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Nebraska enacts two laws limiting abortions
CHICAGO |
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nebraska's governor on Tuesday signed into law two anti-abortion measures that proponents say protects women and their viable fetuses but opponents charge are aimed at halting abortions altogether.
One measure requires doctors to screen extensively women seeking abortion, taking into account the latest scientific literature that weigh factors such as a mother's physical and mental health.
The other state law bars abortions after 20 weeks gestation on grounds the "unborn child can be capable of feeling pain," Republican Governor Dave Heineman said in signing the measure.
Either law could face constitutional challenges that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority.
"There are strong grounds to believe that five members of the current U.S. Supreme Court would give serious consideration to Nebraska's assertion of a compelling state interest in preserving the life of an unborn child whom substantial medical evidence indicates is capable of feeling pain during an abortion," Mary Balch of National Right to Life said in a statement.
Kyle Carlson, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said the group will consider its options but will continue to provide abortion services.
He said the screening law appeared to be vague and a "moving target" that could be challenged legally as it requires doctors to ask clients about "any risk factor identified in any peer-reviewed (scientific) journal in the previous 12 months."
He said the law banning abortions after 20 weeks gestation would not affect Planned Parenthood because the group does not perform abortions after 20 weeks.
"The general principle behind both bills is the same," Carlson added. "It is to try to intimidate women out of believing they have a choice they can make about their reproductive health."
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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If some drug crazed individual, carrying every conceivable transmitable disease rapes a woman, and she becomes pregnant with a defective fetus that will cost millions to keep alive with no real quality of life expectation, then she has to bear the child?
Or, the same scenario but of incest?
How do we know what pain means to an embryo?
Now I know one who is faithful has faith that one has the knowledge of the existence of ones God, but can science identify when an individual life begins?
First we must define what “alive” is and how much it means to be alive. We are creatures of our senses. If we have no senses to perceive the world, are we alive? If we have never perceived a word with our ears, eyes or fingers, what language do we think in?
The questions can go on forever………The philosophical conversation is not for the lazy or ideological.
The oppressive excessively religious or ideological, will always be able to challenge opposing philosophical standpoints, simply by giving ID a new name or finding in religious documents contradictions to the teachings of science. You name it, they can challenge it!! The inveterate of our society, like religion, come in vicissitudes marked by generations; therefore philosophical changes in society usually happen over centuries.
Do Republicans think life begins at conception but ends at birth?
The deep hypocrisy that I find with the so called “right to lifers” is that, where were they when we went and killed tens of thousands of already alive humans in Iraq in the last 5 years, who by the way, had absolutely nothing to do with those terrorists who perpetrated 9/11?
I do not think philosophical grounds are enough to remove the right of women to make their own choice about such issues…..
and furthermore…..
Are we willing as voters, to support the social systems necessary to avoid abortions within society; i.e. education, healthcare, ending poverty?
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