Testimony of Senator Bryant Richardson

 

Monday, March 3, 2025

 

Senate Bill 5 calls for an amendment to guarantee Abortion Without Restriction. Tragically, abortion is already legal in Delaware.

 

I’m addressing the issue from the following perspectives

 

Cruel and unusual punishment

 

Crimes against humanity

 

The complexity of the human body beginning at conception

 

Self Defense

 

 

Cruel and unusual punishment

 

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

 

Delaware abolished the death penalty in 2024, following a 2016 ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court that declared its capital punishment statutes unconstitutional. 

 

Prior to its abolition, Delaware had a history of capital punishment, with the last execution occurring in 2012.

 

So Delaware legislators recognized that the taking of human life, even the lives of those who committed horrendous crimes, should not be allowed.

 

Our state protects those who have committed evil acts.

 

Why, then, are we okay with the taking of those who are innocent? Those who have not committed a crime?

 

If you recognize the pre-born as human life, a completely unique person, their extinguishment through chemical or surgical dismemberment has to be classified as cruel and unusual punishment.

 

 

Crimes against humanity

 

At the end of World War II trials were held at Nuremberg. One of these trials was the “Doctors Trial,” in which defendants were accused of committing crimes against humanity, such as conducting medical experiments on prisoners of war, some of which included children. 

 

Some of these disturbing experiments included:

 

Experiments involving poison: Prisoners were secretly poisoned so they could be studied, as they died from the effects. If they did not die right away, they were killed, so their bodies could be studied under autopsy.

 

Incendiary bomb research: Prisoners would be burned with phosphorous so that different medications could be tested to see how well they treated the burns.

 

Crimes against humanity include murder and torture. 

 

Preborns are exposed to chemical and surgical dismemberment abortions to effectuate their deaths. This used to include saline solution abortions that burned the unborn baby.

 

Senate Bill 5 is nothing but a large-scale attack against innocent children, the very essence of a crime against humanity.

 

 

The complexity of the human body beginning at conception

 

DNA molecule

 

Humans typically have 46 chromosomes, organized into 23 pairs. This includes 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes (XX for females and XY for males).

 

The human body is generally believed to have around 78 to 80 organs, depending on how one defines an organ.

 

Just a couple of weeks after conception, the embryo forms a neural plate. This is the base for the nervous system. The brain will grow at a rate of 250,000 neurons per minute.

 

The average human head has about 100,000 hairs, but this number can vary based on hair color: blondes may have around 150,000, while redheads typically have about 90,000.

 

The average adult human body contains about 4.5 to 5.5 liters of blood, which is roughly 8% of their total body weight.

 

How is the body fed? After food is broken down into smaller molecules during digestion, it is absorbed in the small intestine. The small intestine has tiny, finger-like structures called villi that increase its surface area, allowing for maximum absorption of nutrients. 

 

The nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the small intestine. Proteins and carbohydrates are absorbed as amino acids and simple sugars, respectively, while fats are absorbed as fatty acids and glycerol. 

 

Once in the bloodstream, these nutrients are transported to the liver via the hepatic portal vein. The liver processes these nutrients to be used immediately for energy, stored for later use, or built into larger molecules. 

 

The nutrients are then transported to the rest of the body through the circulatory system. The blood carries the nutrients to cells throughout the body, where they are used for growth, repair, and energy.

 

Number of bones  - The adult human body typically has 206 bones. Infants are born with about 270 bones, but many of these fuse together as they grow, resulting in the lower number in adulthood.

 

At just six weeks, the embryo’s brain and nervous system begin to develop, although the complex parts of the brain continue to grow and develop through the end of pregnancy, with development ending around the age of 25. It’s important to take care throughout your pregnancy to ensure proper brain development for your baby.

 

The brain begins with the neural tube, formed in the first month of the embryo’s growth. The neural tube closes around week 6 or 7, at which point the brain separates into three parts: front brain, midbrain, and hindbrain. These three parts will eventually develop into the specialized parts of the brain, and the cerebrum will fold into the left and right halves of the brain.

 

In the first trimester, the brain will grow millions of neurons, which connect across synapses to direct movement and growth.

 

The heart starts beating around 22 days after conception, which is typically during the sixth week of pregnancy. By this time, the heartbeat can often be detected using ultrasound technology.

 

After delivering oxygen and nutrients to all your organs and tissues, your blood enters your heart and flows to your lungs to gain oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. It then flows back to your heart, which pumps the refreshed blood out through your aorta to nourish your body again.

 

In addition to its role in delivering oxygen and nutrients, blood also contains infection-fighting cells called white blood cells. White blood cells are crucial in protecting the body from infection. Your white blood cells circulate throug

 

All this points to a Designer, a Designer who says in His Word to rescue those being led away to death.

 

Knowing all this about the human body, how can someone declare: My body, my choice?

 

 

Self Defense

 

Self-defense, a fundamental human right, allows individuals to protect themselves from imminent harm or threat of violence. 

 

The key principles of self-defense laws include: 

 

Imminent Threat: The threat being defended against must be immediate or about to happen. 

 

Reasonable Belief: The defender must have a reasonable belief of imminent serious bodily harm or death.

 

What threat does a developing fetus pose? How can the use of lethal force be justified?

 

Closing remarks

 

Problems arise when we say our rights come from government, and not from God.

 

We are putting government as the highest authority when we make laws like Senate Bill 5. 

 

What I wholeheartedly believe is that we don’t get the final say. Our Creator gets the final say.

 

This realization was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. 

 

…all men (and women) are endowed with certain unalienable rights, which include ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ These rights are fundamental and cannot be taken away by the government.

 

The Preamble to the Delaware Constitution reinforces this belief.

 

It says: Through Divine goodness, all people have by nature the rights of worshiping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences, of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring and protecting reputation and property, and in general of obtaining objects suitable to their condition, without injury by one to another…………

Let me say this one more time, when it comes to life and liberty, we don’t get the final say. Our Creator gets the final say.

 

I want to conclude with a biography of one of the leaders in the pro-choice movement.

 

You heard that right. The pro-choice movement. 

 

Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson was an American physician and co-founder in 1969 of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, later renamed National Abortion Rights Action League. 

 

Dr. Nathanson was responsible for close to 75,000 abortions during his career as an obstetrician and took part in sanctioning abortions on tens of thousands of unborn babies. 

 

By the mid-1970s, however, Nathanson began to undergo a drastic interior change and eventually declared himself to be pro-life in 1979.

 

Nathanson produced the 1985 film “The Silent Scream,” which shows sonogram images of a child in the womb attempting to move away from an abortionist’s instruments.

 

In 1996, he was baptized at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City by then Cardinal John O’Connor.

 

Critics of Nathanson's conversion were perplexed as to how a former atheist Jew became one of the most prominent Catholic pro-life advocates.

 

Dr. Nathanson died from cancer on Feb. 21, 2011.

 

A priest said Nathanson knew that “he was completely forgiven of his sin by the waters of Baptism.”

 

This is the God we serve, the God who has the Final Say. 

 

Thank you for giving me time to speak.