WASHINGTON (July 30, 2012) -- One day before the
U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote
on a bill to overturn the current policy in the
District of Columbia of allowing legal abortion, for
any reason, until the moment of birth, a federal
judge in Arizona today upheld a new state law
generally prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks of
pregnancy (18 weeks fetal age), based primarily on
“the substantial and well-documented evidence that
an unborn child has the capacity to feel pain during
an abortion by at least twenty weeks gestational
age.”
The ruling by U.S. District
Judge James A. Teilborg came in a legal challenge
brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights and
the ACLU on behalf of abortion providers, which
asserted that the law was unconstitutional because
it restricted abortions prior to “viability.” The
Arizona law generally allows abortion after 20 weeks
of pregnancy (18 weeks after fertilization) only
when necessary to prevent the mother’s death or
“serious risk of substantial and irreversible
impairment of a major bodily function.”
Judge Teilborg specifically
found that “by 20 weeks, sensory receptors develop
all over the child’s body” and “when provoked by
painful stimuli, such as a needle, the child reacts,
as measured by increases in the child’s stress
hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure.” Teilborg
quoted a U.S. Supreme Court decision describing the
D&E method of abortion used at this age:
“[F]riction causes the fetus to tear apart. For
example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus . . .”
He described another method also used: “In an
induction procedure, the fetus is injected with a
medication that induces a heart attack.’”
Judge Teilborg continued,
“Given the nature of D&Es and induction abortions, .
. . this Court concludes that the State has shown a
legitimate interest in limiting abortions past 20
weeks gestational age.”
“This recognition by a
federal court that a general prohibition on abortion
after 20 weeks of pregnancy is constitutional, based
chiefly on ‘substantial and well-documented evidence
that an unborn child has the capacity to feel pain
during an abortion,’ makes it even more indefensible
for any House member to vote to continue the current
policy of legal abortion for any reason until the
moment of birth in our nation’s capital,” said
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).
The bill to be voted on Tuesday
by the U.S. House, the District of Columbia
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R.
3803), is strongly backed by the National Right to
Life Committee (NRLC), the nationwide federation of
state right-to-life organizations.
The Council of the District of
Columbia, employing authority delegated by Congress,
repealed the entire D.C. abortion law. Thus, in the
nation’s capital, abortion is currently legal for
any reason through all nine months of pregnancy.
(See confirmation by the Associated Press,
here.) H.R. 3803, sponsored by Congressman
Trent Franks (R-Az.), was approved by the House
Judiciary Committee on July 18, and is being brought
to the House floor on a fast-track procedure. In
the bill, Congress adopts findings that by 22 weeks
of pregnancy (20 weeks after fertilization), the
unborn child has the capacity to experience great
pain. (Note that this is two weeks later than the
line established in the Arizona law upheld today.)
The bill prohibits abortion after that point, except
when an acute physical condition endangers the life
of the mother. Seven states have already enacted
legislation very similar to H.R. 3803 (Nebraska,
Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and
Louisiana); no court orders have blocked enforcement
of any of those laws.
“This roll call will be a
landmark – the House has never before voted on the
question of whether to endorse legal abortion for
any reason until birth,” said NRLC Legislative
Director Douglas Johnson. “Under the
Constitution, members of Congress and the President
are ultimately accountable for the current
abortion-until-birth policy. Any lawmaker who votes
against this bill is voting to ratify the extreme
policy currently in effect in the nation’s capital,
where abortion is perfectly legal for any reason
until the moment of birth.”
"If we can achieve a big
majority on this groundbreaking initial vote, it
will lay the foundation to achieve legal protection
for pain-capable unborn babies in the not-distant
future,” Johnson said.
The District Clause of the U.S.
Constitution (found in Article I, Section 8)
provides that “Congress shall . . . exercise
exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over
such District . . .” Like any other “legislation,”
of course, it is subject to the president’s review.
The White House has not yet taken any position on
H.R. 3803, although it has
223 House cosponsors.
According to a nationwide live
telephone poll of 1,000 adults (MOE +/-3.1%),
conducted July 12-15, 2012 by The Polling Company,
Inc./WomanTrend, 58% of American adults would be
more likely to vote for lawmakers who support this
legislation (62% of women were more likely). In a
separate question, 63% favored a policy of not
permitting abortion anywhere "after the point where
substantial evidence says that the unborn child can
feel pain unless it is "necessary to save a mother's
life." (The questions and response totals are
available in a document
here.)
The NRLC website provides links
to abundant documentation on the scientific
authorities that support the bill’s findings that
unborn children, by 20 weeks fetal age if not
before, have the capacity to experience great pain,
here. A compilation of citations to
medical journal articles on the subject is posted
here. The abortion method most often
used at this stage, the "D&E," is depicted in a
medical illustration,
here. The poll results and other
information on the legislation is also posted at
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/index.html
Founded in 1968, the
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the
federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and
more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's
oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization.
