Legislative UPDATE

Legislative UPDATE

SUPORT HB 1450

CONCERNED ABOUT HB 1297

More information below, and contact information for legislators at the bottom. Both bills will be heard Monday January 31^st.

HB 1297 http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-0506-01000.pdf

Our concerns about HB 1297 stem from the deletion of “licensed” from the penalty section page 11 line 2, and the deletion of the definition of a “licensed physician” page 4 line 7-9.  By now you all should be aware of the unlicensed abortions that took place in Fargo and that the states attorney chose to not pres charges. He did not press charges because he did not think it was the legislator’s intent to punish doctors who were licensed in other states but not ND. Drafting this bill like this right now seems to give the impression that “licensing” is not a problem, and that we are giving in to the states attorney. This bill does however contain a lot of good changes, but as you can see needs to be “fixed” before it re-writes the entire abortion control act.

We recommend that you call your legislator, the sponsors of this bill and the members of the Committee, and ask that this bill be AMENDED or OPPOSED.

HB 1450 http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/documents/11-0665-01000.pdf

The impact of this bill will be very similar to an Unborn Victim's of Violence bill. It makes it a crime to kill an unborn child in circumstances where it would be a crime to kill anyone else under circumstances where the state has the ability to prosecute. Some hope that this will challenge Roe under the 10^th or 14^th amendment. Regardless of this bills ability to challenge row, we hope that it will carve out a unique protection for the unborn pre-implantation. In vitro fertilisation has created a whole class of living people outside the womb. Killing unborn people outside the womb is NOT abortion. This bill, we hope, will codify that in law here in ND.

We recommend that you call your legislator, the sponsors of this bill and the members of the Committee, and ask that this bill be given a DO PASS recommendation.

PAIN LEGISLATION
NDRL has been promoting a fetal pain abortion ban like the one that put Dr, Carheart out of business in Nebraska. Currently it is legal to kill an unborn baby through the entire pregnancy in North Dakota. In fact it is legal in every state to kill unborn babies at every point in a pregnancy except Nebraska. NDRL is Very disappointed that we could not get this legislation into our session and we are disappointed that so many legislators support the idea and pledged to vote for this legislation. Because of this we urge you to call Rep Bette Grande (head of the pro life caucus) and encourage her to put this pain legislation into the re-write of the abortion control act. As the pro-life leader of our state legislators she needs to hear from you about why this is so important to ND, and the unborn babies it will save.

The committee hearing both bills is House Human Services

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/house/standing-comm/

Head of the pro-life caucus Representative Bette Grande

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/house/representatives/bios/bgrande.html

for an alphabetical list of all legislators go to http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/house/members/last-name.html

Please call and e-mail, members of the committee and Bette Grande about the bills listed above. And if you have more questions call NDRL 1-701-258-3811 or e-mail us at ndrl@midconetwork.com

Paul Maloney

Executive Director

North Dakota Right to Life