"Fetal pain" anti-abortion laws spur fierce debateAccording to Danielle Deaver, her crisis had 'nothing to do with abortion whatsoever', yet she wanted the doctor to help her end the pregnancy. Is that not abortion? Of course it is. This story has everything to do with abortion. The many interviews she's had since Elizabeth died are telling. Prochoicers, and Danielle Deaver, are using Elizabeths death to fulfil their agenda of 'abortion on demand', that means any time, for any reason.
Reuters - Danielle Deaver says she did not want a late-term abortion -- she wanted a baby.
But when the Nebraska woman lost most of her amniotic fluid at 22 weeks last November, she was told the baby girl would likely die outside the womb with undeveloped lungs, and that the fetus could be slowly crushed by the uterine walls.
Deaver asked that labor be induced, so that whatever happened would happen quickly. But doctors could not do it because of a new law that bans abortions after 20 weeks, based on research suggesting this is when fetuses feel pain.
Deaver went home, worrying that every time she felt movement, it was because the baby was suffering. Deaver went into labor after ten days. Baby Elizabeth died in her mother's arms after 15 minutes.
Deaver's crisis illustrates the complexity of the debate over "fetal pain" abortion bans being proposed in 16 states -- a push that has ignited powerful emotions on both sides.
"This pregnancy was planned and wanted," said Deaver, 34, a married nurse with one other child. "This had nothing to do with abortion whatsoever, and we were affected by an abortion law."
The bills, promoted by the National Right to Life Committee copy the Nebraska law, which passed last year. Similar fetal pain bills have passed both legislative chambers in Kansas, Oklahoma and Idaho. Laws also have passed through one legislative chamber in Indiana and Iowa.
The bills make exceptions if the mother's life is at risk, or if she faces risk of a substantial, irreversible medical injury, according to Mary Spaulding Balch, director of the department of state legislation of the Right to Life Committee.
"This is a bill that recognizes the inherent right to life of a child that is capable of feeling pain," said Balch. "It is an acknowledgment that this unborn child is a member of the human family and deserves the same rights as any other member of the human family."
Balch said the bills do not make exceptions for a fetus like Deaver's that may have problems. "You don't kill someone to alleviate his suffering," Balch said. "You try to address his suffering."
Iowa State Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa, a Republican who supports a 20-week ban that passed the House last week, agreed that there are "hard situations" like Deaver's but that doesn't mean an abortion after 20 weeks should be allowed.
"We do not allow euthanasia of someone who may be dying or is infirm simply to allow them to die sooner," Hanusa said.
Iowa State Rep. Sharon Steckman, who voted against the proposed Iowa bill, said a pregnant woman would have to be "pretty much at death's door" in order to qualify for an exception.
PAIN RESEARCH
Medical opinion about when fetuses feel pain is conflicted. The position of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is that there is "no legitimate scientific information that supports the statement that a fetus experiences pain."
Most prochoicers wouldn't abort a pregnancy at 22 weeks, and a lot of them wouldn't abort at all, but the flip side of the coin is that they wouldn't stand in the way of any woman exercising that "choice".
Abortion is legal in most states up to 24 weeks, for any reason.
Due to modern medical technology, babies are being born severely premature, but are overcoming the many obstacles they face. Fetal pain abortion laws give those babies a chance at life. Isn't it time we did too? Support fetal pain laws in your state. Babies lives are depending on us.
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