LIFE DIGEST: Ban on embryo patenting becomes law
- Sep 21, 2011 -
A permanent ban on issuing patents on human embryos has become law.
President Obama signed the prohibition into law Sept. 16 as part of a patent reform measure titled the America Invents Act. The pro-life language in the bill restricts the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from issuing a patent on a “human organism.”
Also in this edition: Virginia board OKs stricter rules for abortion clinics, Obama administration stymies state, funds Planned Parenthood, Liechtenstein’s voters maintain abortion ban, and Cohabiting women abort more often.
The new law makes permanent a ban on embryo patenting that has been approved each year since 2004 as part of the annual spending bill for the Commerce, Justice and State departments. That measure, sponsored by former Rep. Dave Weldon, R.-Fla., met strong opposition at the time from the biotechnology industry.
Pro-life advocates applauded the newly enacted prohibition.
“This law recognizes that human life is not a commodity, and that a member of the human family can never be regarded as a mere invention, or as ‘intellectual property,’” said Douglas Johnson, the National Right to Life Committee’s legislative director, in a written release.
Richard Doerflinger, pro-life specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a written statement, “Unethical researchers and biotechnology companies are willing not only to create and destroy embryonic human beings for research purposes, but even to patent these fellow humans so they can license, market, buy, and sell them as mere commodities. By prohibiting patents on human organisms, Congress has helped prevent such gross abuses and has taken some of the profit motive out of the drive for human cloning.”
Virginia board OKs stricter rules for abortion clinics
The Virginia Board of Health has voted 12-1 for emergency regulations requiring abortion clinics to meet hospital-type health and safety standards.
The Sept. 15 vote provided regulations that will govern abortion clinics for as much as 18 months before permanent rules are put into place. Pro-choice advocates warned 17 of the state’s abortion clinics could close after the law that is the basis for the regulations was enacted in March.
Among their stipulations, the rules permit unannounced inspections and require doctors to stay at clinics until women who have undergone abortions are discharged. They also include requirements for the size of hallways and rooms, improved sanitary conditions and the presence of emergency medical equipment.
“After over two decades of avoiding oversight, Virginia’s abortion centers now face the choice of either spending their profits on meeting standards or no longer doing abortions at their facilities,” according to a blog post by the Family Foundation, a pro-life organization in Virginia.
The 13 board members voting on the regulations consisted of nine appointed by current Gov. Robert McDonnell, a pro-life Republican, and four selected by former Gov. Timothy Kaine, a pro-choice Democrat, according to The Washington Post. The lone vote against the rules came from a Kaine appointee.
The rules will take effect Jan. 1 if approved by McDonnell.
Obama administration stymies state, funds Planned Parenthood
The Obama administration overruled the New Hampshire government and granted $1.8 million in federal and state family planning contracts to Planned Parenthood Sept. 13.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made the move, which had been forecast in news reports the previous week, to restore contracts for six New Hampshire clinics operated by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
The state’s Executive Council, made up entirely of Republicans, voted 3-2 in June to prevent the Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving the funds. The council, which is the only one among the 50 state governments, cited Planned Parenthood’s abortion practice in making its decision. N.H. Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas said no other providers expressed the desire to assume the family planning contracts, The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph reported.
“Instead of honoring the decision of New Hampshire’s Executive Council, Obama has once again allowed his unwavering support for the largest provider of abortions in our country to take precedent,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, in a written statement. “The people of New Hampshire deserve to have the representatives they elected make the decisions they were elected to make without fear of President Obama usurping those decisions to curry favor with his political ally – Planned Parenthood.”
Affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) reported more than 332,000 abortions in 2009. PPFA and its affiliates received more than $363 million in government grants and contracts during 2008-09. Both years are the most recent for which statistics are available.
Liechtenstein’s voters maintain abortion ban
Liechtenstein’s voters have defeated a proposal to legalize abortion in the tiny European country.
On Sept. 16, voters turned back by 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent an initiative to make abortion legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and when the unborn child is severely disabled, according to the Associated Press. The current abortion ban in the Catholic majority country can result in a three-year prison sentence for a doctor who performs the procedure and one year in prison for a woman who has an abortion, AP reported. Exceptions exist for a woman whose life is endangered or who is under 14 years of age.
Cohabiting women abort more often
Cohabiting women who become unexpectedly pregnant are eight times more likely to get abortions than married women with unplanned pregnancies.
A study published in August in the journal Contraception found 59.3 cohabiting women of every 1,000 between the ages of 15 and 44 abort their children, while 31.8 divorced women, 28.1 never-married women and 7.7 married women choose abortion, according to CitizenLink.
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