National Ban on Late-Term Abortions Being Pushed
Americans were shocked at the murders of innocent babies and other crimes of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. They’re glad he’s going to prison and won’t ever be able to kill another baby, inside or outside the womb.
But if you think that ends the atrocities, think again.
The tragic reality is that there may be other Gosnells in your own state or community. History tells us wherever late abortions occur, there’s a heightened risk of the killing or neglect of babies born alive, and of medical dangers to their mothers.
• For example, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recently called for an investigation of multiple allegations that Houston abortionist Douglas Karpen delivered live babies during late abortions and killed them by twisting their heads off their little necks.
• LeRoy Carhart, who sued in the U.S. Supreme Court for his “right” to commit partial-birth abortions (now illegal), moved his late abortion practice from Nebraska to Maryland, a state where he can perform late abortions with impunity. A patient of his recently died after requiring emergency treatment at a nearby hospital, and according to a new undercover video tape by the group Live Action, Carhart describes how a baby he aborts softens like “meat in a Crock-Pot.”
• Gosnell didn’t just do abortions at his Philadelphia facility; he also worked at an abortion clinic in Delaware. There, abortionists Albert Dworkin and Arturo Apolinario had their licenses temporarily suspended, and Apolinario is reportedly charged with a crime similar to what first brought Gosnell to the attention of federal authorities – illegally prescribing drugs.
• James Pendergraft is known to Floridians and Virginians for a long and sordid history, including a criminal conviction and having his medical license suspended in Florida four times. But he reportedly has kept his abortion clinics operating by hiring other abortionists to continue performing late abortions. He lost a court decision in 2011 in which a jury awarded $36.7 million for injuries in an abortion in which a baby girl was born alive, but has suffered life-long handicaps. Lifesitenews reported that a witness to the trial said a clinic staffer “cavalierly stated that yes, babies were delivered into the toilet all the time and many times are still alive, wiggling around in the toilet.”
This list goes on and on. It’s time it stopped!
National Right to Life has helped create and pass effective laws in nine states that stop the abuse of elective late abortions. The laws are called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and they ban elective abortions at the stage when compelling medical evidence shows an unborn baby can feel pain.
When our law was passed in its first state, Nebraska, it stopped LeRoy Carhart from doing late abortions there. But tragically, he simply packed up his deadly instruments and began performing abortions in another state.
The lesson is these late abortions won’t end until we outlaw them everywhere!
That’s why we are so excited to announce that U.S. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is authoring a bill that will ban these abortions nationwide when a baby is capable of feeling pain, generally said to be before 20 weeks in the womb. The first hearing on what will become the nationwide Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 1797) will be held Thursday, May 23rd at 10:00 a.m.in the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. Please help support this law.
Carol Tobias, National Right to Life