The North Dakota Medical Association is denouncing legislation just passed and currently being debated that limit abortion after six weeks gestation ("heartbeat bill") and that defines life at conception ("personhood"). Doctors say they must have a right to decide issues of life in consultation with their patients irrespective of government lawmaking.
Doctors think they're above the law?! It's contagious (they caught it from activist judges).
For background, read Arkansas 12-week Abortion Law Most Restrictive in U.S. and also read Pro-lifers Prevail: More Abortion Restriction Laws
So far, Personhood Legislation is Battling Uphill in Courts
UPDATE 3/27/13: Gov. signs bills, prepares for legal attack from abortionists
-- From "ND Senate approves 'heartbeat' abortion ban" by James Macpherson, Associated Press 3/18/13
The North Dakota Senate on Friday approved banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, sending what would be the most stringent abortion restrictions in the U.S. to the state's Republican governor [Jack Dalrymple, who is pro-life,] for his signature.
It's one of several anti-abortion measures the state Legislature has weighed this session. The vote came with almost no debate in the Senate and after the same chamber approved another measure that would make North Dakota the first to ban abortions based on genetic defects such as Down syndrome.
That measure would also ban abortion based on gender selection. The Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion laws throughout the country, says Pennsylvania, Arizona and Oklahoma already have such laws.
Some supporters of the so-called fetal heartbeat measure have said they hope to send a message that North Dakota is anti-abortion and aims to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion up until a fetus is considered viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "North Dakota looks at more abortion restrictions" by Dave Kolpack, Associated Press 3/18/13
The "personhood" measures would ban abortions by defining human life as beginning with conception. It's drawing opposition from some doctors who say it could cause problems for infertile couples seeking to use in vitro fertilization to conceive, but supporters insist that's addressed in the legislation.
Dr. Stephanie Dahl, a Fargo infertility specialist, said Monday that the personhood measures could ban in vitro fertilization and force doctors to leave the state rather than face health care restrictions or possible criminal penalties. In vitro fertilization, or IVF, involves mixing egg and sperm in a laboratory dish and transferring resulting embryos into the womb.
One of the key players in the anti-abortion campaign, state Sen. Margaret Sitte, a Republican from Bismarck, said she was "floored" by the assertions about limitations on in vitro fertilization. She said the proposals allow exceptions for the "screening, collecting, preparing, transferring, or cryopreserving a human being created through in vitro fertilization for the purpose of being transferred to a human uterus." Sitte said that clause was crafted with Dahl's help.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Anti-abortion attorney says ND bill won’t survive legal challenge" by Wendy Reuer, Forum News Service 3/18/13
Paul Linton, a Chicago-based attorney who has assisted other states with anti-abortion measures and served as general counsel to Americans United for Life . . . did not give an estimation of what litigation would cost, [but] if defeated, the state would pay not only its counsel, the attorney general, but the courts could also force the state to pay for attorney fees of those challenging the bill.
House Bill 1456 prohibits an abortion if a detectable heartbeat is found. . . . Another bill that passed, House Bill 1305, would ban abortions for gender selection or fetal anomalies.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "North Dakota has funds to fight over abortion" by The Associated Press 3/19/13
As oil-rich North Dakota moves toward outlawing most abortions, it's in a better position than most states for what could be a long and costly court battle over its restrictions.
Abortion-rights activists have promised a legal battle if the measures become law.
North Dakota has a budget surplus nearing $2 billion, thanks to new-found oil wealth.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read IVF: 'Creating' Life & Aborting Life in addition, read Lab Creates Human Life with 3 Biological Parents
