Posted on 06/04/2015 2:54:34 AM PDT by Morgana
The lead Senate sponsor of the pro-life bill that bans abortions from after 20-weeks of pregnancy up to the day of birth will introduce the legislation next week. Last month, the House of Representatives voted 242-184 for the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is the lead sponsor of the pro-life measure in the Senate, has announced that he will introduce the measure next week. In a new letter to members of the Senate, released to LifeNews.com, the National Right to Life Committee is urging members of the Senate to sign on to the legislation as cosponsors.
“The operative language of the proposal that Senator Graham intends to introduce is the same as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act as approved by the House of Representatives on May 13 (H.R. 36, as revised by the Franks Substitute Amendment),” NRLC says in its letter. “Like earlier versions of the legislation, the House-passed bill extends general protection to unborn children who are at least 20 weeks beyond fertilization (which is equivalent to 22 weeks of pregnancy — about the start of the sixth month).”
National Right to Life says there is an abundance of scientific evidence showing unborn babies feel pain in the latter stages of pregnancy and the pro-life group says the Senate ha an obligation to protect them from excruciating abortions.
“There is abundant evidence – summarized in the findings of the bill – that by this point in development (and probably earlier), the unborn child has the capacity to experience excruciating pain during typical abortion procedures,” the group said. “The bill also creates specific requirements for the protection of infants who are born alive during these late abortions.”
“It is now commonplace to read about evidence that, by 20 weeks fetal age and even earlier, an unborn child responds to many forms of stimuli, including music and the mother’s voice. Claims that the same child is nevertheless insensible to the violence done to her body during an abortion should engender strong skepticism. Abortions at this stage are performed using a variety of techniques, but most often by a method in which the unborn child’s arms and legs are twisted off by brute manual force, using a long stainless steel clamping tool,” NRLC adds.
National Right to Life says these late-term abortions after 20 weeks are not rare, as abortion advocates claim, adding that at least 275 facilities offer abortions past 20 weeks fetal age.
The pro-life group also says polling data indicates a strong majority of Americans support the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
“In a nationwide poll of 1,623 registered voters in November 2014, The Quinnipiac University Poll found that 60% would support a law such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks, while only 33% opposed such legislation. Women voters split 59-35% in support of such a law, while independent voters supported it by 56-36%,” it said.
Should the Senate approve the bill, President Barack Obama has issued a veto threat. But pro-life groups hope to use the measure as an election tool in 2016 in an attempt to wrest control of the White House and approve a pro-life president who will sign it into law.
During the hearing on the last bill, former abortion practitioner Anthony Levatino told members of the committee the gruesome details of his former abortion practice and how he became pro-life following the tragic automobile accident of his child.
Another bombshell dropped during the hearing came from Dr. Maureen Condic, who is Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She testified that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain as early as 8-10 weeks. This is when most abortions in America take place.
The vast majority of Americans are still very uncomfortable with abortion, according to a January Marist University poll. The survey finds support for abortion restrictions among both “pro-life” and “pro-choice” supporters. Despite the strong support, President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the pro-life bill.
According to the national survey, 84% of Americans want significant restrictions on abortion, and would limit abortions to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy. This includes almost 7 in 10 (69 percent) who identify themselves as “pro-choice” who support such abortion limits and oppose late-term abortions.
The same percentage (84 percent) also says that laws can protect both the well-being of a woman and the life of the unborn. In addition, by more than 20 points (60 percent to 38 percent), Americans say abortion is morally wrong.
Other national polls also show strong support nationwide for the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and stopping late-term abortions.
A poll conducted for the liberal Huffington Post find Americans support the ban on late-term abortions starting at 20-weeks of pregnancy by almost a 2-1 margin.
A national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a law.
A November 2014 poll from Quinnipiac found that 60 percent of Americans support legislation limiting abortions after 20 weeks, including 56 percent of Independents and 46 percent of Democrats.
The bill relies on the science of fetal pain to establish a Constitutional reason for Congress to ban abortions late in pregnancy. The science behind the concept of fetal pain is fully established and Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into it. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for it.
