OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, March 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill outlawing the killing of unborn children after 20 weeks gestation, an age at which some experts say they can begin to experience pain, has now been cleared by an Oklahoma Senate panel for a vote by the full chamber.
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee approved the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” (HB 1888) by a 6 – 1 vote on Monday. The measure is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) and in the House by Rep. Pam Peterson (R-Tulsa).
The measure has already passed in the state House of Representatives with broad bipartisan pro-life support.
HB 1888 allows abortion post 20-weeks fertilization only if there are substantial risks to the life of the mother or risk of her irreversible physical impairment.
However, the law also specifies that an abortionist ending a pregnancy after 20 weeks gestation must actually try to induce delivery and deliver the unborn baby in a way that gives the child the best opportunity to survive outside the womb. If he cannot do this, the abortionist must certify that delivery would “pose a greater risk either of the death of the pregnant woman or of the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function” than abortion. Reasons to abort cannot include “psychological or emotional conditions of the woman.”
Abortionists found violating the law’s requirements would face felony prosecution. As well, either the mother or the father of the unborn child could file a civil action against an abortionist violating the law.
The woman who procured an abortion illegally would not face any penalties.
“We don’t want a child to feel pain as their life is being taken away from them,” Sen. Jolley explained to the Tulsa World newspaper, in speaking about the measure which represents the biggest rollback of abortion since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.
Jolley also explained that the bill did not have exceptions for fetal deformity because that would mean that a disabled unborn child would have no chance of survival.
Tony Lauinger, chairman of Oklahomans for Life, agreed. “If it is going to die, then it is going to die. There is no reason for us to kill the baby.”
Last year, Nebraska became the first U.S. State to approve a ban based on fetal pain. The bill went into effect in October 2010 without any legal challenge from abortion advocates, despite public objections that the ban infringed on the constitutional “right” to abortion established by the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
Legislatures in at least nine more states are considering similar legislation: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon.