The pro-life community around the country is celebrating as Nebraska’s revolutionary and hopefully trendsetting bill went into effect on Oct. 15. Preborn children 20 weeks and older will now be protected as “The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” takes effect. This bill acknowledges the scientific fact that preborn children, as young as 20 weeks, feel pain and will respond to stimuli in ways similar to an already born infant.
The language of the bill bans abortion after 20 weeks gestation except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function…”
As the bill is written women who obtain an abortion would face no criminal penalties, but abortionists who break the law would face a Class IV felony charge—a five year maximum prison sentence, a $10,000 fine, or both.
We’re waiting to see if the pro-abortion lobby will challenge the bill. Experts speculate that pro-abortion advocates may be reluctant to draw attention to this piece of legislation because they may not want a national dialogue on fetal pain nor would they want to run the risk that a challenge like this would advance through the court system. Newsweek magazine acknowledged that this new legislation is a “game changer” for the national abortion debate.
United Families International congratulates Nebraska on crafting this historic piece of legislation that is quite unassailable and has rightfully returned the focus of the abortion debate to the condition and needs of each preborn child. We recommit to the ongoing effort to pass similar legislation in other states.
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