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Utah Passes Revolutionary Abortion Bill To Protect Unborn Babies

By Noelle Nicholas
Published on: 15:16 PST, Mar 29, 2016

Can unborn babies feel pain in the womb? Utah Governor Gary Herbert believes that evidence points to the likelihood that fetuses at 20 weeks gestation and over do feel pain. Governor Herbert has signed a revolutionary new bill requiring Utah doctors who perform abortions to administer anesthesia to the mother so the baby will feel no pain as his or her life is being terminated.

What many people do not know, or do not care to know, is that abortions are extremely violent acts that put fetuses through horrific circumstances. This is not a peaceful passing, or even a humane termination of life. When animals are euthanized, death is quick and painless. Unfortunately, unborn babies are not afforded this grace during abortion.

This abortion bill is the latest in a line of laws put in place to reduce hasty decisions that some women may come to regret. According to Planned Parenthood, in Utah an abortion can only be performed if one has gained face to face informed consent from a healthcare professional, and a period of at least 72 hours must pass before the abortion can take place. If one is younger than 18, parental consent must be obtained.

The Center for Pregnancy Choices lists details of the different types of abortions. The following procedures are performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, which includes weeks one through twelve. Warning: this contains graphic information.

Manual Vacuum Aspiration
“This surgical abortion is done early in the pregnancy up to 7 weeks after the woman’s last menstrual period. The cervical muscle is stretched with dilators until the opening is wide enough to allow the abortion instruments to pass into the uterus. A hand held syringe is attached to tubing that is inserted into the uterus and the fetus is suctioned out.”

Suction Curettage
“This procedure is the most common of all abortions. In a suction curettage abortion, the doctor opens the cervix with a dilator (a metal rod) or laminaria (a porous material which expands with moisture in order to open and soften the cervix). The doctor inserts tubing into the uterus and connects the tubing to a suction machine. The suction pulls the fetus’s body apart and out of the uterus.”

Dilation and Curettage (D&C)
“A less common first trimester abortion method is called Dilation and Curettage (D&C). In this method, the cervix is dilated and a curette, or loop-shaped tube, is inserted into the uterus to pull the fetus’s body apart and detach the placenta from the wall of the uterus. All body parts and membranes are then scraped out of the woman’s body.”

The second trimester encompasses weeks 13 through 24. In many states, a woman may have an abortion up until the baby is due, but in the state of Utah, abortion is allowed up to 22 weeks gestation. The abortion performed in the second trimester is called a Dilation and Evacuation, or D&E.

“The fetus will double in size between the eleventh and twelfth weeks in pregnancy. Because of this, the pre-born’s body is too large to be broken up by suction and it will not pass through the suction tubing. So, in a D&E abortion procedure, the cervix must be dilated more than in a first-trimester abortion. This is usually accomplished by a doctor’s visit a day or two before the abortion to insert laminaria. After opening the cervix, the doctor dismembers the body of the fetus and pulls out the body parts with forceps. The skull is crushed to ease its removal.”

In February, Life News reported that Utah state Representative Curt Oda proposed Utah House Bill 442 to ban dismemberment abortions. Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., National Right to Life Director of State Legislation, says this type of procedure “kills a baby by tearing her apart limb from limb.” Spaulding goes on to say that, by the end of the first trimester, the baby has brain waves and a beating heart, and all organ systems have been formed.

According to USA Today, this new abortion bill in Utah will reduce or completely eradicate pain an unborn child might feel during abortion. In essence, this bill protects the fetus in the only way possible. While it may be unlawful to prevent an abortion up to 22 weeks gestation in Utah, thanks to this bill, at least the unborn baby will be shielded from the pain of death.

[Image credit: Fotopress/Stringer/Getty Images]

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