For further information:
Jessica Rodgers, 202-626-8825,
mediarelations@nrlc.org
CARHART
MOVE DEMONSTRATES NEED FOR PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION
WASHINGTON
– The announcement early last week by Nebraska
abortionist LeRoy Carhart that he would soon open up
abortion operations in Iowa, Indiana, and Maryland
highlights the need for greater laws protecting
mothers and their unborn children, according to the
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the
national federation of 50 state right-to-life
affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters.
Carhart's decision to move operations resulted from
Nebraska's enactment of
the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act earlier
this year. The law took effect October 15.
"Nebraska's groundbreaking law protecting
pain-capable unborn children is an example for other
states in the nation,"
said NRLC Director of State Legislation Mary
Spaulding Balch, J.D. "LeRoy Carhart's
hopscotching around the nation to find areas that
allow abortion for any reason, at any time,
underscores the need for other states to pass
similar legislation to put Carhart and the hundreds
of other abortionists who perform abortions late in
pregnancy out of business."
The timing of Carhart's announcement
coincided with NRLC's
announcement that it will hold a State Legislative
Strategy Conference on December 7, to plan how
best to capitalize on pro-life gains made in state
legislative and gubernatorial elections. The
strategy conference for state right-to-life leaders
and state legislators will concentrate on a model
bill based on Nebraska's Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act, and other measures including bills
to ensure that women contemplating abortion can see
real-time ultrasound images of their unborn
children.
THE PAIN OF THE UNBORN CHILD
A first-of-its-kind in the United
States, Nebraska's Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act protects unborn children in the fifth
and sixth month of pregnancy or later by prohibiting
abortion after 20 weeks postfertilization
(approximately 22 weeks after the woman's last
menstrual period or "LMP"), except when the mother
"has a condition which so complicates her medical
condition as to necessitate the abortion of her
pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of
substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a
major bodily function or...it is necessary to
preserve the life of an unborn child." The full
text of the Nebraska law is available here:
http://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/Current/PDF/AM/ER8229.pdf
Some researchers claim that unborn
children cannot feel pain until later in pregnancy
when nerves reach the cerebral cortex. However,
Spaulding Balch said, “Since 2007, medical
research, triggered by the identification of
consciousness in children lacking a cortex from
birth, has indicated that nerve connection to the
cortex is not essential to experience pain. In fact,
informed specialists have concluded that the
subcortical plate, to which nerves from the pain
receptors are linking at 20 weeks postfertilization,
fulfills that function.”
Scientific studies, dating back to
1987, confirming the existence of fetal pain at 20
weeks postfertilization (22 weeks LMP), can be found
here:
http://www.doctorsonfetalpain.com/scientific-studies.
HOW MANY LATE ABORTIONS AND
ABORTIONISTS ARE THERE?
In an
interview with Colorado abortionist Warren Hern
published online November 5, 2010, TIME Magazine
perpetuated the prevalent myth that there are few,
if any abortionists who perform abortions late in
pregnancy. The Washington Post's Rob Stein
also furthered the myth in a November 10 piece
saying that Carhart "is one of the few in the
country to perform abortions late in pregnancy."
The truth is, abortions in the fifth month of
pregnancy and later are widely available.
A 2008
study, "Abortion in the United States: Incidence and
Access to Services, 2005," released by the
Guttmacher Institute (which was originally founded
as a special research
affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America) found that, in 2005, there were at least
1,787 abortion providers in the United States. (It
is worth noting that submission for the Guttmacher
study is voluntary. As a result, Guttmacher
projects estimates for nonresponders meaning that
the figures cited are estimated calculations and
therefore most likely represent minimum numbers and
calculations.)
Of the
1,787 providers, the study found that "[t]wenty
percent of providers offered abortions after 20
weeks [LMP], and only 8% at 24 weeks [LMP]…" This
translates to at least 300 abortion providers who
will perform abortions after 20 weeks LMP and of
whom, 140 willing to perform abortions at 24 weeks
LMP.
Assuming
that the 8% of abortion providers willing to perform
abortions at 24 weeks LMP would do so at 22 weeks
LMP means there are at least 140 abortion providers
willing to abort a pain-capable unborn children at
22 weeks LMP (20 weeks postfertilization).
