The young man, Logan Lage, was attempting to outrun police during a high-speed chase that ended when the crash occurred. However, while the coroner in the case ruled the death of the baby a homicide, the public defender Will McNulty, says the baby was “neither a ‘person’ or a ‘child’ when the crash occurred.”
However the news reports indicate that an emergency caesarean section was performed on Lehnen and the baby subsequently died of asphyxia a few hours later.
Tragic as this is for the mother and her child, it is also a cruel reality of our day that a debate would ever occur regarding whether or not the child who died was a person deserving equal right under the law. In other words, the driver of that vehicle may or may not be accused of murder depending on a judge's determination first of what it means to be a human being in today’s twisted society and second of the actual facts of the case.
It is perhaps ironic that this accident occurred last November and is just now coming to court for a preliminary hearing during the very time when Colorado is being asked to support a petition that, if added to the November ballot, will address precisely who is and who is not a person. Colorado for Equal Rights has been collecting signatures with a goal of providing many more than the number required on or before the deadline, which is approaching in May. Their efforts are gaining momentum and national support for the effort is growing, with the most recent endorsement coming from Human Life International’s Father Tom Euteneuer.
As we pray for this young mother, and for the accused in this case we also pray for the voting public in Colorado, hoping that they will decide that place of residence—whether inside or outside the womb—should not determine the value or identity of an innocent human being.