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 …
Well...I guess I should say "Welcome to FR.". Isn't this the same thing, though, as saying "Keep your laws off my body!"? Have you read any of the founding fathers' documents like, maybe the Declaration of Independence???!!! If the very first inalienable right enumerated is the RIGHT TO LIFE and the very purpose of government is to protect these rights, then shouldn't the government make and enforce laws that do just that?
I agree that we have too much government interference with private enterprise today, but "the pro choice/pro life question" is hardly a wasted effort. It would sure be wonderful if they could at least get that one correct!!!
Nah...sounds more like Megan Fox...clueless!
I think even the meat processors stun or knock out the animals before they are killed. It's called "humane treatment". Anyone caught dismembering a conscious, living animal would be heavily fined and/or shut down but abortion mills do it 4000+ times a day to human beings!
Hey, newbie! How’s life at the DUmp/Kaos these days?? Missing President Bush yet??
ZOT.
Oy. Their=there
It’s been a long day.
We had that discussion and she actually said that until the baby is ten days old the mother should have that right. I had a dream about her once, and told her about it. The dream was that she had five children and they were such beautiful babies. She started screaming at me, and said I was evil. Her husband and I just stood there looking at each as she went off like a crazy woman.
Some one told me later that she had five abortions.
I'd laugh if the serial murders weren't so sad. She called you evil?! And she's the murderer. She needs Jesus in a big way...well, we all do, but she does in particular.
1. “The government would be better served by removing the massive regulations on businesses than wasting time on the pro choice/pro life question. The less government involvement, the better.”
2. “The Right to Life isn’t about “regulation”.
Excellent posts. You opened up a can of worms. My best guess is that:
Number 1. (get off my case) is from a libertarian.
Number 2. (human life is sacred) is a from a conservative
No sarcasm intended. I’m a former libertarian who slid into conservatism in his old age. Libertarians and conservatives both believe in individual freedom and the right to pursue their own happiness. I guess libertarians are more absolutist about keeping government out of their bedroom. But I think that the Christian regard for the absolute sacredness of human life is responsible for the idea that there are some things that the government must never be accorded the power do to its constituents (natural rights, limited government).
Thank You God
This is good news because it is a step toward recognizing the personhood of the unborn child. This will save the lives of children that would be killed after 20 weeks. This will save them from suffering a cruel death.
The sad thing is that this is only one state out of fifty (although it sets a precedent), and the vast majority of abortions occur before 20 weeks, so there is still a long way to go.
I look forward to the day way unborn children are Constitutionally protected persons in this country.
I’m confused; I thought partial birth abortion was made illegal when Bush signed a ban on it.
Oh, good, I hope this puts him out of the late term abortion business. Although, he’ll probably pick up shop and move elsewhere.
I almost took the time to respond, and then I thought I better check to see if she was banned. She was.
May His justice and mercy prevail, even in the darkest corners of our nation.
‘I don’t think many or maybe even most liberals care if the baby feels pain”
Many I’ve spoken with do not care and openly acknowledged the baby was a person. The usually continued and said “we have to many people in the world anyway”.
Tears.
He will right this barbaric wrong.
Prayers for the NE legislature and governor.
What really blows my mind is the enthusiasm with which they embrace abortion—even late term abortion. It is mindless.
How can we expect...and do we even want...to remain a society that admits that we're murdering innocent babies and we don't really care because there are all ready too many babies so they don't have value?
I don't want to belong to such a "civilization"...and it is really an abomination to call it a "civilization" given how uncivilized we are.
...or an animal they’d throw you in jail
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