News

AUSTIN, Texas, May 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following is a list of recent pro-life legislative gains on the state level:

Alabama: The state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would prohibit abortion coverage within any health insurance package offered in the upcoming state-run health insurance exchange, due for implementation in 2014 under President Obama’s health care law.

The bill, SB 202, made Alabama the latest of several states to reject taxpayer funding for abortion under the plan, after Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia. Alabama senators also passed a measure prohibiting abortion coverage in any basic health insurance plan sold in the state. (Associated Press)

Nebraska: Lawmakers in the Cornhusker State on Monday advanced a bill that guards against forced abortions, and implements a parental consent requirement. LB690 requires the notarized consent of both the abortion-bound mother and at least one parent or legal guardian.

New Hampshire: State senators in New Hampshire will vote Wednesday on a parental notification requirement that would need to be fulfilled before a minor gets an abortion. The previous parental notification law had been repealed by a Democrat-led Congress in 2007. (Associated Press)

Tennessee: A major breakthrough for pro-life advocates in the Volunteer State arrived Friday, when lawmakers gave final approval to a measure allowing voters to decide on a state constitutional amendment confirming that abortion is not a right.

The bill, SJR 127, is a reaction against a 2000 state Supreme Court opinion stating that Tennessee’s Constitution contained a stronger right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution, and ruling out several legal protections for the unborn as illegal.

The referendum will read: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.” (Times Free Press)

Texas: The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday voted to ban taxpayer funding for clinics and hospitals that perform abortions or provide abortion-related services. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, however, Planned Parenthood of North Texas is a legally separate entity from its abortion arm, Planned Parenthood Surgical Health Services of North Texas, which does not receive government funding.

The abortion-defunding language, part of a bill to revamp Medicaid costs, has yet to be approved by the state Senate.

On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the state’s new sonogram bill in a public ceremony, affirming, “Texas is a state that respects and defends life.” Lamenting the tens of thousands of abortions in Texas each year, Perry said, “Every one of these lives lost is a tragedy.”