Posted on 04/13/2010 3:25:08 PM PDT by NYer
OMAHA, Nebraska, April 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Nebraska legislature has given final approval to a new law banning abortion after 20 weeks gestation on the basis that an unborn child feels pain at that age.
The new law is the first of its kind in the United States and pro-life advocates believe it could pose a direct and historic challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which deprived the states the power to regulate or restrict abortion.
The “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” (LB 1103), authored by Speaker Mike Flood, passed Tuesday on the third and final reading of the bill by an overwhelming pro-life majority of 44 in favor and 5 against.
Gov. Dave Heineman is expected to sign LB 1103 into law.
The law’s passage is especially historic, because it portends a fresh new challenge and look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases, which led to the virtual legalization of abortion on demand. The Nebraska law applies a different standard – that of the unborn child’s ability to feel pain - for restricting abortion, while the high court used the standard of what they then considered to be point of fetal viability.
"The Nebraska Legislature took a bold step today which should ratchet up the abortion debate across America," said Julie Schmit-Albin, Executive Director of Nebraska Right to Life in a statement today.
"LB 1103 creates a case of first impression for the courts to acknowledge the capability to feel pain as a compelling state interest to protect those unborn babies from an excruciatingly painful death.”
The legislation, which now awaits the governor’s signature, bans abortions after 20 weeks of post-fertilization age with two exceptions: first, when the pregnancy puts the mother in danger of death or “substantial and irreversible” physical harm to a major bodily function. The second exception was added in an amendment and allows an abortionist to perform late abortions for the sake of increasing the probability of a live birth, or to preserve an unborn child’s life and health after a live birth.
Although the topic of fetal pain is still under much discussion (and controversy, owing to its implications to the abortion debate) a growing consensus of medical knowledge has pointed to the fact that unborn infants experience pain by 20 weeks and possibly earlier. The pain may even be more acute than for older humans, as some research indicates their immature nervous systems have not developed coping mechanisms that help the body better endure pain.
The law notes that unborn children have been observed to “seek to evade certain stimuli” in a manner that “would be interpreted as a response to pain.” Additionally, the bill says unborn children exhibit “hormonal stress responses to painful stimuli” that were reduced with the application of pain medication.
Abortionists who break the law would face a Class IV felony charge, which carries a penalty of a five year maximum prison sentence, $10,000 fine, or both.
The bill would allow women and even the fathers of aborted unborn children to sue and seek damages from abortionists who violate the law.
The law, if passed and signed into law, would become operative on October 15, 2010.
Developing …
It should, but isn’t it sad that we have to come up with a persuasive legal argument to make infanticide illegal?
The Right to Life isn’t about “regulation”.
This law can’t be passed a day too soon. . . when do they vote?
LOL! Bye bye Megan.
Megan McCain, is that you?
Planned Parenthood doesn't like doing abortions beyond say 20-21 weeks...due to high insurance costs...and insurance companies don't like insuring the abortion industry beyond about that time due to extreme medical malpractice insurance risks...
So, this bill might save what % of the Nebraska pre-born again?
If you've got perhaps one abortionist doing abortions that late in NE, it's not effecting the bulk of those at risk.
EXCELLENT!!!
And yes, this time it’s yelling.
Thank God indeed. However, I will note that I’m not a huge fan of the illegalization route.
Legislation is going to follow the culture in this case, not vice versa. I do think that infanticide will eventually become illegal in the U.S., but I also think it will happen about 2 months after the last “clinic” shuts it’s doors due to lack of business.
I want to see the “clinics” shuttered whether it’s through legislation or lack of business. I just don’t see the legislation route paying the dividends in saved lives that we’ve seen through working to shift the culture and through math.
“Maybe it will qualify as cruel and unusual punishment ???”
I prefer the 5th amendment approach; “...(no person shall) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Define the fetus as a person and demand that they have the same due process rights as anyone else who is facing a capital crime. And when the legal decision on each case is resolved by the courts in 5-20 years as it is with other capital cases, I guess the point will be moot.
THANK YOU, JESUS!! :*)
May this be but the first step to overturning the Holocaust inducing ROEvWade nightmare!!! in my lifetime!!!
Kudos to those brave soulds fighting for the unborn in Nebraska!! God bless you all!
What is the next step, on to SCOTUS? Or lower courts first?
“I’m not so excited. cows and pigs can feel pain. How long before PETA uses this pain argument for their agenda?”
Well, if it comes down to trading steak for live infants, I think I would be OK with becoming a vegetarian.
Congratulations! :*)
I agree, the babies start moving around much earlier than 20 weeks, and I believe they feel pain earlier too...still, this LAW is a start!! I am praying to someday see the unborn given their proper rights as U.S. citizens instead of being treated as less than nothing! :*)
You’d be a fool then.
> is this going to be enforced or will there be stinking lawsuits by accessories to murder?
I have a guess
PETA already has made these arguments. That’s why this is so beautiful.
God Bless you and your unborn child. It is an amazing and exciting time that I think back on with great fondness. Perhaps because I am a man and never had to do any of the hard work...lol.
Nonetheless, I have a great appreciation for what mothers endure and enjoyed being right next to my wife the entire time.
Prayers for your good health.
I just can't grasp how someone would think the mother has the right to murder her own baby...and given what you've said that is exactly her position. So does she think the mother has the right to murder the baby at say age 3 yrs?
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