The pro-life movement is making strides in several state legislatures by declaring that unborn children are persons who deserve legal protection. One such bill overwhelmingly passed North Dakota's House of Representatives, and bills are pending in Iowa, Texas, and Oklahoma.
The law in North Dakota, which passed the state's House 68-25, refined North Dakota's criminal code and defines human being as"an individual member of the species homo sapiens at every stage of development." It would ban all abortions in the state.
Lifenews.com quoted State Rep. Dan Ruby:
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"The overwhelming community and legislative support for HB 1450 proves that North Dakota could be the first state to recognize the value and dignity of every living human being," stated Representative Dan Ruby. "The Defense of Human Life Act is just common sense. Of course every human being is a person, and every innocent person should receive legal protection. I am motivated to see women and children protected by HB 1450, and I look forward to its passage in the Senate in the near future."
The bill contains exceptions for medical treatments that may result in the death of an unborn child, and allows the prescription of emergency contraceptives — megadoses of birth control pills — if they prescribed before a woman is determined to be pregnant.
Supporters hope the bill shuts down North Dakota's only abortion clinic.
Lifenews.com correctly predicts the bill will fail a constitutional challenge. Murdering the unborn became a legal right (based on the Constitution's "due process clause") in all 50 states with the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. The justices decided abortion was legal after Norma McCorvey and her lawyers fabricated a rape story to elicit sympathy from the court system. McCorvey is now a pro-lifer.
Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana
A three-man subcommittee in the Iowa House of Representatives passed a similar bill that defines life as beginning at the moment of conception. And it takes appellate jurisdiction over the provisions of the law away from the state's Supreme Court:
The sovereign state of Iowa recognizes that life is valued and protected from the moment of conception, and each life, from that moment, is accorded the same rights and protections guaranteed to all persons by the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and the laws of this state. The Iowa Supreme Court shall not have appellate jurisdiction over the provisions of this section.
Lifenews.com predicts the bill will fail on the floor of the Iowa House.
HB1109, introduced in the Texas House, does likewise. The text of the bill reads thusly:
The life of an individual human organism begins at the moment that the initial splitting of a human cell occurs during fertilization… . An unborn human organism is alive and is entitled to the rights, protections, and privileges accorded to any other person in this state.
Montanans are also considering such a law.
Even if such measures pass, however, the pro-abortion movement will file lawsuits to strike them down.
