Burt Whaley: 100% Pro-life

 

The 138th District. From: Ballotpedia

 

By Gretchen Garrity

 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you..." Jeremiah 1:5

There is a significant difference between Missouri Representative candidates for the 138th District, Burt Whaley and Tom Franiak. 

Vying for Rep. Brad Hudson's seat, who is running for the state senate, the two candidates have both been endorsed by the Missouri Right to Life, even though Franiak is willing to compromise on the "Morning After Pill" aka the "Plan B" pill.

At a February 13, 2024 meeting of the Christian County Missouri Republican Assembly, Tom Franiak was asked about his pro-life views.

Question: "...but you are pro-life, correct?"

Franiak: "Yes, sir."

Question: "Life begins at conception, correct?"

Franiak: "Yes."

Question: "But you also said you were alright with the abortion pill?"

Franiak: "You know we cannot detect when life begins, right?"

Question/Statement: "Life begins at conception."

Tom Franiak

Franiak: "It begins at conception, yes, for my religion. But there is no way to detect it medically so I will be very transparent here and say if Missouri was to pass a Morning After Pill I don't see it being much different than any other contraceptive, because we cannot detect a heartbeat. We cannot tell whether the cell has been divided, um, I believe that in order to be a great legislator you're going to have compromise. I can plant my feet in the ground and I can say absolutely no compromise, but we'll never win that battle. The liberals will come after you every time. So, in order to be a great legislator in Jeff City you're going to have to be open to some compromise. But one thing I will do is stand up here and tell you exactly where I will compromise and that's one of them. But once we can hear a heartbeat it's off...so if we have to compromise it would be the Morning After Pill, and that's the only place I would compromise."

Months later at a July 16, 2024 meeting/town hall candidate event hosted by the Christian County Republican Central Committee, a question was asked about determining whether or not the Morning After Pill could result in abortion as opposed to preventing a pregnancy since there is a question about when and whether conception has taken place.

Franiak explained that there are two kinds of pills that accomplish the end of a pregnancy, one being an over-the-counter pill that is a high dose of a contraceptive drug, while the other pill is a prescription chemical abortifacient. At one point he called the OTC pill an "extreme" dose of contraception. Franiak went on to say that conception doesn't happen for at least five days and up to two weeks after sexual contact. He argued in favor of the OTC pill because there is no harm to a fetus. 

Burt Whaley

Contrast Franiak's position with that of Burt Whaley, who taught biology during his career as an educator. Whaley answered the question by explaining the issues involved when life begins. "Now let's define conception. In most cases, conception occurs within the first 12 to 24 hours. There are rare situations where it has taken longer. We can detect life in the second--in two-and-a-half weeks. We can actually view a sonogram to determine that there is a...gestational sack...You can determine that within two-and-a-half to three weeks. So for that structure to occur you have to have multi-cellular process occurring early. So you're talking about a zygote starting within the first few days. That zygote then forming and moving down the fallopian tube and starting to form the gestational sack. How can we, how can we create legislation that takes the life of a growing baby? Whose says the baby...when does the baby start? At conception. The starting process of the multicellular division. How can we create any legislation that determines that we're going to destroy that cell, or that multicellular structure--which I call a baby. If we call it a baby--that's what God calls it. He says in Jeremiah 1:5, "Before you were formed in your mother's womb I knew you." How can we make any other legislation that would violate that essential principle? I can't, and I won't."

According to Missouri Right to Life:

"Missouri Right to Life acknowledges the scientific reality that for humans produced by fertilization, the life of a human being begins at conception.¹ Therefore, all drugs or devices that are intended to prevent implantation after conception occurs, or in any other way destroy human life, cause abortions. They are abortifacients. Some drugs, such as the so-called “morning after” pills (“Plan B”) do not act as abortifacients in every instance. Plan B in some instances prevents conception. If conception occurs despite taking Plan B, however, Plan B prevents implantation, and as a result, the new human being cannot obtain nutrition and dies. Because of this feature of Plan B, one never knows when it will act as an abortifacient. Anything that may act as an abortifacient at any time is wrong to use. Just like Russian roulette, it may kill at any time. Therefore, Missouri Right to Life opposes “Plan B” and any other drugs that may act like it."

This is the stated position of Missouri Right to Life. How then, have they endorsed both candidates for state representative in the 138th district? One adheres perfectly to MRL's stated position, the other is willing to compromise.

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