Nebraska Protects Some Children in the Womb from the Pain Caused by Abortion

'Until now, our laws have shown greater concern for laboratory animals and cattle that are slaughtered than for babies in the womb. With the Abortion Pain Prevention Act, Nebraska is beginning to change this. Every state should look to do the same,' said Fr. Frank Pavone.

LINCOLN, NE (Catholic Online) - On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, Governor Dave Heineman signed the "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" (LB 1103), into law in the State of Nebraska. It passed that State's legislature by a vote of 44 in favor and 5 against. In effect, it prevents the killing of children in the womb older than 20 weeks through procured abortion. The reason given for allowing this further restriction on abortion is the pain experienced by the child as it is being dismembered, burned or suctioned to death. Oh, I know, some reading this article will recoil over such a frank description of what occurs during an abortion. However, the methods of killing the child are what they are. No amount of Orwellian "newspeak" can change the truth. The debate over the degree of pain experienced by the child in the womb during abortion - and when it begins - has been a subject of controversy. However, it is clear that the child does indeed experience pain much earlier on than some had argued. This also has implications on another important front. Increasingly, surgeons' are operating on these children in the womb at ever earlier stages of life. 4D sonogram technology has given us a window into the womb. It has confirmed the objective truth that the child within every womb is our neighbor. This technology is one of the reasons a growing number of mothers considering abortion are now changing their minds. We all now it is wrong to kill our innocent neighbor. We are without excuse for protecting such barbarism with the Police Power of the State. Surgeons true to their oath to do no harm now use this technology to help them operate on these little girls and boys while they are growing in the first home of their mother's womb. Yet, others use the same technology to assist them in killing them.

Fr. Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life commented on the passage of this legislation: "Until now, our laws have shown greater concern for laboratory animals and cattle that are slaughtered than for babies in the womb. With the Abortion Pain Prevention Act, Nebraska is beginning to change this. Every state should look to do the same." His response was in stark contrast to that of Nancy Northrup, the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights. This advocacy organization opposes the Right to Life and defends abortion on demand. They claim to be "a global human rights organization that uses constitutional and international law to secure women's reproductive freedom." They champion a profane view of freedom which allows someone with more power to reach within the first sanctuary and kill our littlest neighbors, violating their Right to Life. Ms. Northrup proudly proclaims on her organization's website "I look forward to a time when a woman's right to control her reproductive life is secured as a fundamental human right, which cannot be denied in the name of religion, culture, or politics." She does not like the Nebraska law. She told the New York Times "If some of these other anti-abortion bills have been chipping away at Roe v. Wade, this takes an ax to it." To which this writer says, "Lay the axe to the tree." Since the horrid opinions of Roe and Doe, the positive law of the United States has protected the killing of children by abortion as some kind of "Super Right". Relying on an errant recounting of history, references to junk science (now clearly contradicted) and a legal fiction called the "penumbra" of the 14th amendment to the Constitution, the Court rejected the preeminent Natural Law Right to Life as enunciated by the American founders. In its place it constructed a concept of "privacy" which protects the killing of the innocent child in the womb with the Police Power of the State. This Nebraska legislation is viewed by many within the true Human Rights movement, the Pro-Life movement, as a much needed backdrop for a legal challenge to Roe and Doe. Julie Schmit-Albin is the Executive Director of Nebraska Right to Life. She commented on the day of passage and signing "The Nebraska Legislature took a bold step today which should ratchet up the abortion debate across America. LB 1103 creates a case of first impression for the courts to acknowledge the capability to feel pain as a compelling state interest to protect those unborn babies from an excruciatingly painful death."

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