In the nearly 20 years I have been doing pro-life work for Nebraska’s bishops, I don’t ever recall the Legislature adopting two pro-life bills in one year. Undoubtedly, the absence of Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filibustered every pro-life bill, was a major factor in making this unique accomplishment possible.
What makes this accomplishment even more remarkable is that these two substantive pro-life bills went through three rounds of debate within the last 13 days of a 60-day session and were adopted with lopsided votes of 40-9 and 44-5. Furthermore, I really thought I was in the twilight zone when I read a recent Lincoln Journal Star editorial that was favorable toward LB 1103, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
As a lobbyist for the Catholic Bishops, I was most involved with LB 594, the Women’s Health Protection Act. This new law requires that before abortions can be performed, women must be evaluated for evidence of coercion and for a variety of risk factors that place them at higher risk for post-abortion complications.
According to post-abortion researcher David Reardon of the Elliot Institute, who developed this legislation, “in hundreds of cases each day, known risk factors for physical and psychological complications are not being detected because of negligent pre-abortion screening.” As a result, “women are suffering from complications that may have been prevented or minimized if the proper pre-abortion screening standards had been met.”
Even abortion advocates and researchers, as well as the pro-abortion American Psychological Association, have publicly acknowledged the existence of several risk factors that research indicates are predictors of post-abortion complications. These include a history of mental health problems, pressure or coercion to abort, strong religious convictions against abortion, low self-esteem, lack of parental or partner support, and ambivalence about the abortion decision.
This new law better protects women from undergoing coerced abortions, which is a major risk factor for severe post-abortion psychological problems. It clarifies in statute the duty of abortionists to screen for all risk factors that are known to place women at higher risk of abortion complications.
And this law helps ensure that women are given not only general information about abortion risks, but also specific information most relevant to individual women according to their own unique risk factors.
LB 1103, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of gestation with narrow exceptions. This legislation was drafted by National and Nebraska Right to Life with input from its Legislative sponsor Speaker Mike Flood.
As the name of this new law indicates, the 20-week cutoff is based on the reality (substantiated with credible research) that an unborn child is capable of feeling pain by 20 weeks after fertilization. Therefore, by adopting this new law, our Legislature is asserting that the state of Nebraska has a compelling interest in protecting post-20 week babies from abortion because they can feel pain.
Sen. Cap Dierks (Ewing) and Sen. Mike Flood (Norfolk) deserve enormous credit (and our thanks) for introducing and prioritizing LB 594 and LB 1103 respectively. It’s also important to thank those senators who voted for these bills and to express disappointment to those who voted against them. A report indicating how senators voted on both bills can be obtained online at www.nebcathcon.org or from my office.
It is likely that the abortion industry will pursue legal challenges to both bills. LB 594, however, will be more difficult to challenge because it does not impose a criminal penalty. Please pray that these bills will survive any legal challenge and will save many women and their babies from the evil of abortion.
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