A bill that passed committee and is heading to the House that has yet to reach public attention, but I predict will be the major story next month, is H.R.1797, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Here are the basic tenets of the bill.
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act - Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit any person from performing or attempting to perform an abortion except in conformity with this Act's requirements. Requires the physician to first determine the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child, or reasonably rely upon such a determination made by another physician, by making inquiries of the pregnant woman and performing such medical examinations and tests as a reasonably prudent physician would consider necessary.
Prohibits the abortion from being performed if the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child is 20 weeks or greater, except: (1) where necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury, excluding psychological or emotional conditions; or (2) where the pregnancy is the result of rape, or the result of incest against a minor, if the rape has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency, or if the incest has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency or to a government agency legally authorized to act on reports of child abuse or neglect.
Twenty weeks....seems reasonable to me. I'm pro-choice and it seems
excessive to me. 5 months to be tested and determine if you are pregnant. 5 months to determine if you have a living human being developing in your body. Long enough to detect......but more importantly, long enough to go from the "potential for life" status to human life itself....capable of feeling pain, capable of being called "viable" by any standards (as much as I hate that term).
You do not have to pro-life to be for this bill. You don't have to be a Republican, be labeled conservative or be God fearing to be for this bill. All you have to be is a human being capable of empathy and respectful for others and capable of rational thought.
Twenty weeks is where they want to draw a line in the sand? Fine. Anything after 5 months is a reasonable definition for late term abortions and should be considered repugnant if not out and out murder.
This bill has all the exemptions pro-choicer insist on...incest, the mother's health, rape and child abuse. This is not...repeat not....the opening salvo to the overturning of Roe v. Wade (the current talking point for liberals). This is a common sense approach to an age old debate....when do you go from the respect for a mother's body, to respect for a viable fetuses body.
Twenty weeks? Sounds more than reasonable to me. Sounds like a bill that should be passed on a bi-partisan basis....given that the voters have half a heart, half a brain and the ability to vote their conscience. I recommend its passage in both Congressional bodies. It is appropriately named in my opinion..the
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It is a human response that neither infringes greatly on a woman's right to choose, or sets unreasonable boundaries or expectations on the birth mother or health care provider. It is the response of what we are, or should be....a highly evolved species with the respect for human life.
And that's the world...the "World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading...and thinking.
