Have you ever noticed it’s almost always men in high positions of government who make the most effort to pass laws to control that which they know nothing about and will never experience? Do they think they can legislate morality? Is President Bush convinced he’s doing the nation a favor by signing the ban for partial-birth abortion?

The procedure is gruesome. It’s enough to make anyone’s stomach turn. Sucking out the brain tissue from the fetus in order to more easily remove it from the uterus? Why would this procedure be done? For a few good reasons, according to Dr. William F. Harrison, a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

But first, I will share some information author Bruce A. Robinson researched and posted on his Web site, religioustolerance.org.

Although his background is in engineering, physics and technical writing, he wanted to create a forum for presenting facts from both sides of controversial issues in religion, spirituality and ethics. According to his research, medical intervention to terminate pregnancies during the third trimester is rare. It’s done to save the life or health of a woman experiencing a deteriorating health problem. This problem can only grow worse with every day late in pregnancy. It is most often caused by diabetes or heart disease.

In rare cases, the delivery of the fetus can go very wrong, threatening the life of the woman. The fetus is found to be either so malformed or diagnosed with a disabling genetic disorder that it will never gain consciousness even after birth.

According to Dr. Harrison, approximately one in 2,000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus, which is excess fluid on the infant’s brain, while in the womb. About 5,000 fetuses develop hydrocephalus each year in the United States. This is not usually discovered until late in the second semester. A fetus with severe hydrocephalus is alive, but as a newborn cannot live for long. What is the most humane thing to do, end the doomed pregnancy with a partial-birth abortion or make the woman wait to deliver a stillborn?

Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, testified in government hearings that only about 450 partial-birth abortions were performed annually in the United States. Yet on ABC’s “Nightline,” he admitted he lied about this figure in order to match the alleged “lies” from opponents of partial-birth abortion. He now estimates 3,000-4,000 is a more accurate value.

The claim that partial-birth abortions are used only in unusual medical circumstances was also disproved by reporters for a New Jersey newspaper and the Washington Post. These reporters interviewed numerous abortion practicioners who readily acknowledged they routinely use the method for purely elective abortions. Critics also argue there are no health conditions by which a woman would die if her pregnancy was not terminated in the third semester, as presented by Robinson.

Both sides of the debate have valid points. This is a highly emotional topic and proponents from both sides are guilty of going to extreme measures to justify their position. That’s why this issue cannot be made clearly black and white. That’s why no generalizations should be made into law.

A single woman who knows she doesn’t want the child should be encouraged to consider adoption. In a perfect world, all unwanted pregnancies would be allowed to go full term and then be adopted by suitable couples. Whether at six weeks or six months, abortions should not be used as a form of birth control.

But they are, and that’s the reality society has refused to accept.

Has President Bush taken the time to consider the fate of a child borne of a woman with a serious mental illness or handicap who was raped? Should a woman be expected to carry a pregnancy to full term when her doctors are certain the baby has no chance of living after birth? What about a 12-year-old girl who is raped by an uncle, brother, or even worse, her father, and doesn’t necessarily become aware she is pregnant until the second trimester? Stranger things have happened. The truth is always more bizarre than fiction.

Making partial-birth abortions illegal is like punishing everyone, because some women have chosen to terminate healthy pregnancies for reasons that are no one’s business but their own. Whether women are motivated by fear or selfishness, the idea of raising a child alone today without access to adequate health care, financial or emotional resources is truly daunting.

Maybe what we don’t realize is that some women who choose abortion at any point during their pregnancy believe they are doing the moral and responsible thing.