Nebraska Bill Would Ban Most Late-term Abortions Due to Fetal Pain
Aimee Herd : Apr 13, 2010
Operation Rescue
"?there is substantial evidence that by 20 weeks, fetuses seek to evade stimuli in a way that indicates they are experiencing pain."
A new bill has received final approval from legislature in Nebraska that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks, citing the pain a pre-born baby would experience during the procedure, prior to its death. The bill is expected to be signed into law soon.
According to an AP report, "the bill, which was introduced by Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood, bases its assertion that fetuses feel pain on the testimony of doctors, some of it given during a 2005 Congressional hearing on the subject. It contends there is substantial evidence that by 20 weeks, fetuses seek to evade stimuli in a way that indicates they are experiencing pain."
Currently there are six states in the US that require pregnant, abortion-minded women to be told that the abortion could cause pain to their pre-born baby.
Mary Spaulding Balch, the legislative director for National Right to Life, noted that "no other state has attempted to restrict abortions based on the pain a fetus might feel."
Meanwhile, Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has one week to act on a bill that would strengthen reporting requirements for late-term abortions and provide families the ability to sue an abortionist if they believe a family member was giving a late-term abortion illegally.
Parkinson has until April 15 to sign or veto the measure, which was passed by wide margins in both houses of the legislature. If he does nothing, it will automatically become law.
That bill, HB 2115, would require abortionists to report the precise diagnosis used to justify abortions beyond 22 weeks, or viability. Kansas law currently bans post-viability abortions unless the continuation of the pregnancy would present a "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" of the pregnant woman. Since 2000, that law has been interpreted to include "mental health" as long as the mental health risk was "substantial and irreversible."