Iowa’s 20 week “fetal pain” ban has passed the state house, and now awaits less certain victory in the senate chamber.  The debate was intense and the stories became quite personal.

Via WHO.com:

As legislators debated–several shared personal, and emotional, experiences. “I have fought for seven and a half years to prevent still-births in Iowa.” Polk County Democratic Representative Janet Peterson said choking back tears, “I meet with parents regularly who have lost babies to still birth and miscarriage to help give them the courage and the strength to try to have a baby again. It takes away a family’s ability to make a decision they believe is right.”

My daughter Laura lives in Maryland.  She and her husband discovered they were going to be the proud parents of triplets,” Representative Helen Miller (D) Webster County said, “The doctors advised my daughter that they did not think she would be able to carry to term…We get a call middle of the night. My daughter is in extremely, extremely bad shape.  Logan was stillborn, Samantha died 24 hours later and my third little girl died a day after that. And my daughter almost died”

Iowa’s 20 week ban, a direct response to Dr. Leroy Carhart’s decision to begin providing later-term abortions in Council Bluffs due to the passing of an identical ban in neighboring Nebraska, is expected to be signed into law by the governor should it win senate approval.