By Terry Vanderheyden
HONOLULU, April 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hawaii legislators have passed a law that would enshrine the “right” to abortion in the hopes that it will prevent a future challenge to legal abortion.
The addition of two new conservatives to the US Supreme Court, combined with South Dakota’s successful passage of an abortion ban has spurned lawmakers there to pass Bill 1242, which went to the governor for approval Tuesday. Adding the provision would make it more difficult for a court challenge in the island state – even if it were successfully challenged federally, lawmakers argued.
The same bill eliminates the mandatory 90-day residency requirement before abortion, and allows abortion as an in-office medical procedure. The proposal prompted one commentator to dub the island state as the “baby killing center of the Pacific.”
Republican Sen. Sam Slom added that the new law “would make Hawaii the abortion capital of the world. We are known for sewage in our ocean. What other negative thing could we be known for,” he said, according to thehawaiichannel.com.
The law also eliminates provisions that ban late-term abortion, according to Republican Sen. Paul Whalen. The law allows “abortions to occur in doctors’ offices and clinics all the way to birth; as late an abortion as you want,” he said. Planned Parenthood Hawaii spokesman Annelle Amaral denied that the law would expand the late-term prohibition, which she said would still be illegal.
Gov. Linda Lingle has 10 days to veto the law. Her past strong support for abortion has commentators suggesting she will not resist the measure.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Hawaii to Become “Baby Killing Center of Pacific”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030901.html