Nebraska's Controversial Abortion Law Now Being Copied Nationwide

[Omaha Steve]

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2011/04/11/4da2ea5d80e3c

April 11, 2011

The courtroom wars to determine whether Nebraska’s 2010 abortion law will be historic, or just the subject of political histrionics, have yet to begin.


It is hard to imagine those wars can be far off, though. And the first shots might well be fired in some other state. But if the standards set out in the Nebraska law withstand challenge, based on the argument that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks, it will be a landmark chapter in American legal history.


Critics have slammed the law as a heartless intrusion by big government into the lives of women. Proponents have defended it as bringing abortion law in line with contemporary science. It drew national attention when a Nebraska woman charged she was virtually forced to give birth to a child that had no chance of survival, then watch it struggle for breath until it died 15 minutes later.


At least 15 other states are considering enacting laws which duplicate the Nebraska statute, or are variations of it. Some, including those in Oklahoma, Idaho and Kansas are moving rapidly toward enactment. Governors in Idaho and Kansas are expected to sign such measures into law soon. More than 370 bills have been introduced in legislatures around the country this year, seeking to restrict abortion rights.


Eventually, the standards set by the Nebraska law are destined to be contested before the U.S. Supreme Court, while hundreds of supporters and opponents wave placards at each other outside the building.


What might get lost in the coming sound and fury is how the fetal-pain standard began.


FULL story at link.