DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Action Needed! Iowa Fetal Pain Bill Debate & Vote Expected This Week

Written by Operation Rescue
Posted May 1, 2011 at 9:51 am

Link below will send your urgent e-mail to every Iowa Senator at once – even if you do not live in Iowa

Des Moines, IA – Iowa State Senators are set to employ a political maneuver that will send the stalled — but urgently needed — Fetal Pain Bill to the floor for debate next week. Senators plan to file a petition signed by the majority of members that will force a floor debate on HF 657 on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The legislation, which would ban late-term abortions after 20 weeks when pre-born babies can feel pain, passed easily in the House in March then stalled out in the Democrat-controlled Senate Government Oversight Committee, which says it has no intention moving on the bill.

The action to by-pass the committee and move the bill to the floor took place one day after Iowa Right to Life and Operation Rescue held a joint press conference at the Iowa Capitol, and two days after a local paper took the Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal to task for blocking progress on the Fetal Pain bill.

Late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has announced plans to open a late-term abortion clinic in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the next few months, but the community, including the mayor and even the local liberal paper oppose the clinic. Gronstal represents Council Bluffs and is fielding a flood of criticism from his home district where many are accusing him of ignoring the interests of his constituents.

The vast majority of Americans oppose late-term abortions, even many of those who identify themselves as “pro-choice.” There has been widespread opposition to Carhart’s late-term abortion expansion plans in Iowa and four other states, including the following:

• Kansas: Operation Rescue helped block Carhart’s plans to open a late-term abortion clinic “within 25 miles of Wichita” and launched a petition that resulted in a local hospital promising the community that it would not allow Carhart privileges there. Earlier this month, the Legislature passed a Fetal Pain 20-week abortion ban and strict clinic regulations, which will prevent Carhart from ever returning his abortion business to Kansas.
• Nebraska: Last year, Nebraska, Carhart’s home state, passed the first late-term abortion ban based on fetal pain. This drove Carhart’s late-term abortion business from that state.
• Maryland: Carhart hired on at Germantown Reproductive Health Services in Germantown, Maryland, and began doing late-term abortions there. Discrepancies were found in Carhart’s Maryland medical license application and a complaint was filed by an Operation Rescue staff member that has resulted in a full investigation into Carhart’s abortion practices by the Maryland Board of Physicians that could result in the loss of his license in that state.
• Indiana: Last week, Indiana’s Legislature passed a version of the fetal pain-based late-term abortion ban that will prevent Carhart from expanding his existing abortion business on viable babies in that state, as he has threatened to do.
• A total of 17 states: In the last year, late-term abortion bans, most based on fetal pain, have been introduced in 17 states. Currently, four states have signed them into law, with more expected to pass by the end of the current legislative session.

Iowa remains Carhart’s only back-up plan in the event his Maryland license is revoked. His web site confirms this with a “SW Iowa” tab that indicates that clinic is “Coming Soon!”

“There is a real sense of urgency with this Iowa Fetal Pain bill because so many lives are at stake. The overwhelming majority of the people in the community don’t want a late-term abortion clinic, the mayor doesn’t want it, the Iowa House doesn’t want it, and the governor of Iowa doesn’t want it and has promised to sign the bill if passed,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue who spoke in Des Moines on Wednesday for a press conference in support of the bill.

“Now we need to let these Senators know that the nation is watching them. Iowa needs to stand up, represent the will of the vast majority of citizens, and pass protections for women and their pre-born babies that can feel the pain of abortion. Waiting until next year on this urgent bill could be too late. The last thing Iowa needs or wants is to become the Late-term Abortion Capital.”

To do nothing on this bill is to place a stamp of approval on heinous late-term abortions and knowingly place women at risk from this dangerous procedure that has cost the lives of women, including Christin Gilbert, who died from a botched third-trimester abortion done by LeRoy Carhart in 2005.

Because of this eminent danger, the Iowa Fetal Pain bill (HF 657) deserves an up or down vote.

Take action to protect life!

Even if you do not live in Iowa, please let your voice be heard. If this bill does not pass, it could affectyou and your loved ones as the doors will be open for LeRoy Carhart to make Iowa the next late-term Abortion Capital of the Nation, soliciting women for dangerous abortions from every state.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and the rest of the Iowa Senate urgently need to hear from you! Ask them to allow floor debate and an up or down vote on HF 657, the Fetal Pain bill.

Contact Sen. Gronstal specifically:

Legislative Email: mike.gronstal@legis.state.ia.us
Home Phone: 712.328.2808