WASHINGTON – Today, pro-abortion advocates in North Carolina (including two Planned Parenthood affiliates) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina seeking to block the North Carolina “Woman’s Right to Know” law from going into effect.  The law, which was enacted in July over Governor Beverly Perdue’s veto, requires that mothers seeking abortion be given information about the abortion and that a real-time ultrasound image of her unborn child be displayed so that she may view the image before the abortion can be performed.

 “What are abortion advocates afraid of? Probably that when mothers see the recognizable images of their unborn children as they kick and move inside the womb, with beating hearts, abortionists will lose business, ” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee.

 Enacted by a bi-partisan override of Governor Perdue’s July veto, the informed consent law provides that a booklet containing scientifically accurate information about risks, alternatives and information on the development of the unborn child, compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services, be offered to the mother at least 24 hours prior to an abortion so that she might have the opportunity to read and understand the information.  It also provides that an ultrasound image of the unborn child be displayed at least four hours prior to an abortion so that the mother might view it.

 Balch added: “As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Gonzales v. Carhart in 2007, ‘Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision….The State has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed. It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know…’”

 Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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Resources:

NRLC Director of Education and Research Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon has written extensively about Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers and funding:

• Planned Parenthood: More Funding, More Abortion (April 20, 2011):
  http://nrlc.co/nkGnKZ
• Planned Parenthood is “Big Abortion” (May 12, 2011):
  http://nrlc.co/ijeXqx
• Why PP’s numbers are misleading (April 15, 2011):
  http://nrlc.co/otQ9fD

 “Governor Lynch’s veto says to New Hampshire’s parents: if your minor daughter is pregnant, you have no rights,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., National Right to Life director of state legislation.  “When a minor girl is the victim of abuse by an adult male predator and becomes pregnant, that is the time she needs her parents the most.  What Governor Lynch wants is to have a secret abortion performed on the minor girl and send her back to the abusive situation.  This is a totally irresponsible decision which can only give comfort to pedophiles.” 

 In vetoing the bill, Gov. Lynch used a litany of excuses regarding lack of exceptions for certain cases – all of which, if allowed for in the bill, would cover up crimes perpetrated against minor girls and do nothing but protect their abusers.  The bill contained both a judicial bypass measure and a medical emergency exception which allowed for ” a condition that, on the basis of the physician’s good-faith clinical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

 Twenty-nine states currently have parental involvement laws in effect.  The full text of the New Hampshire bill is here: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/HB0329.html

 “This veto is an affront to parents across the state and it puts minor girls in very real danger,” Balch added.  “We join with our New Hampshire affiliate, Citizens for Life, in calling on the state’s legislators to override this outrageous veto.”

 Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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 WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. In signing the law, Governor Bentley remarked, “I believe that life begins at conception and I signed this bill to further commit my promise to protect the life of an unborn child.” The state legislature last week passed the measure which protects from abortion the unborn child capable of feeling pain  Alabama becomes the fifth state to enact the protective law.

 “We commend Governor Bentley for quickly signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act making Alabama the fifth state to recognize the compelling interest the state has in protecting unborn children capable of feeling pain,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).  “We are encouraged by the growing trend to enact the model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and other pro-life laws that protect unborn children and help their mothers.”

In all, 50 Alabama legislators co-sponsored the model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which, as drafted by the National Right to Life Committee’s state legislation department, protects the life of the unborn child at the point that they are capable of feeling pain, except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function or…it is necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child.” 

Further documentation on the science behind the pain of the unborn child is available at:www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

“Today is a good day for unborn children in Alabama,” said Cheryl Ciamarra, Alabama Citizens for Life national director.  “We are proud of our pro-life state legislators and pro-life Governor Bentley for protecting pain-capable unborn children. Special thanks go to House Speaker Mike Hubbard for making this legislation a priority and to the main sponsors, Rep. Kerry Rich (Albertville) and Sen. Scott Beason (Gardendale).”

