Watch: Pregnant Rep. Sets Pro-Abortion Lawmakers Straight in Emotional Speech from Chamber Floor
At the moment, it seems like there are two kinds of states: those that are trying to protect the unborn and those who want to remove literally any protection whatsoever.
In the latter category, few states are going quite so far as Illinois.
Illinois’ new abortion law passed the state House 64-50, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The vote came after a contentious debate, however, including a question over how far the new bill went.
The Sun-Times said the Reproductive Health Act “would repeal the state’s current abortion law, adopted in 1975. In its place would be language in which certain elements are removed, such as: spousal consent; criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions; waiting periods; and other restrictions on facilities where abortions are performed. The updated legislation, which passed a House committee on Sunday, also clarifies the definitions of viability and health.
“A new provision says abortions can be performed after viability only if necessary to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman,” they said. “It also defines the viability as the fetus having a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus without extraordinary medical measures.”
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, said that criticism that the bill would allow a pregnancy to be terminated at any point was “medically and factually incorrect.”
However, the key Republican in the debate — Rep. Avery Bourne, who is pregnant herself — questioned Cassidy on key issues, like what a “fundamental right” to parental notification involved and what an “extraordinary medical measure” was.
In a passionate speech opposing the bill, Bourne made it clear this wasn’t just a minor redefinition of abortion law but something that could allow “perfectly healthy” babies to be aborted at any stage.
“This bill will mean that if a baby requires extraordinary medical measures after they’re born, doctors could determine up to the 40th week of pregnancy that that baby was never viable because it had to be flown to the NICU after it was born,” Bourne said.
“This bill means that if the baby is viable, a doctor can determine that the post-viable abortion can still take place based on a number of factors that include familial health and the age of the women.”
Watch her emotional speech below:
She would also criticize the fact that the bill allowed abortions to be performed for reasons of “familial health” while failing to provide a definition for the term — something that would leave it open to wide interpretation.
“This bill will mean that for a woman at my stage in pregnancy, where the baby responds to his dad’s voice when he reads him books at night, the woman could go to the facility — the baby’s perfectly healthy — but if that woman says, ‘based on my familial health, this is medically necessary,’ that is allowed,” Bourne said, nearly in tears.
“We are talking about the most expansive bill we have seen in this state,” she continued.
“We already know that we’ve got women coming to Illinois to have abortions because we are so expansive on this issue. That will continue. This bill is not about keeping abortion legal in Illinois. This is about a massive expansion that will impact viable babies. And that is wrong.”
She’s absolutely right. As The Daily Caller notes, Illinois already has 20 abortion clinics, 17 of which are operated by Planned Parenthood.
After all that, 64 state representatives still voted for the bill. Sixty-four politicians who believed Rep. Donnelly when she said the bill allowing mothers to end pregnancies at any time was “medically and factually incorrect” when it didn’t even provide a concrete definition of “familial health.”
These are your modern Democrats, ladies and gentlemen. And they’re outraged over the fact that other states are making moves to protect the unborn.
All they want is to make sure abortion is available as a form of birth control and that there are as few restrictions on it as possible. If that doesn’t say it all about the pro-abortion cause, I don’t know what does.
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