{"id":29633,"date":"2017-10-05T05:45:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T09:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=29633"},"modified":"2017-10-04T19:03:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T23:03:28","slug":"house-passes-abortion-ban-after-20-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/10\/house-passes-abortion-ban-after-20-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"House Passes Bill Banning Abortion After 20 Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"113th_Congress_Official_Photo_of_Rep._Tim_Murphy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The House of\u00a0 Representatives passed a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.<\/a>\u00a0 That is the point after which, according to scientists, the unborn child can feel pain, including the pain of being aborted.<\/p>\n

The House passed the\u00a0Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on a mostly-party-line vote of\u00a0237 to 189.\u00a0 The House had passed similar bills in 2013 and 2015, but they failed to make it through the Senate and faced a certain veto from President Obama.<\/p>\n

\n

This time, though, President Trump has said that he supports the bill.\u00a0 But getting it through the Senate, even though it is now controlled by ostensibly pro-life Republicans, may still be a problem.\u00a0 Asked if the Senate would take up the bill, Republican whip John Cornyn (R-Tx) said<\/a>,\u201dThat\u2019s not a near-term priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixty percent of the public supports\u00a0this limitation on abortion.\u00a0 The bill allows for exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.\u00a0 For more details, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is restricting abortion after 20 weeks sufficient?\u00a0 No.\u00a0\u00a0The evil of killing an unborn child is monstrous no matter how far he or she has developed.<\/p>\n

But this restriction implicitly acknowledges the humanity of the \u201cfetus\u201d\u00a0 and sets a precedent in recognizing his or her interests.<\/p>\n

The editorial\u00a0An Advance on Abortion in National Review<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>urges the Senate to pass the bill.\u00a0 It observes that other countries, including those more liberal than our own, forbid abortion after even earlier stages of development.\u00a0 Sweden forbids abortion after 18 weeks.\u00a0 In France, it is nearly impossible to get an abortion after 12 weeks.\u00a0 Germany too forbids abortion after 12 weeks, requiring also\u00a0mandatory\u00a0abortion counseling.<\/p>\n

Roe v. Wade and subsequent court rulings <\/a>have allowed restrictions on abortion after \u201cviability\u201d\u2013that is, the baby\u2019s ability to survive outside the mother, even if he or she requires the help of medical devices.\u00a0 Most states do not allow abortion after viability, though the definition of that varies.\u00a0 (Seven states and the District of Columbia permit abortion even after viability.\u00a0 Those are Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska.\u00a0 See this summary of state laws<\/a>.)\u00a0 But viability keeps getting pushed back as medical technology improves, so that a child may live outside the womb as early as 23 weeks.<\/p>\n

So using the capability of feeling pain, rather than viability, might not get through the courts.\u00a0 But President Trump has appointed lots of conservative jurists to the courts, including Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch.<\/p>\n

Passing this bill, for all its limitations,\u00a0 is surely worth the try.\u00a0 This will certainly be a test of how sincerely\u00a0Republican Senators believe in the pro-life cause.\u00a0 How common is the hypocrisy of Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), <\/a>who presents himself as pro-life and is one of the sponsors of this bill,<\/a>\u00a0who nevertheless tried to pressure his mistress into getting an abortion?<\/p>\n

As the National Review editorial says, \u201cA 20-week limit would represent the most meaningful federal restriction on abortion since\u00a0Roe v. Wade\u2014 indeed, the inevitable legal challenge to the law might very well provide the Supreme Court with the opportunity to revisit that grievously ill-considered and constitutionally groundless decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo of Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) by Timmurphy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House of\u00a0 Representatives passed a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.\u00a0 That is the point after which, according to scientists, the unborn child can feel pain, including the pain of being aborted. The House passed the\u00a0Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on a mostly-party-line vote of\u00a0237 to 189.\u00a0 The House had passed similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":29637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26,27],"tags":[74,5798,5800,5799,1913],"class_list":["post-29633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-law","category-life-issues","tag-abortion-restrictions","tag-pain-capable-unborn-child-protection-act","tag-rep-tim-murphy","tag-republican-senate","tag-roe-v-wade"],"yoast_head":"\nHouse Passes Bill Banning Abortion After 20 Weeks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The House has passed a bill that bans abortion after 20 weeks. The President would sign the bill. 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