Last Thursday, I spent a large portion of the day sitting in a hearing room in our state capitol waiting. At this point in the legislative session, spending a day that way isn’t really unusual, sad to say. This particular hearing lasted nearly 8 hours. The bill I was prepared to speak on was scheduled next to last. Finally, a little after 6 in the evening, I was called on to testify. In fact, I was the last person to speak on the bill.

I hope by now you’re asking why I spent the bulk of my day that way. Why did I hang around and wait through 5 or 6 other bills in order to speak to a very weary 10-member Assembly Judiciary and Ethics Committee conducting the people’s business in what was by now a virtually empty hearing room. Quite honestly, I asked myself that question more than once. And more than once, I came very close to just leaving without speaking. However, as I heard the testimony of those who were on the opposite side of this measure, I knew I had no choice. The issue at hand was just too important. When you’re defending partially born human babies who are then brutally killed, you don’t take the easy way out.

I and many others were in the hearing to speak on Assembly Bill 710, a bill introduced last month by Rep. Jim Ott and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald. This bill would conform Wisconsin’s partial birth abortion ban to the federal ban that just last year the US Supreme Court determined was constitutional.

Wisconsin ’s current partial-birth abortion ban hasn’t been enforceable since 2001, when the 7 th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the definition of partial birth abortion in our law was too broad. Enter Assembly Bill 710, which uses the same definition of partial birth abortion as the federal legislation that has now passed constitutional muster and, because it is state law, would allow local law enforcement involvement ensuring more timely charges and prosecutions. The bill also has an exception for the life of the mother.

I wish you could have been in that hearing. Those opposed to a state-level law banning this barbaric, horrific procedure took the position that there had to be a “health of the mother” exception. Both Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin and NARAL of Wisconsin said that the health of the mother trumps the life of the baby. What we all know, however, is that “health of the mother” as the pro-abortionists use the term doesn’t mean at all what most of us think of when we hear that expression. For them, it means anything and everything, which creates a loophole that essentially allows any woman to legally undergo the procedure and any doctor to legally perform it.

One legislator on the committee, Rep. Joel Kleefisch, repeatedly asked those opposing the bill when they believed life begins. Most refused to answer the question saying such things as, there were as many answers to that question as there were Wisconsin citizens, that the question was irrelevant and that that answer was personal and would not be revealed. One person said life begins when the baby is able to breathe and live on his or her own.

When a legislator asked opponents if they believed that a baby was killed during a partial-birth abortion, to a person they would not answer the question. One said that what was really important in the debate was the health of the woman and her right to choose. The partially delivered baby who was being brutally sacrificed on the altar of adult convenience was of no consequence.

My friends, these are heart-rending responses from people who have bought the lie. I came away reminded of a couple key things: First, we must continue, in our laws and in our every-day conversation, to refer to an unborn human as a baby or a child. We cannot lose the human face on this politicized issue. That’s one area of AB 710 that disappoints me. Our current law uses the word child and supplies a clear and scientifically accurate definition: “a human being from the time of fertilization until it is completely delivered from a pregnant woman.” AB 710 does away with both the word and the definition and uses the non-human, medical word fetus instead, a move that distinctly downplays the very real, very human aspect of this debate.

Second, I was impressed that we must keep showing up and speaking up on pro-life issues. Regardless of how long we wait, how hostile the reception, how bad the weather, how inaccurate the news stories, we must keep telling the media, lawmakers, and the general public, especially the next generation, that abortion destroys human life. Taking the easy way out on this issue is simply not an option.

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling, reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”