Already the law in 16 states
By Dave Andrusko
Step by step by step, more and more states are moving forward to join the 16 states which have already enacted the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Yesterday the Missouri House of Representatives initially approved H.B. 1266. The measure would protect unborn babies from abortion who are 20 weeks and older, a developmental point by which the baby would feel unimaginable pain as she is torn apart.
The legislature took up the bill the first day following a spring break. H.B. 1266 “still needs a final vote in the House before moving to the Senate for further deliberation,” according to Kurt Erickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is the second piece of pro-life legislation passed by the Missouri House in 2018. As we reported, on February 26, the Missouri House endorsed a bill that require both parents who have custody to be notified when a minor seeks an abortion. Currently for girls younger than 18, Missouri law requires the written consent of one parent or guardian before she can have an abortion.
“The bill would require the consenting parent to provide written notice to the other custodial parent or guardian, but wouldn’t require the consent of the second parent,” the Joplin Globe reported. ” HB 1383 “contains exceptions, such as when the other parent has been convicted of a sexual offense or cannot be located.” That bill cruised through on a vote of 113-37.
Although a comparable federal measure received 51 votes, pro-abortionists in the United States Senate were able to thwart passage earlier this year. But it is important for numerous reasons that support continues to grow in the states.
Enactment in nearly a third of all states, for example, tells anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see that when the federal government final passes the bill, it would be in harmony with a growing number of states.
Moreover, when opinion polls show 60%+ support for a ban on abortion after 20 weeks (often without even mentioning the reality of fetal pain), clearly the public is deeply troubled by later abortions.
An important aside. We are told over and over that “Mid- and late-term abortions are already extremely rare, and a common motivation is concern that fetuses are developing with severe abnormalities,” as the Washington Post argued last year in a semi-coherent editorial. This is a talking point straight out of the pro-abortion handbook, a bogus assertion that NRLC has debunked on numerous occasions.
For example, as NRLC President Carol Tobias said in 2017 when the bill was introduced in the United State Senate
Abortions past 20 weeks fetal age are not “rare.” We’ve estimated that at least 275 facilities in the U.S. offer them. While statistically reporting on late abortions is notoriously spotty, by very conservative estimates there are at least 11,000-13,000 abortions performed annually after this point, probably many more. If an epidemic swept neonatal intensive care units and killed 11,000 very premature infants, it would not be dismissed as a “rare” event – it would be headline news on every channel, a first-order public health crisis.
Congratulations to the Missouri House of Representatives.