By Dave Andrusko
And soon there will be an even dozen. If, as fully expected, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signs House Bill 1211, twelve states will have laws that prevent the dismemberment of living unborn babies.
On Tuesday the Indiana Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of HB 1211 on a vote of 38-10. As NRL News Today reported in February, the House vote was equally lopsided–71-25.
Dan Carden reported that State Sen. Liz Brown, the sponsor of the measure, said dismemberment abortions are “particularly barbaric” because doctors use a clamp “to reach into the woman’s uterus and snap off the limbs of the baby so those body parts can be easily removed.”
Brown added, “It is constitutionally appropriate for Hoosiers to decide that it is not necessary to dismember a baby in order to preserve a woman’s constitutional right to privacy.”
“We commend the Indiana legislature for passing the dismemberment abortion ban in order to protect children from this horrific procedure,” said Mike Fichter, President and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. “By passing this law, Indiana is declaring the dignity of the unborn child. We thank the bill’s leaders and we urge Gov. Holcomb to give this bill his signature.”
“HB 1211 was authored by Rep. Peggy Mayfield and co-authored by Rep. Christy Stutzman in the Indiana House,” Indiana Right to Life explained. “In the Indiana Senate, Sen. Liz Brown (District 15) shepherded the bill through with support from Sen. Mark Messmer (District 48) and other pro-life senators.”
Reporting for the Journal Gazette, Nikki Kelly wrote that during a Senate committee hearing, Dr. Andrew Mullally of Fort Wayne
said he has never heard of a legitimate medical reason to do the procedure. And he said Hoosiers would be outraged if something similar was done on animals.
“It’s never medically necessary,” he said.
Dr. Christina Francis, a Fort Wayne obstetrician-gynecologist, said the majority of the procedures done now are on healthy moms and relate to socioeconomic reasons or a fetal diagnosis of a disease or anomaly, such as Down syndrome.
Ingrid Duran, director of State Legislation, told NRL News Today, “The National Right to Life Committee applauds the hard work of Indiana Right to Life for passing an important piece of legislation that will protect living unborn babies from being torn apart limb by limb.”
Duran noted that “Banning the brutal dismemberment abortion technique is among NRLC’s highest legislative priorities,” and that the law “builds on the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the famous case on partial-birth abortion, Gonzales v. Carhart.”
Duran added. “In Carhart, the Supreme Court said, ‘No one would dispute that, for many, D & E is a procedure itself laden with the power to devalue human life.’”