He has testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.”
He and his colleagues Dr. Vincent J. Collins and Thomas J. Marzen were the top researchers to point to fetal pain decades ago. Collins, before his death, was Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois and author of Principles of Anesthesiology, one of the leading medical texts on the control of pain.
“The functioning neurological structures necessary to suffer pain are developed early in a child’s development in the womb,” they wrote.
“Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation. Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus before the 9th week of gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th and 10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal column takes place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body,” they continued.
With Zielinski and his colleagues the first to provide the scientific basis for the concept of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand has provided further research to substantiate their work.
One leading expert in the field of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand at the University of Tennessee, stated in his expert report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, “It is my opinion that the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.”
“The neural pathways are present for pain to be experienced quite early by unborn babies,” explains Steven Calvin, M.D., perinatologist, chair of the Program in Human Rights Medicine, University of Minnesota, where he teaches obstetrics.
Dr. Colleen A. Malloy, Assistant Professor, Division of Neonatology at Northwestern University in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2012 said, “[w]hen we speak of infants at 22 weeks LMP [Note: this is 20 weeks post fertilization], for example, we no longer have to rely solely on inferences or ultrasound imagery, because such premature patients are kicking, moving, reacting, and developing right before our eyes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
“In today’s medical arena, we resuscitate patients at this age and are able to witness their ex-utero growth and development. Medical advancement and technology have enabled us to improve our ability to care for these infants…In fact, standard of care for neonatal intensive care units requires attention to and treatment of neonatal pain,” Dr. Malloy testified. She continued, “[t]hus, the difference between fetal and neonatal pain is simply the locale in which the pain occurs. The receiver’s experience of the pain is the same. I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to horrific procedures such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection.”
Don’t the Democrats refer to legislation like this as “ugly”?
Forty plus years after Roe v Wade, billions of dollars and millions of manhours spent by ProLife, Inc. and what we get is a sure-to-be vetoed bill that even if passed into law would prevent a very small number of deaths.
Golf clap.
Sounds reasonable to me. 20 Weeks is about the middle of the second trimester. About the time of the classical ‘quickening’ benchmark, but as a male, I wonder what % of my opinion should be considered.
I would say that an inability to detect brain activity before then results from a limitation of the instruments, not from absence of activity. The brain is formed by 5 weeks post-conception. Since tissues function as soon as the cells that form them differentiate, there is every reason to think that brain activity begins as soon as the cells that form the brain become brain cells and start to form neural connections.
One leading expert in the field of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand at the University of Tennessee, stated in his expert report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, “It is my opinion that the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.”
This is because when the nervous system forms, many more nerves are formed than are needed. Around the 7th month post conception, the baby's body begins to prune away the extra nerves, so that (under normal circumstances) it has exactly the needed quantity of nerves at birth. This means that prior to that pruning process, the baby is much more sensitive to pain because it has extra nerves carrying the pain signal to the brain.
You can’t put a dollar value on human life. Or rather I can’t.
I am probably closer to your POV than you think. I definitely consider late term abortion infanticide. I don’t know the moral implications of an IUD or RU486. Both eject a fetus at a few hours old. And between that few hours and that 20 week date? Well I am not privy to the mind of the creator(if indeed he exists). Once a child can live outside the mother. 21-22 weeks at the earliest, I cannot say that abortion then is not murder as a viable outside the womb human is now in the mix.
People who spend the billions of dollars believe that any abortion for any reason is like taking a newborn and killing it. And just because science has not found a soul does not mean there isn’t one.
To assume that billions won’t continue to be spent is naive. The morality and sanctity of human life is an almost impossible thing to just ignore. Millions of people in this country find abortion to be murder and you’re not going to change their beliefs because you don’t agree.
This is a much bigger issue than you can just write off as billions of dollars wasted.
Not quite. What we get is an UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAW that CONDONES over 90% of abortions.
The fact that it will be vetoed isn't even the issue. The real issue is that what passes as a "victory" for Pro-Life, Inc. and the GOP is a bill that says abortion is fine as long as it's done according to their arbitrary schedule.
