Did you know that Ludwig Von Beethoven was diagnosed with a fetal condition that made him incompatible with life, but his mother had faith and refused to abort him even though doctors told her too, and then he became a great composer?

No?  Well, it must be true, after all, lawmakers in Idaho used him as an example of why abortion should never be allowed after 20 weeks.

Via The Spokesman Recorder:

SB 1165, to ban abortion after 20 weeks on grounds of fetal pain, has passed the House on a 54-14 vote and now goes to the governor’s desk. The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, shared several stories of people who bore their children rather than having abortions, despite difficult circumstances including illness. If they hadn’t, he said at the conclusion of one of the stories, “America would not have been blessed with Beethoven.” Crane told the House that the “hand of the Almighty” was at work. “His ways are higher than our ways,” Crane said. “He has the ability to take difficult, tragic, horrific circumstances and then turn them into wonderful examples.”

Needless to say, I had to google this tidbit.  Turns out YOU KILLED BEETHOVEN!! is on of the few anti-choice memes I hadn’t run across yet.  It goes a little something like this:

I will close this chapter by quoting a well known lecturer in medical schools. He “asked one of his classes what they would recommend in the following case:

“The father had syphillus.

“The mother had TB.

“They had four children already.

“One was blind.

“One was born dead.

“One was a deaf mute.

“One had TB.

“The mother was pregnant with her fifth child.

“Almost without exception, the medical students indicated that they would recommend abortion.

“The lecturer then stated, ‘Congratulations! You have just killed BEETHOVEN!'”

This is what our public policy debates have now become.