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Culture & Conversation Abortion
This law was last updated on Feb 13, 2019
This law is Anti–Choice
HB 77
Failed to Pass
Feb 21, 2017
Co-sponsors: 74
Primary Sponsors: 1
Total Sponsors: 75
HB 77 would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks, as well as abolish “dismemberment abortions,” except in the case of a medical emergency.
20-Week Ban
The bill would prohibit a person from performing or inducing an abortion upon another person when the gestational age of the fetus is 20 or more weeks unless:
Dismemberment Abortion
The bill would also prohibit an individual from performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” upon another individual when the gestational age of the fetus is less than 20 weeks unless:
The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” to mean:
“The act of knowingly and purposefully causing the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments. The term does not include an abortion which is exclusively performed through suction curettage.”
Any person who violates this provision would be committing a felony of the third degree.
The bill provides that the pregnant patient may not be held liable for performing or attempting to perform a dismemberment abortion.
This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)
Related Legislation
The ‘dismemberment abortion’ ban provision is based on model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee.
Companion bill to SB 3.
Similar to SB 888, which failed to pass in 2016.
Co-sponsor
Primary Sponsor