LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS ABORTION IS SIGNED INTO LAW - ZOLTAN TRASHES IT

Posted by Tim

Because of other news, I had to put off posting about the passage of Bill 168-33 which was signed into law last month as Public Law 33-218. The bill was introduced by Senator Frank Aguon, Jr., who has been making good on his pro-life commitment, not just in his personal life, but in his public life as well. 

The new law strengthens the abortion reporting law with refined procedures and realistic penalties for non-compliance. Since the founding of The Esperansa Project in 2008, non-compliance in abortion reporting has been one of our major targets. While everyone can bemoan the tragedy of abortion and recommend a variety of ways to address it, the beginning point is accurate data and accurate data we did not have. 

Guam's original pro-life senatorial champion, the late Senator Elizabeth Arriola, once estimated the abortion rate on Guam to be between 400 and 600 per year:

"Let me tell you, at the rate Guam Memorial Hospital is aborting children, between 400-600 a year, and most of them are not even reported. Where are the lives that we are going to protect and preserve? Here we go talking about indigenous rights and self-determination. What good is all that if we don't have our followers to follow and enjoy the fruits of our labor, of this generation's labor, of your labor and my labor to fix this island and have autonomous rights to govern our people?"

 - quoted in: Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology, pg. 372, edited by Shirley Hume, Gail M. Nomura

When The Esperansa Project first began examining the public records on abortion statistics, we noted that several years of the required reports were missing altogether, while others were grossly incomplete. In fact, for the year 2000, the first year for which records could be obtained (even though the law had been in effect since 1994), only 22 abortions were reported.

Thanks to Senator Aguon and his staff, we now have an enforceable reporting law which should give us the data needed to address this tragedy, particularly since abortion is killing the Chamorro population by a large margin. 

And then of course there are the Kiko's (as represented by Zoltan) who trash any effort to save the unborn:

Zol Székely ·

Senior jogger at Cops & Joggers 5k Run/Walk

This is interesting. While the abortion rate to 1000 births is about 200 in the mainland, the same number is way below 100 on Guam. Talking percentages, it is about 20% in the mainland while 6-8% on Guam. Is this really such a big social issue then? Perhaps it would be more important to focus on the well-being of people. Mainland politicians already know this and show great concern and solidarity to the people who just simply want to make a living. Politicians on Guam should also find out and eradicate the roots of recurring poverty among the native inhabitants. 

While nobody can deny the social ills associated with abortion, leading political figures of the Democratic party usually talk avbout other important issues of social justice. Senator Frank Aguon wants to lock in on the favor of conservative church groups, but his real constituency at a race for governorship would be the plain folks, the poor of Guam, hired and blue collar workers and left leaning intellectuals. He should discover his roots in traditional democratic politics. What about getting an advisor from a true democrat like Bernie Sanders?

A bit of good news. The bill passed the Legislature UNANIMOUSLY. Even senators who had previously objected to prolife legislation, voted to have accurate data about it. Thank you to them.