Abortion supporters are getting very anxious these days. Even as Planned Parenthood fights in court for its funding and pro-abortion lawyers take a few pot shots at some of the milder abortion restrictions to come out in the past year, the movement remains incredibly gun-shy of many new, innovative pro-life laws.
Sally Steenland of the pro-abortion Center for American Progress does a good job of summing up the perfect storm that some pro-life state lawmakers are hoping to create first with 20-week bans, then with heartbeat bills, and then *gasp!*…personhood amendments:
Antichoice activists promoting the 20-week ban have a clear, determined strategy. Their alleged reason for the law is that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks, though doctors strongly dispute such a notion. Their real strategy is to invalidate Roe v. Wade without actually having to overrule it. They hope that one of the state laws will be challenged, make its way to the Supreme Court, and be upheld. Linda Theis, a former president of Ohio Right to Life,believes her state’s so-called “heartbeat bill” offers the Supreme Court “an engraved invitation to overturn Roe.”
Once a threshold of fetal pain at 20 weeks is established, they believe it is only a matter of time before they can “prove” that fetuses can feel pain at 12 weeks, or four weeks, or three days. Indeed, the Ohio Assembly just passed legislation that would prohibit abortion after a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat, which happens at six to seven weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
The other side is playing connect-the-dots right now and they are very, very scared by the picture they draw. They’re taking it seriously. Will we take it just as seriously and make their legislative and judicial nightmares come true?
