physical health.² This has the practical effect of allowing a late-term abortion procedure if a child is considered an inconvenience, since the mother could claim that it would effect her “health”.
In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, a total of 3,756 elective abortions were performed in Hawai‘i.³
Abortion affects women of all races and ethnicities. In Hawai‘i, among mothers who chose abortion in 2007, 20% were Native Hawaiian, 18% were Caucasian, 15% were Filipina, 8% were Japanese, 4% were Chinese.³
In 2007, most abortions in Hawai‘i were performed for residents of Honolulu County (92%), followed by Hawai‘i County (4%).³
As of 2005, there were 39 abortion providers throughout the state.⁴ Planned Parenthood is the leading abortion provider in Hawai‘i, with locations on O‘ahu, Maui, and Hawai‘i (the Big Island).
Hawai‘i has no informed consent for mothers considering abortion or parental involvement law for parents of minor girls seeking abortions.⁵

The state maintains a “Freedom of Choice Act.” The Act mandates the right to abortion even if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, specifically providing that “[t]he State shall not deny or interfere with a female’s right to choose or obtain an abortion of a nonviable fetus or an abortion that is necessary to protect the life or health of the female.”⁵
Hawaiian taxpayers are required to pay for “medically necessary” abortions for women receiving state medical assistance (through Medicaid/QUEST).⁵
Hawai‘i maintains no enforceable abortion clinic regulations, but only licensed physicians, surgeons, or licensed osteopathic physicians or surgeons may perform abortions.⁵
Hawai‘i allows a pharmacist to provide emergency contraception (such as Plan B) to women without a prescription, provided the pharmacist has a collaborative therapy agreement with a licensed physician.⁵
Hawai‘i offers “Choose Life” license plates, the proceeds of which benefit Aloha Pregnancy Care & Counseling Centers (non-profit pregnancy resource centers).⁵
The state has an enforceable abortion reporting law, but does not require the reporting of information to the Centers for Disease Control.⁵
Health insurance plans that provide prescription coverage must also provide coverage for contraception. An exemption exists for religious employers.⁵

Hawai‘i does not protect unborn children from being killed or assaulted by third parties.⁵
The state allows wrongful death (civil) actions when a viable unborn child is killed through negligent or criminal action.⁵
Hawai‘i does not require that appropriate medical care be given to infants who survive an attempted abortion.⁵
Hawai‘i has a “Baby Moses” law, which allows a person to leave an unharmed infant no more than 72 hours old at a hospital, fire station, or police station and be immune from prosecution for child abandonment. The professional receiving the child must inquire into the child’s medical history and provide information on social services to the person relinquishing the infant.⁵

Many names apply to various developmental stages of the same living human: fertilized egg or zygote (a single cell), a blastocyst (many cells), embryo, fetus, infant, child, adolescent, etc. However, it is important to realize that human life begins at the union of sperm and ovum.⁶
During the first week of life, this tiny new person floats freely down his or her mother’s fallopian tube, dividing and sub-dividing as the journey is made. At about one week of life, he or she plants within the nutrient lining of the mother’s uterus. In about three more days, having implanted into the wall of the uterus, this new human sends a chemical hormonal message into the mother’s blood stream, and this stops her menstrual period. Four days later, the embryonic heart begins to beat, and three weeks after that, brain waves are measurable.⁶
The biologic fact is that from day one, inside and then outside of the uterus, there is one continuous, uninterrupted period of growth and development. It is impossible to draw a line in time and to say that before this time, this was not a living human, and after this, it is. This is, in fact, a living human at the first cell stage and remains so until the person’s death. Accordingly, ending the life of this living human embryo at day four or five, at week four or five or at year four or five is the same: killing a living human being.⁶

At the first cell stage, you were everything you are today. You were already male or female. You were alive, not dead. You were certainly human as you had 46 human chromosomes (you were not a tree or a chicken); and most importantly, you were complete. Nothing was ever added to the single cell you once were, from then until today—nothing except food, fluids, and oxygen. You were complete then, and to terminate your life at any stage can be called nothing other than killing.⁶
The form each person takes during the first day of human life is properly termed a “fertilized egg.” However, this single-celled person divides, divides, and divides again, so that nearing the end of the first week this embryonic human, now called a “blastocyst,” numbers several hundred cells. To obtain an embryonic stem cell, researchers must cut open the embryo, thereby killing him or her, to extract his or her stem cells.⁶
Adult stem cells (those taken from non-embryonic sources) have benefited patients with more than 73 different diseases. There are NO cures or treatments using embryonic stem cells. According to current scientific literature, adult stem cells have treated at least 26 different kinds of cancers, 15 different autoimmune diseases, 3 different neural degenerative diseases/injuries, 10 different anemias/blood conditions, and others. Embryonic stem cells have yet to cure a single human patient.⁷
While embryonic stem cells cannot heal, they can kill. Even at the current stage of research, embryonic stem cells can be deadly to recipients. In animal testing, embryonic stem cells cause a significant number of recipients to develop cancers. Using more developed fetal stem cells, a 52-year-old man died when the cells implanted in his brain became hair, cartilage and connective tissue. In another case, a group of patients with neural degenerative diseases with violent, uncontrollable shaking received fetal cell transplants into their brains. Rather than improving, 15-25% developed severe dyskinesia (worse shaking than they had before). This failure of more specialized fetal cells is an indicator of how much more difficult it likely will be to get less specialized embryonic stem cells to work.⁷
Hawai‘i does not ban human cloning or destructive embryo research, nor does it maintain any meaningful regulation of assisted reproductive technologies.⁵
The state does, however, regulate insurance coverage of assisted reproductive technologies.⁵

The legal status of assisted suicide in Hawai‘i remains undetermined. The state has not enacted a special statute prohibiting assisted suicide, and it does not recognize common law crimes. There is also no judicial decision stating whether assisted suicide is a form of homicide under its general homicide laws.⁵ This means that sadly, Hawai‘i’s people have no state law protecting them against euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.
So-called “death with dignity” advocates have been attempting to pass legislation legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Hawai‘i for over 10 years; they intend to re-introduce this legislation again during the current legislative session.
We, the members of Stand for Life, believe that God is the author of all life and that only He has the right to determine the time of each person’s passing through natural death. God’s Word states that God reserves to Himself the right to choose the time of each person’s birth and death (1 Samuel 2:6, Acts 17:26). We also believe that true death with dignity means that for those facing terminal illness, appropriate physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort be provided so that no one suffers needlessly. Above all, we believe that end-of-life care provides a priceless opportunity to share the joy of salvation through Jesus Christ for those who do not yet know Him, enabling them to make their peace with God and enter into their eternal reward in Heaven (Romans 10:9-13).

Many healthcare professionals who follow longstanding ethical, moral and religious standards have been systematically fired, threatened with job loss, denied promotions, and coerced. Medical residents have been denied training opportunities and prospective medical students have been denied admissions to medical school. In December 2008, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a regulation to implement three civil rights laws passed by Congress. The civil rights laws and the new regulation declared that American tax dollars would not fund programs in which healthcare professionals are fired, penalized, or otherwise subjected to discrimination because of their ethical stance related to abortion and other morally controversial issues. However in March 2009, responding to protests from abortion special interest groups, the Obama administration declared plans to repeal the conscience protection regulation.⁸
Under Hawaiian law, no person or hospital is required to participate in abortions.⁵
Hawai‘i currently provides no protection for the rights of healthcare providers who conscientiously object to participation in human cloning, destructive embryo research, or other forms of immoral medical research.⁵

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