Late term abortionist Dr. Leroy Carhart has left Nebraska after a law was passed banning abortions after 20 weeks.
Citing evidence that unborn babies feel pain as early as 20 weeks, legislators in Nebraska have passed a law banning abortions after this point in pregnancy. Since the law has been enacted, abortions in Nebraska have dropped by 10%. This statistic comes from the Nebraska Health & Human Services Department.
Pro-lifers credit this drop to the fact that one prominent abortionist who practiced in Nebraska for years has left the state. Dr. Leroy Carhart performed late-term abortions at his abortion clinic. After the ban on late-term abortions became official, he packed up and moved to Maryland, where he continues to perform abortions late in pregnancy.
By 20 weeks, an unborn baby is fully developed and many doctors believe he or she can feel pain. If the baby is female, she has a uterus and ovaries of her own. The baby sleeps and wakes, and even dreams – REM eye movements have been recorded in unborn infants of this age. He or she reacts to loud noises and soon will recognize his or her mother’s voice. The only part of the baby that is not fully developed is the lungs – they are not strong or developed enough to breathe air, which prevents the baby from surviving if he or she is born alive. Babies as early as 21 weeks have survived premature birth, but viability (the official time when babies are considered able to survive being born premature) is generally considered to be 23 to 24 weeks.
Pro-life activists who enacted the law were hoping that the pro-choice movement would challenge it in court. Had this happened, the law may have led to the overturning of Roe V Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion throughout the United States. Pro-choice groups have not taken this step, perhaps because they feared the overturning of Roe V Wade if the court finds in favor of the new law.
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