Senate panel advances abortion restriction
By The Associated Press
This article was published January 30, 2013 at 11:20 a.m.
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LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas Senate panel has advanced legislation that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, a move that would ban the procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee endorsed the proposal by Republican Sen. Jason Rapert of Conway that would require a test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed in the state.
Rapert’s proposal would ban abortions if doctors detect a heartbeat.
The bill includes exemptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
Similar proposals have come up in other states, but have faced complaints that it would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.
Comments on: Senate panel advances abortion restriction
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Concerned_Citizen says... January 30, 2013 at 12:13 p.m.
I think legislators have other business they need to attend to and stay out of womens wombs!!!!!
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gabe816 says... January 30, 2013 at 12:24 p.m.
Concerned, so you are ok with the death of 3000 babies every day.
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ToTheLeft says... January 30, 2013 at 12:29 p.m.
They aren't "babies" yet. If they can live outside the womb, yes they are babies. Isn't the heart one of the first things to develop? A six week old fetus could NOT live outside the womb, I don't care how strong the heart beat. Also, I think rape and incest are the same.
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gabe816 says... January 30, 2013 at 12:40 p.m.
I don't have a problem with rape and incest. It's the 15 and 16 year olds out for a good time on Saturday night.
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diplod says... January 30, 2013 at 12:41 p.m.
Viability as a test for personhood ignores the children borne with neonatal life threatening conditions. The viability argument says these children may be killed. This is called euthanasia which is actually the crux of the abortion issue. May I kill my child?
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Jackabbott says... January 30, 2013 at 12:45 p.m.
These guys are perverts as they want women to pay more money to have someone probe them. We need a law in Arkansas wherrby all legislators have to be examined by a MD to ascertain if they have a functioning brain. Guess these guys are having a good ole time with this one. Almost as funny as guns in churches.
Hey what about jobs. $3 gas, bad highways etc???
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hah406 says... January 30, 2013 at 2:29 p.m.
Another waste of time and money by our legislature. When these idiots pass this clearly unconstitutional law, which has already been ruled as thus by the Supreme Court, are we going to have to pay even more tax money for the attorney general's office to try and defend it in court?
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aimee says... January 30, 2013 at 5:19 p.m.
State legislators should have nothing to do with this most difficult of decisions... It should be strictly between a woman and her doctor..!!!
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BillSmith says... January 30, 2013 at 6:50 p.m.
guns in churches, new abortions laws, drug testing, see what you got people by electing the right wingers to a majority, how many bills have been iintroduced for education, more community colleges, vocational schools, jobs, lower tuition, medicaid expansion, better roads, bridge repair.
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Populist says... January 30, 2013 at 7:06 p.m.
Whippersnapper,
There is something sick about men who are demanding that pregnant women be probed.
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NoCrossNoCrown says... January 30, 2013 at 7:21 p.m.
some lawyer just coming out of law school will file a lawsiut and then ride this law for years and years and years, make millions of dollars off the taxpayers of AR now forced to defending this in court. The bottom line was decided 40 years ago and even though many courts have thrown out this type of laws, the lawyers sing all the way to the bank thanks to the stoopid lawmakers forcing their own personal and religious beliefs on the rest of us.
WWJD: I don't know! But, I don't think He would ever bother running to court or to legislate folks into believing and trusting in Him, His Father and the holy Spirit...
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inquire says... January 30, 2013 at 9:12 p.m.
I fear further eroding of the abortion rights not because I'm a real champion of abortion, but because I don't trust the newly crazy right wing. A woman was recently allowed to die from a septic pregnancy in Ireland because the abortion laws are so strict there. We have some ultra right politicians who would be willing to let it go that far. Remember Rick Santorum? Yet his wife had had to terminate a pregnancy for necessary medical reasons. She had also shacked up with an abortionist before marrying Rick. Yet he believes that the law should prevent any OTHER woman from having an abortion for any reason. We cannot keep creeping back to the days when men in power had this much control over women. It is not our business. If they make the wrong decision, they will be the ones held accountable for it.
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DontDrinkDatKoolAid says... January 31, 2013 at 12:20 a.m.
"Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks."
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Looks to be they are trying to narrow and define viability. Good points diplod.
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Aimee ditto on the Doctor and the woman.
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