LIFE DIGEST: Ohio enacts late-term abortion ban
- Jul 26, 2011 -
Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law July 20 a ban on late-term abortions.
The new law prohibits abortions at 20 weeks gestation or later if a doctor determines an unborn child is able to survive outside the womb. Exceptions are permitted if a woman’s life is threatened or she experiences a medical emergency.
Also in this edition: British creation of human-animal hybrids revealed and House committee backs restoration of Mexico City Policy.
“Life is a gift from God and one way that we express our ongoing gratitude for it is by respecting it,” the Republican governor said in a written statement. “This bill does that in a very fundamental way and I’m proud to have signed it into law.”
Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life’s executive director, commended Kasich’s action, saying he “demonstrated to all Ohioans that the health and welfare of birth mothers and their unborn children are of paramount importance to the state of Ohio.”
On July 18, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also a Republican, signed into law a bill that will defund Planned Parenthood of an estimated $34 million or more of Medicaid funds in the state during the next two years, according to LifeNews.com.
The new law also bars local government funds from paying for abortions in hospital districts, such as Travis County’s Central Health in Austin.
Jonathan Saenz, legislative director for the Plano-based Liberty Institute, called the bill’s approval “a defining moment in Texas history for the pro-life and taxpayer protection movement. Texas leaders have sent a clear message: Planned Parenthood and similar abortion groups can no longer use taxpayer funds to support their agenda.”
British creation of human-animal hybrids revealed
More than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos have been created in the last three years in British laboratories, The Daily Mail reported July 25.
Pro-life advocates decried the news.
The newspaper reported 155 embryos that have genetic material from both human beings and animals have been created under a 2008 law passed by Parliament. The information was not revealed until a government minister provided it in response to a parliamentary question from David Alton, a crossbench member of the House of Lords in the British Parliament. Crossbench members are not identified with political parties.
The hybrid embryos, which were created in three British labs, came in at least three forms, according to The Daily Mail:
- An animal egg fertilized by human sperm;
- A “cybrid” formed when a human nucleus is implanted in an animal cell;
- A “chimera” created when human cells and animal embryos are combined.
Researchers who back the creation of hybrids say they will provide embryonic stem cells for the treatment of an array of diseases. So far, however, only non-embryonic stem cells have produced treatments for maladies. Harvesting embryonic stem cells destroys the embryo, while procuring non-embryonic cells does not do such harm to the donor.
Alton described the creation of human-animal hybrids as “dabbling in the grotesque.”
“Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country,” Alton said, according to the newspaper.
“At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail.
“On moral and ethical grounds this fails, and on scientific and medical ones too,” Alton said.
In the United States, there is no federal law outlawing the private creation of human-animal hybrids.
Alton also learned in response to a parliamentary question that more than 1.5 million human embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the last 20 years have been destroyed, The Daily Mail reported July 22.
British scientists have created more than three million embryos by IVF, but fewer than 100,000 babies have been born as a result. That means it requires more than 30 unborn children to be created by IVF for each successful birth.
Of the 3.1 million embryos created, about 1.46 million were discarded during treatment, about 101,000 were donated for destructive research and about 764,000 were placed in frozen storage. The remaining embryos were implanted, producing about 94,000 births, according to the newspaper.
“We are creating and destroying human embryos on an industrial scale,” Alton said.
House committee backs restoration of Mexico City Policy
A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted July 21 to restore a ban on federal funding for international organizations that perform or promote abortions.
The Foreign Affairs Committee rejected in a 25-17 vote an amendment to remove the prohibition known as the Mexico City Policy from the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. If restored, the policy would bar organizations from receiving U.S. family planning funds unless they agree not to perform or counsel for abortion or lobby in order to liberalize the pro-life policies of foreign governments.
President Obama revoked the Mexico City Policy with an executive order on his third day in office in 2009. President Bush had restored the rule in 2001, eight years after President Clinton overturned it. The Reagan administration instituted the rule in 1984, announcing it at a conference in Mexico City.
In an amendment approved on the same day, the committee called for the release of blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who has been a prisoner for five years since publicizing the extent of China’s coercive, population-control program in one county. He served a four-year, three-month prison sentence from 2006 to 2010 and has been under house arrest since. He reportedly has been tortured and been denied medical treatment since returning home.
The committee-approved amendment also urges Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to attempt diplomatic visits to Chen and his family.
Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, described the amendment as historic, saying it “raises the issue of the harassment, arrest, disappearance and disbarment of Chinese human rights lawyers and defenders. We hope to see the Obama administration take effective action on behalf of Chen and other human rights defenders who are suffering incalculable harm as a result of their courage to stand up for human rights in China.”
The Foreign Affairs Committee approved the overall authorization bill in a 23-20 vote.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. Our free, downloadable Impact resource is also available online. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Cloning, Citizenship, Legislation, Science, Bioethics,