The Nebraska legislature enacted the law last year.  During this year’s spring legislative session three other states, in addition to Alabama, have passed the law: Idaho, Kansas and Oklahoma.  The National Right to Life model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is currently under consideration in Oregon and Massachusetts. A Minnesota version was vetoed by pro-abortion Governor Mark Dayton.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Early today, we received a call for a response from NTN24, a Colombian-based 24-hour cable news outlet which can be seen both in the United States and throughout Latin America.  National Right to Life’s Cristina Minniti-Perez responded to the documentary saying compassion, not death, is what patentients need.  Cristina’s interview served to provide a strong pro-life pespective to viewers around the world.

 ”Modern medical science furnishes us with compelling evidence that unborn children recoil from painful stimuli, that their stress hormones increase when they are subjected to any painful stimuli, and that they require anesthesia for fetal surgery,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).  “Therefore, the states have a compelling interest in protecting unborn children who are capable of feeling pain from abortion. We strongly encourage Governor Bentley to make Alabama the fifth state to recognize this obligation by signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act into law.”

 The Alabama House, led by Representative Rich, passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection bill with a vote of 69-19.  The Alabama’s Senate, led by Senator Beason, passed the bill by a vote of 26-5.

 As drafted by National Right to Life’s state legislation department, the model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act protects from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function or..it is necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child.”

 Further documentation and links to the scientific studies can be found at: www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

 ”We commend Representative Kerry Rich and Senator Scott Beason for their actions in protecting unborn children and helping their mothers through enactment of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” added Cheryl Ciamarra, Alabama Citizens for Life’s representative to the Board of Directors of the National Right to Life Committee. “We ask Governor Bentley to sign this bill into law so that Alabama becomes a state which protects from abortion unborn child who are capable of feeling pain.”

 Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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WASHINGTON – Today, the Alabama Senate voted 26-5 to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects unborn children capable of feeling pain. The action of the Alabama Senate continues a trend sweeping through the state legislatures. Already this session, the Alabama House has voted in favor of enacting similar legislation this past April. The House has until midnight tonight to concur with the small changes made by the Senate.

 “Alabama is the latest in a line of states poised to protect unborn children capable of feeling pain,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).  “State legislatures are stepping up to protect these children, thus reflecting the majority wishes of their constituents.”

The model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, drafted by the National Right to Life Committee’s state legislation department, protects the life of the unborn child at the point that they are capable of feeling pain except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function or…it is necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child.”  Further documentation and links to the scientific studies can be found at: www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

 “We are calling on the Alabama House of Representatives, which already passed the bill, to quickly concur with the Senate version before tonight’s midnight legislative deadline,” said Cheryl Ciamarra, Alabama Citizens for Life national director.

 This continued trend in the states during the spring legislative session began in Nebraska last year when they passed this first-of-its-kind legislation. Already this year, the legislation has been passed in Idaho, Kansas and Oklahoma.  In addition to Alabama, the National Right to Life model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is currently under consideration in Oregon, Massachusetts, and Minnesota.

 “We are pleased with the progress we have been making in the states,” said Spaulding Balch.  “We are working to ensure that pain-capable unborn children all across the country will be protected from horrendous death by abortion.”

 Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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 “Many of the victims on whom Jack Kevorkian preyed were people with disabilities who had no terminal illness; one was simply old. In at least five cases autopsies were unable to confirm any disease at all,” observed Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.

 Kevorkian’s “suicide machine” drew worldwide attention when the CBS program “60 Minutes” aired footage, shot by Kevorkian himself, as he administered lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.  The tape quickly became evidence in a murder trial that sentenced Kevorkian to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.  He was paroled in 2007.

 His often inflammatory efforts to legalize assisted suicide as a constitutional “right” were soundly rejected by the unanimous 1997 Supreme Court decision in Washington v. Glucksberg in which the Court held that assisted suicide was not a constitutional right.  The case overturned a previous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

 “While some euthanasia advocates have sought to distance themselves from his bizarre positions and tactics, his tragic legacy illustrates the dangers to the most vulnerable when compassionate, humane responses to depression or disability are replaced with death as an acceptable final solution,” Balch added.

 Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.

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