By Dave Andrusko
As this post is being written, the Arkansas House of Representatives has just voted to override Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act (HB 1037). The override vote was a resounding 53 to 28.
The Senate will vote today or tomorrow. Last week there was a 25-7 vote in favor. Since only a simple majority is needed for an override —fingers crossed—prospects look very good.
Yesterday, State Rep. Andy Mayberry, the lead sponsor of the bill, said, “I am certainly disappointed in Governor Beebe’s decision to veto this life-saving, life-affirming bill,” adding, “The next stage of the legislative process gives the General Assembly the opportunity to override the Governor’s veto, and that’s how we plan to proceed.” And today they succeeded!
Speaking in favor of the override today, State Rep. Randy Alexander put the situation unequivocally: “This is not just another vote. This is about life and death.”
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act is already law in seven states. It saves from abortion unborn children capable of experiencing pain, which an abundance of medical evidence demonstrates begins no later than the 20th week.
Led by Jill June, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, pro-abortionists were thrilled, not surprisingly, with Beebe’s veto.
“This veto sends a message to the Arkansas Legislature that lawmakers need to quit focusing on unconstitutional abortion bans that are dangerous for Arkansas women,” she intoned in a statement. “Lawmakers need to stay out of a woman’s personal medical decisions and focus on the issues they promised – creating jobs, fixing the economy, and uniting our state.” And so forth and so on.
PP of the Heartland is arguably the most aggressive Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country. As Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, NRLC’s Director of Education, has explained numerous times, PP of the Heartland “is like the monster that devoured Cleveland. It keeps gobbling up smaller affiliates and expanding out of its home base in Nebraska and Iowa to Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.”
Beebe’s veto message focused on three areas. First, there was a dispute over whether the unborn can feel pain at 20 weeks. For starters, if the law said the unborn could experience pain five seconds before birth, someone would “dispute” that. More directly, the contrary “evidence”—such as it is—is old and outdated. (See www.doctorsonfetalpain.)
Beebe also cited the cost of defending the law in court. According to the Associated Press, “The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has said it would likely sue if it went into effect.” Pro-abortionists have been muttering that for several years. In fact, they have chosen not to choose that battlefield on which to contest.
Third, Beebe argues the law runs head on against prior Supreme Court jurisprudence on abortion, particularly issues related to fetal viability. That can be answered in two ways.
First, the justices have never addressed the issue of an unborn child’s pain. In 1973 when the justices of the Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade, it is safe to say they knew nothing about fetal pain. If/when they do it it would be a case of “first impression,” as lawyers put it.
Second, the High Court has frequently talked about “a compelling state interest” in the unborn child. Recognizing a compelling state interest in a child who is capable of experiencing pain would not require the Court to overturn, but only to supplement, its prior recognition of a compelling “state interest” in the unborn child after viability.
The federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was upheld in the 2007 case of “Gonzales v. Carhart,” although it made no distinction based on viability. As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “The [Partial-Birth Abortion Ban] Act does apply both previability and postviability because, by common understanding and scientific terminology, a fetus is a living organism while within the womb, whether or not it is viable outside the womb.”
Hopefully by the time you read this post, the Arkansas Senate will have overridden Gov. Beebe’s veto.
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