The movement to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is picking up momentum. Ohio passed its version–SB 127–last month, raising to 15 the number of states that ban abortions performed on pain-capable unborn children. This week Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed his state’s bill, increasing the number to 16.
Over the weekend, Florida newspapers reported that two Sarasota legislators filed HB 203, the Florida Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
“I just can’t imagine a baby having to feel pain and going through this,” Sarasota state Rep. Joe Gruters, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sarasota state Sen. Greg Steube, told Zac Anderson, political editor for the Gainesville Sun. “This is an issue that I feel passionately about.”
The first Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed in Nebraska in 2010. Since that time, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have passed this important pro-life measure, based on model legislation provided by National Right to Life.
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According to the Miami New Times, the bill counters the notion that the unborn child is not capable of experiencing pain by the 20th week.
The “assertion of some medical experts that an unborn child remains in a coma-like sleep state that precludes it from experiencing pain is inconsistent with the documented reaction of unborn children to painful stimuli and with the experience of fetal surgeons who have found it necessary to sedate an unborn child with anesthesia to prevent it from thrashing about in reaction to invasive surgery.”
The bill has widespread public support. A poll taken election day by The polling company, inc./WomanTrend found almost two-thirds support for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Sixty-four percent were in favor to only 28% who were opposed.
The House of Representatives passed the measure on May 13, 2015, by a vote of 242-184. However pro-abortion Democrats stymied the bill in the Senate.
Among his commitments to pro-lifers, pro-life President-elect Donald Trump has promised to sign the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
