The L.A. Times ran my op-ed on April 25 on Nebraska’s “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act”:
Nebraska legislation aimed at undoing Roe vs. Wade
Nebraska’s Abortion Pain Prevention Act, signed into law last week, appears to have a quite reasonable aim: to prevent fetuses from feeling pain during abortions. In fact, the law, which bans abortions for women more than 20 weeks pregnant, is yet another attempt to undo Roe vs. Wade and abolish a woman’s constitutional right to a pre-viability abortion. To do this, the law takes a disingenuous path, one well trodden by antiabortion legislation passed in the decades since Roe.
Abortion legislation today commonly masquerades as something much smaller than a call to ban all abortions. Laws that require teens to consult their parents before obtaining abortions purport to encourage family communication and protect youth from rash decision-making. Laws that require women to wait 48 hours and make two trips to the doctor before obtaining an abortion are cast as ensuring “informed consent.” Ostensibly, Nebraska’s new law addresses fetal pain. . . .
–Caitlin Borgmann
