By Dave Andrusko
As this blog was about to be posted, more good news came in. This afternoon pro-lifers in Alabama took one more step on the path to becoming the fifth state to pass a law based on National Right to Life’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The Senate Health Committee passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (HB 18) out with a favorable report. It now goes to the Senate Rules Committee. No further details were available.
In 2010 Nebraska passed the first bill to protect unborn babies capable of experiencing pain from abortion, which medical evidence demonstrates is (conservatively) 20 weeks from conception. Kansas, Idaho, and Oklahoma have all passed similar measures this legislative session.
The Alabama Senate committee approval comes less than a month after the House overwhelmingly approved the bill 69-19.
As drafted by National Right to Life’s state legislation department, the model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act protects from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain 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 science behind the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is sound, and when faced with the evidence, state legislatures recognize their responsibility to protect these smallest members of our society,” said Mary Spaulding Bach, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). ”For several years, we have seen a growing trend of state legislatures moving to enact legislation that aids mothers and protects their unborn children. “
Further documentation and links to the scientific studies that demonstrate the unborn’s ability to experience pain, go to www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.
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