"That
more than 140 abortion providers are willing to kill
unborn children who are capable of feeling the
excruciating pain of abortion is a tragedy – a
tragedy that we can easily stop in the state
legislatures,"
Spaulding Balch
commented.
It is also misleading to conclude
that the abortions which Hern, Carhart and their ilk
are performing are "rare." According to a May 2010
briefing by the Guttmacher Institute, 1.5% of the
estimated more than 1.2 million elective abortions
performed annually in the United States are on
unborn children at 21 weeks LMP (19 weeks
postfertilization) or older. This translates to
roughly 18,000 abortions annually – a substantial
number of which probably occur at 22 weeks LMP or
later, which is past the point that the best
evidence indicates that the unborn child is fully
capable of feeling pain (a point that may well occur
earlier).
These findings are generally
corroborated by the Centers for Disease Control
Abortion Surveillance Report for 2006 (released
November 27, 2009). In the 43 reporting areas for
2006 which reported gestational age to the CDC for
its report, at least 1.3%, of abortions were
performed at 21 weeks or later. (Three states –
California, Louisiana and New Hampshire – did not
submit any data for 2006. Six states – Florida,
Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and
Nebraska – either did not report gestational age or
gestational age was reported as unknown for more
than 15% of women.)
"With pro-life electoral gains on
November 2, the spring legislative sessions gives us
a tremendous opportunity to enact a variety of
protective pro-life laws in many states and put an
end to abortions after the unborn child is capable
of feeling pain," Spaulding Balch added.
"Our number one priority at the state level is
protecting mothers and their unborn children from
the abortion industry and we have pro-life
legislative majorities across the country to help
make that happen."
WHAT IS A "LATE ABORTION?"
Both TIME Magazine and the
Washington Post refer to Hern and Carhart as the
last remaining abortionists who will perform
abortions late in pregnancy. In making their
claims, both publications use the phrase "late-term
abortion" to describe the procedures Hern and
Carhart perform.
The phrase "late-term abortion" has
no fixed legal or medical meaning. Its use in such
news stories is misleading and distorts the debate.
This distortion is in part deliberately engendered
by pro-abortion groups, who use the phrase
"late-term" as code for "third-trimester," meaning
27 weeks LMP (about the seventh month and later).
It is further confusing because many
Americans would most likely agree that any abortion
performed after the midway point of a woman's
pregnancy (20 weeks LMP based on a standard 40-week
pregnancy term) would qualify as "late abortions."
Indeed, most Americans would likely consider all
abortions performed in the fifth month or later
(e.g., after 18 weeks) as "late abortions."
A perfect example of the confusion
caused by using a pro-abortion industry buzzword is
found in the characterization of LeRoy Carhart as
"late-term" abortionist when Carhart himself admits
that his practice in Nebraska was limited to
abortions on children younger than 22 weeks. In a
June 2, 2009, press conference, Carhart was asked
directly about his abortion business in Bellevue,
Nebraska:
Q: Dr. Carhart, so you don’t at, at this
clinic here, you, you don’t perform third trimester
abortions?
…
Carhart: No. No. No.
…
Q: So what’s the cut-off generally here
as you interpret it?
Carhart: We do not go past, uh, 22 weeks
after conception.
While Carhart goes on to admit that
he has aborted a 38-week-old unborn child in Kansas,
his primary business was abortions under 22 weeks.
So which is it? Is Carhart a "late-term"
abortionist or not?
Therefore, in broadcasts and stories,
it is best to avoid using phraseology like
"late-term" to describe procedures banned by the
Nebraska law. Rather, it is preferable to describe
what the bill actually does – it prohibits abortion
of babies who are past 20 weeks fertilization (22
weeks LMP), which is at the end of the fifth month.
NRLC Director of State
Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., is available
to provide further comment and analysis. To arrange
an interview, contact the NRLC Communications
Department at (202) 626-8825.
The
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the
federation of 50 state right-to-life organizations
and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide, is
the nation's largest pro-life group. National Right
to Life works through legislation and education to
protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide,
euthanasia and assisted suicide.
