Winder: 20-week abortion ban comparable to state cruelty to animals laws

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Meridian, is presenting SB 1165, the bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks on grounds of fetal pain, to the House State Affairs Committee this morning, and as he did in Senate committee hearing, he has experts from places like Nebraska here to testify. Kerry Uhlenkott of Right to Life of Idaho said her group and its national affiliate picked up the cost for that. Two Idaho attorney general’s opinions have found the bill unconstitutional, as it conflicts with the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision that bars states from restricting abortions prior to the point of fetal viability. Winder told the committee, “There is a body of science that shows beyond a doubt that the fetus as it develops feels pain. … The state, if they have an interest in cruelty to animals, they should have an interest in cruelty to human beings.”

Uhlenkott told the  committee that Kansas just passed a similar bill, and Oklahoma likely will do so next week. The measures are patterned after a law enacted a year ago in Nebraska, which hasn’t yet been challenged in court; it’s part of a strategy to change the terms of the abortion debate to chip away at the Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in 1973; in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has been more open to some state restrictions on early abortions, but not outright bans. SB 1165 would allow abortions after 20 weeks only to save the life or physical health of the mother; it contains no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or severe fetal abnormality.