Pro-Life News

Republican lawmakers, buoyed by a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and the trouncing of state-level Democrats in the November election, are pushing to reclaim Texas' role as the vanguard among states restricting access to abortion this legislative session. Legislators have promised to back a so-called "heartbeat bill" that would bar abortions before many women know they are pregnant. Anti-abortion advocates have urged them to challenge the Roe v. Wade decision that established the right to an abortion. And Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said at a "Texas Rally for Life" event in January that there is more "we must do to defend the unborn." Read...

An Arizona bill proposed on the 48th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is among the most direct challenges to Roe in nearly half a century: It calls for the decision to be ignored altogether. Arizona has some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws and has three that criminalize it completely. Right now, the legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade prevents the state from enforcing those laws. One proposed bill, HB 2650, would allow those who receive abortions and the doctors who administer them to be prosecuted for homicide, including first-degree murder. In Arizona, first-degree murder is punishable by the death penalty. Read more......

Failure to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act "shows just how extreme the majority of Senate Democrats are," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. The measure was proposed as an amendment to the 2021 Budget Resolution in the Senate. In a roll call vote Feb. 4 all Senate Republicans, along with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Bob Casey Jr., D-Pennsylvania, voted in favor of the amendment. Forty-eight Senate Democrats blocked the amendment, which required 60 votes to pass. The measure requires that, when a baby is born alive following an abortion, health care practitioners must exercise the same degree of professional skill and...

Far from being health care, abortion means the death sentence to the living, human being who is killed by it. Word games and obfuscation to the contrary, the fetus is not "potential life," but life with potential; nor is he or she a "potential human," but a human with potential. As such she or he bears unique moral value by being a member of our species. But a position paper by the Bixby Center for Reproductive Health says that the "safety of abortion in the U.S. is extensively documented." Perhaps abortions are safe for the women who have them, but they are never safe for their offspring. Fetuses have no safety — even if they are born alive due to a failed or...

A proposed pro-life constitutional amendment passed its first legislative hurdle, winning passage from a House committee. Members of the Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee approved the bill on an 11-3 vote. Rep. Joseph Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, is the sponsor of House Bill 91, which simply states, "To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion." "The same bill passed the House last year by a 71-21 margin, but was not considered by the Senate, due to the early COVID adjournment," he said. Read more...  ...

A bill introduced by the Governor's Office to ban abortions based on the diagnosis of Down syndrome is moving forward after advocates from around the country testified in support of the bill. House Bill 1110 would criminalize those who conduct abortions they know are requested because the unborn child has or may have Down syndrome based on a screening. The bill was unanimously supported in its first committee hearing. About 14 people testified in support of the bill, including a a scientist with the pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony List, a Down syndrome advocate, South Dakota families who have children with Down syndrome, South Dakota Right to Life and the South Dakota Catholic...

The South Carolina House overwhelmingly passed a bill banning nearly all abortions, following the lead of other states with similar measures that would go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill faces a final procedural vote in the House on Thursday that is unlikely to change the outcome and will then be sent to the governor for his signature. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has promised to sign the measure as soon as possible. The Senate approved the measure on Jan. 28, after years of failed attempts. Republicans gained three seats in the 2020 elections and the newly energized 30-16 Republican majority made the proposal Senate Bill No. 1. Read more...  ...

The North Dakota House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have made performing an abortion legally akin to murdering an unborn child. Under House Bill 1313, someone found to have performed an abortion, other than to save the life of the mother, would have been guilty of a Class AA felony, punishable by up to life in prison without parole. The bill did not take aim at women seeking abortions. The lower chamber voted 70-22 to scrap the bill, which generated controversy on both sides of the aisle. The supporters of the bill count themselves among the most socially conservative members of the Legislature. Read more......

A bill that would ban nearly all abortions in Arkansas advanced through the Senate. The Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act will ban abortions unless it's to save a mother's life. Despite the emotional debate to include exceptions for rape and incest victims, Arkansas senators passed this pro-life, anti-abortion bill along party lines on a 27-7 vote. HB 1439, now Act 493, prohibits abortions after 18 weeks except during a medical emergency. If the House passes this bill as is, it's unclear whether Gov. Asa Hutchinson plans to sign it. Read more......

A bill that would require doctors to give babies who are delivered out of attempted abortion the same care they would to babies born in other ways was signed into law. House Bill 1051 would require doctors to provide medical care to babies born out of abortions and could penalize them for failing to do so. "The pro-life cause continues even after a child is born, and this bill will guarantee the right to life for every baby that is born alive," Gov. Kristi Noem said in a statement. "We expect doctors to treat all children equally, even those born in horrific circumstances. That's basic human decency." Read more......

The House passed a proposed constitutional amendment by a wide margin Thursday to declare there is no right to an abortion in Kentucky, the second consecutive year the chamber passed the legislation. House Bill 91, sponsored by Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, passed by a 76-20 vote, a slightly larger margin than the House vote last year. The legislation seeks to create a new section to the Kentucky constitution declaring: "To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion." Read more......

Pro-life supporters in Oklahoma saw another anti-abortion bill pass committee. House Bill 2441 passed the House States Right Committee with a vote of 5-1. This bill would stop abortions from being performed once a heartbeat is detected. "This bill is about protecting the most vulnerable – the unborn child," Rep. Todd Russ, the bill's author, said. "Hearing a heartbeat confirms what everyone already knows: these are living babies, not clumps of tissue that feel nothing. This is one among a series of measures designed to protect and save unborn lives." Read more......