Thursday November 18, 2010
National pro-life group urges more bills to stop late-term abortionists
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the wake of massive pro-life gains on November 2, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is calling on State legislatures to mimic the Nebraska law that forced notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart to shut down his Nebraska facility.
Carhart was forced to go elsewhere to continue his abortion business after the Nebraska legislature passed Legislative Bill 103 (L.B. 103), which bans abortions over 20 weeks post-conception, based on the fact that science has definitively proven a child is capable of feeling pain at that age.
Carhart, who relies on late-term abortions for the bulk of his business, announced last week that he is looking to set up new facilities in Iowa and Maryland, with a third in Indiana providing only early term abortions. He specifically mentioned that he had to leave because of the new law.
“This sort of forced us. We had to do it,” Carhart told the Omaha World Herald. “In Iowa and Maryland, we can do the later cases.”
NRLC’s Director of State Legislation Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D. said today that other states should adopt similar laws to L.B. 103 to bring an end to late-term abortions. “Nebraska’s groundbreaking law protecting pain-capable unborn children is an example for other states in the nation.”
“LeRoy Carhart’s hopscotching around the nation to find areas that allow abortion for any reason, at any time, underscores the need for other states to pass similar legislation to put Carhart and the hundreds of other abortionists who perform abortions late in pregnancy out of business.”
NRLC said it is planning on holding a State Legislative Strategy Conference on December 7 to plan how best to capitalize on pro-life gains made in state legislative and gubernatorial elections. The conference will concentrate on a model bill based on Nebraska’s L.B. 103.