Bill has already passed the Senate
By Dave Andrusko
As readers of NRL News Today already know, among National Right to Life’s highest legislative priorities is a ban on dismembering living unborn human beings.
If all goes well, Ohio may soon join nine other states in saying “no” to a “procedure” where an abortionist reaches into a mother’s womb, yanks off body parts from the baby, piece by piece using a variety of sharp-edged metal clamps and tools, and then places little arms, legs, skulls, and torsos in a tray.
Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported yesterday on Senate Bill 145 which (channeling pro-abortion talking points) she euphemistically describes as banning an “abortion method” in which “a woman’s cervix is dilated then surgical instruments, such as forceps, are used to remove the fetus and uterine lining.”
The measure has already pass the state Senate. It “cleared the House Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday,” she wrote. “It could get a vote in the Ohio House as soon as this week.”
This morning Balmert tweeted:
House committee passed ban on dilation and evacuation abortions yesterday. Not on the floor today; could be tomorrow.
The nine states that have already passed bans on dismemberment abortions are (in order) 1. Kansas (2015) 2. Oklahoma (2015) 3. West Virginia (2016) 4. Mississippi (2016) 5. Alabama (2016) 6. Louisiana (2016) 7. Arkansas (2017) 8. Texas (2017) 9. Kentucky (2018). For more detail, go the NRLC’s State Legislation page.
As always, pro-abortionists rushed to the courts to delay, derail, and destroy bans on dismembering living unborn babies. The latest development, which we reported on last month, is that Judge Joseph McKinley heard the ACLU’s challenge to Kentucky’s “House Bill 454.”
Just prior to those oral arguments, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans heard an appeal brought by the state of Texas, challenging a lower court decision that overturned the Texas Dismemberment Abortion Ban. After a five-day trial over Senate Bill 8 that began on November 2, 2017, “Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel, who historically rules in favor of the abortion industry, issued a sweeping ruling that struck the law down, according to Texas Right to Life.