A state lawmaker says banning a method of carrying out second-trimester abortions would eliminate a particularly inhumane procedure, but abortion rights groups say her bill is unconstitutional.
Representative Tila Hubrecht (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The bill sponsored by Representative Tila Hubrect (R-Dexter) would ban using medical implements to dismember a fetus in the womb to complete an abortion.
Patty Skain with Missouri Right to Life argues such abortions would support the illegal sales of fetal tissue, which Planned Parenthood has been accused of participating in.
“The reason they predominantly use dismemberment is because the baby’s alive, the tissue’s alive, and they want that tissue for research,” said Skain.
Skain says videos released last summer accusing Planned Parenthood of being involved in such sales, “prove that there is a healthy business in tissue extraction and the selling of those parts.”
Abortion rights supporters say that argument against Planned Parenthood has been debunked and those videos have been dismissed as unreliable and edited to support abortion opponents’ claims.
Of the legislation, Sarah Rossi with the ACLU says the U.S. Supreme Court has already said bans of that type of abortion are unconstitutional.
“This is actually the most cut-and-dry line when it comes to the slew of abortion regulations that are being proposed this session,” said Rossi.
She said that particular procedure has been considered twice by the Court, “and both times the Court found that you can’t ban this procedure.”
Similar laws in Oklahoma and Kansas have been blocked by pending lawsuits.
The bill has not come to a vote in a House committee.
