Posted on 02/12/2011 12:39:05 PM PST by wagglebee
BISMARCK, North Dakota, February 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A strong majority of lawmakers in the North Dakota House of Representatives on Friday afternoon passed a law that would make it illegal to murder any human being from the moment of their conception.
The Defense of Human Life Act, HB 1450, recognizes every human being at any stage of development as a person under state law with a right to protection.
“The overwhelming community and legislative support for HB 1450 proves that North Dakota could be the first state to recognize the value and dignity of every living human being,” stated Representative Dan Ruby. “The Defense of Human Life Act is just common sense. Of course every human being is a person, and every innocent person should receive legal protection. I am motivated to see women and children protected by HB 1450, and I look forward to its passage in the Senate in the near future.”
While the bill prohibits chemical abortifiacients such as RU-486, it does not apply to emergency contraception, or other “contraception administered before a clinically diagnosable pregnancy.” The bill also exempts legitimate medical procedures that may lead to the death of children in the womb when a woman’s life is in danger. The bill also exempts pregnant women seeking abortions from criminal prosecution.
The bill, supported by ND Right to Life, ND Life League, ND Family Alliance, ND CWFA, and the ND Catholic Conference, passed 68-25 in Friday’s vote.
Daniel Woodard, a legal consultant for North Dakota Right to Life and the North Dakota Life League, told LifeSiteNews.com that the bill would put the one remaining abortion clinic in the state out of business. “This bill should shut down that clinic,” said Woodard.
While the bill also bans the killing of frozen embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization, Woodard said, it would leave the implementation of new regulations to the medical community. “In North Dakota, the legislature has confidence in its medical professional groups to regulate itself,” he said.
While pro-lifers are optimistic about the bill’s survival in the Senate, Woodard said that supporters would “be taking no chances” and continue to lobby for its passage. A vote in the Senate is expected around March 10.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple has not stated whether or not he plans to sign the bill.
YEA!
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God bless North Dakota. This is fantastic news in these days of quite the opposite. May all their efforts be successful in implementing this law in the days to come.
Woo hoo & praise the Lord! May God strengthen these people - this is just the beginning of what will be a long battle.
great news
Excellent. It’s also going to be hard for the pro-death crowd to wail about “the return to back alley abortions” in the wake of Gosnell’s house of horrors.
ping
Good for North Dakota!
I think in 50 years every state will have passed such a law and people will look back on the post-Roe v. Wade years with horror wondering “what were they thinking”?
The carnage vastly exceeds that done by the Nazis during the Holocaust. And we wonder how German citizens could have stood idly by watching that happen or even actively facilitating it.
By the end of next year, total U.S. abortions since 1973 (48M through 2008; http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/01/18/abortion-statistics/) will exceed total deaths during WWII
(http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/statistics.htm)
The bill, supported by ND Right to Life, ND Life League, ND Family Alliance, ND CWFA, and the ND Catholic Conference, passed 68-25 in Friday's vote.Thanks wagglebee.
Doesn't this provision sort of invalidate the main thrust of the bill? What am I missing?
It’s a start!
Note too that states are taking the lead in not only rights, but responsibilities with all sorts of things: taxes, regs, spending, border control , the economy, the Constitution. That is a welcome sight in this Federal Mish Mosh we face from DC.
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Agreed. This is a federal issue.
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