Michigan Legislature Takes Steps to Ban Dismemberment of Babies

Martin M. Barillas : Mar 14, 2019
LifeSiteNews.com

"In his opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy rightly said that dismemberment abortions are 'laden with the power to devalue human life.' Tearing the arms and legs off children in the later stages of pregnancy is not a good reflection of our Michigan values." -Right to Life of Michigan president Barbara Listing

(Lansing, MI)—[LifeSiteNews.com] Republican state legislators in Michigan introduced bills to ban the dismemberment of unborn babies and restrict late-term abortion. (Image: via Personhood-Florida)

House Bills 4320 and 4321 would amend Michigan's ban on partial-birth abortions by including the dismemberment abortion procedure, also known as a dilation and evacuation abortion (D&E). The ban has stood since 2011. In a press release, Right to Life of Michigan president Barbara Listing said, "These bills are Michigan's response to New York's abortion law and other states seeking to explicitly allow abortions through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason."

HB 4321 was introduced by Rep. Lynn Afendoulis of East Grand Rapids, who chairs the Tax Committee. HB4320 was introduced by Rep. Pamela Hornberger of New Baltimore, who chairs the Education Committee for the Republican-majority chamber. Both bills have been referred to the Committee on Families, Children, and Seniors.

Dismemberment is the most frequently-used late-term abortion procedure in the United States. According to Right to Life of Michigan, there were 1,777 dismemberment abortions in Michigan reported to the state's Department of Health and Human Services. Of those, 98 percent occurred in the second trimester, between 13 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.

In Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion on the US Supreme Court's decisions in Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) and Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), which ruled on so-called "partial-birth" abortions, Kennedy wrote, "The doctor, often guided by ultrasound, inserts grasping forceps through the woman's cervix and into the uterus to grab the fetus. The doctor grips a fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the cervix and vagina, continuing to pull even after meeting resistance from the cervix. The friction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus as it is pulled through the cervix and out of the woman..." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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