Measures designed to protect unborn children have been introduced in several US states in recent weeks.
Texas is considering measures to strengthen parental consent where teenagers are seeking abortions and a Bill in Wisconsin hopes to prevent most abortions after 20 weeks.
Ohio is seeking to outlaw abortion on the grounds of Down’s syndrome and North Carolina has introduced a longer waiting time for mothers considering an abortion.
Protecting’ life
In Texas the Senate has given approval to a measure which would make it more difficult for teenage girls to have an abortion without parental consent.
The Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, commended the Bill after the Senate vote:
“The bill’s purpose is to prohibit a physician from performing an abortion on an underage child without their parent’s consent”.
“Protecting the life of the unborn is one of the most important acts we can take as elected officials”, he added.
Discrimination
If it passes its next stages, a Bill in Wisconsin will make it illegal for doctors to carry out abortions after 20 weeks, except in limited circumstances.
In Ohio, Republican politician Sarah LaTourette has sponsored a Bill seeking to outlaw abortion on the grounds of an unborn child being diagnosed with Down’s syndrome.
Defending the Bill, she said “it’s an issue of discrimination – discrimination against a person, not allowing them their God-given right to life, simply because they might have Down syndrome.”
Waiting periods
The Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, has given final approval to a new law requiring women to wait three days between consulting a doctor and having an abortion.
However, in two other states measures restricting abortion based on the gestation period of the baby have been blocked by the courts.
A federal appeals court ruled that a prohibition on abortion after 12 weeks in Arkansas was unconstitutional.
And the 9th US circuit court of appeals struck down an Idaho law preventing abortions after 20 or more weeks.