Arkansas Adopts a Ban on Abortions After 12 Weeks
Last edited Wed Mar 6, 2013, 11:07 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: NYT
Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion on Wednesday — at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound.
The law, the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, was passed by the newly Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, who called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” The State Senate voted Tuesday to override his veto and the House followed suit on Wednesday, with several Democrats joining the Republican majority.
The law contradicts the limit established by Supreme Court decisions, which give women a right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into pregnancy, and abortion rights groups promised a quick lawsuit to block it. Even some anti-abortion leaders called the measure a futile gesture.
Adoption of the law, called the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, is the first statewide victory for a restless emerging faction within the anti-abortion movement that has lost patience with the incremental whittling away at abortion rights — a strategy used by groups like National Right to Life and the Catholic Church while they wait for a more sympathetic Supreme Court.
“When is enough enough?” asked the bill’s sponsor in the legislature, Senator Jason Rapert, a Republican, who compared the more than 50 million abortions in the United States since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. “It’s time to take a stand.”
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/us/arkansas-adopts-restrictive-abortion-law.html?pagewanted=all
You'd hardly think this is the state where Bill Clinton served as governor and 8 of the last 10 governors were Democrats. I wonder if he has the guts to speak out against the law.
It may be offensive when people like Ted Nugent go off with fantasies about the South rising again, but when you see state legislatures in the South pass laws like this--Texas now wants a similar law--do you ever feel "hey, they should go ahead and pack up!"
Other states trying to evade Roe v. Wade:
- The one clinic in Mississippi that provides abortions may lose its license. The state governor openly bragged about wanting to shut it down...a la Mitch McConnell's "The single most important thing...is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Oh, Gov. Phil Bryant also supports a similar law to the one in AR.
- In 2011, Alabama Gov. Robert Benley signed a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks.
- Bob McDonnell, the governor of Virginia infamous for supporting the "transvaginal ultrasound" bill, signed a bill this year that's a TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers): "The new regulations require abortion clinics to meet the same strict building standards as new hospitals. "
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