Arkansas lawmaker files bill to restrict method used to end pregnancies in 2nd trimester

 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --9/13/13-- Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, questions University of Arkansas Fayetteville officials Friday during a Legislative Audit committee meeting at the state Capitol.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL --9/13/13-- Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, questions University of Arkansas Fayetteville officials Friday during a Legislative Audit committee meeting at the state Capitol.

The Arkansas lawmaker who crafted the state's post-20 week ban on abortions filed a bill Monday to restrict a method used to terminate pregnancies of women in their second trimester.

The proposal to ban dilation and evacuation abortions, filed by state Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, would make it illegal for doctors to use surgical instruments to "dismember" an unborn child within the mother's body.

Mayberry's bill defines an unborn child as existing from fertilization.

Mayberry previously sponsored House Bill 1037, which became the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, in 2013 after the General Assembly voted to override a veto by then-Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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