But then again, Pro-Life, Inc. and the GOP are doing this to raise money for themselves, ending the American Holocaust is simply their talking point. Pro-Life, Inc. DOES NOT WANT ABORTION TO END. Abortion to them is no different than race is to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, it is an abstract evil to decry while asking for donations.
If the NRA sent out a press release congratulating them on a huge "victory" in which they "succeeded" in getting legislation passed which outlawed ALL firearms but allowed people to own BB guns, they would be laughed out of existence.
Oh? Would you be okay with a bill that said it was fine to kill YOU, as long as it was done by Christmas? Would that be "reasonable"?
20 Weeks is about the middle of the second trimester.
Totally irrelevant. All human beings, male or female, have God-given, unalienable rights, starting with the supreme right, the right to live. Where they are on the physical timeline of their life is irrelevant.
About the time of the classical ‘quickening’ benchmark,
So, you base your position on whether mass murder is okay based on ancient ignorance? Interesting.
but as a male, I wonder what % of my opinion should be considered.
That sort of statement generally comes from folks who have drunk Planned Parenthood's kool-aid. About half of all the innocent little persons murdered via abortion are male. And it's the duty of all to protect all innocent persons, regardless of sex. Again, an ignorant irrelevancy.
The text of the legislation grants explicit permission to murder babies, all of them, as long as they are killed according to NRTL’s arbitrary schedule.
In other words, the bill is utterly immoral and completely unconstitutional.
Any Senator voting for it is violating the most important obligation of their oath of office, which is to provide equal protection for the God-given, unalienable, intrinsic, individual right to life.
What happened to the Guardianship Abortion Act?
As a legal guardian, you should be able to abort whatever/whenever you like!
/s
I’m an absolutist when it comes to infanticide. My point is the sheer folly in continuing to throw resources down a drain to curry favor with politicians. ProLife, Inc. Has done that for over 40 years and what do they have to show for it?
It’s a failed strategy. Worse, trying to pass crappy laws like this that prevent the deaths of very few provide undeserved political cover for politicians to say that they’re pro-life while doing essentially nothing to stem the carnage.
I love your post. Thanks.
Whose resources? Free countries allow folks the right to dispose of their cash as they see fit.
As a democrat, your organizations throw money to pro choice, and organizations that pick the pockets of hard working Americans to allow indigent lazy troublemakers to survive without contributing to society other than to tear it down at Occupy Wall Street zoofests and think that Black Lives Matter only if they’re Liberal Black Lives . I know liberal jackasses who work for major corporations, get paid well and condemn them secretly and praise the so called 99%ers who try to tear it down. Then you align yourselves with billionaires like George Soros who worked for the nazis during WW 2, and wants socialism only so long as he is the elitist scum who makes the decisions
The RKBA is in my opinion the lynchpin of the Constitution. But it ain’t enough for you to be allowed to preach your ‘progressive ‘ crud here at FR.
BTTT
I’m no longer a ‘rat. And have never been a prog. Haven’t been a ‘rat in about 10 years. So you’re preaching to the wrong person. I have no more influence on the rat faction of the uniparty than I do on the gop. Which is absolutely zero.
I keep the handle as a kind of rueful reminder.
As for the substantive part of your post, I see nothing to really disagree with you about. I think you hoped for an argument? Sorry. Maybe post something else and I’ll disagree?
Nope. Not looking for an argument.
I’ve never registered as a democrat but had less than conservative viewpoints on SOME things back in college. Of course that was 43 years
I would have changed my name if I were you. But that is of course your choice (former in there somewhere would have been my suggestion)
See ya round.
The handle has grown on me. It irritated me early on. It’s a good humbling reminder of how smart I’m not at times.
So you think the pro-life bill of 20 weeks shouldn’t pass?
You eat an elephant one bite at a time, and the pro-abortion issue is an elephant.
The bill is intrinsically immoral and unconstitutional.
Asking legislators to vote for it is asking them to violate not only their own sacred oath, but the very raison d’etre of human government, according to the natural law moral principles of this free republic’s founding.
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