By Dave Andrusko
Great news out of North Carolina. Five weeks after passing the House and less than two weeks after approval in two Senate committees, the “Human Life Nondiscrimination Act/No Eugenics” act won approval today in the full Senate. House Bill 453 now goes to pro-abortion Gov. Roy Cooper. Under state law, Gov. Cooper has 10 days to sign the bill, veto HB 453, or allow it become law without his signature.
The vote Thursday in the Senate was 27-20 with no Democrats voting in favor. Approval on May 6th in the House was by 67-42 “with six Democrats voting yes,” Richard Claver reported.
The three-page bill would require a physician “to confirm before the abortion that the woman is not seeking an abortion because of any of the following: the actual or presumed race or racial makeup of the unborn child; the sex of the unborn child; the presence or presumed presence of Down syndrome.”
In other words, the abortionist is required to be proactive.
House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a statement, “The unborn are the most vulnerable among us and should not be discriminated against based on a presumptive in-utero diagnosis. “ Moore added, “This violates natural law and robs society of the blessing each and every child is to all of us. No child should have to be ‘screened’ to be given the chance to live.”
During Thursday’s floor debate, Sen. Joyce Krawiec said that “she considers allowing abortions to take place for any of the three reasons cited in the bill as ‘eugenics in its worst form,’” according to Klaver. “”Nothing could be more stigmatizing than … for anyone to lose their life because of their race, or because of their disability.”
The eugenics implication of such abortions is patently obvious, which is why opponents did their best to change the subject to something else—anything else. After all, Claver noted, eugenics is a very sensitive topic in North Carolina.
“The state ran one of the most aggressive sterilization programs in the country from 1929 through 1974, rendering barren more than 7,600 men, women and children on often flimsy evidence that they were mentally or physically unfit to reproduce,” he wrote.
In April 2013, a poll taken by The Polling Company found that 85% of respondents supported banning sex-selection abortions. “Currently seventeen (17) states have enacted laws protecting unborn children from discrimination based on their sex, race, and/or disability,” according to NRLC’s Department of State Legislation.