Serious Consideration on the Topic of Abortion
I created this two-page handout and this op-ed to clarify the major things I wanted my fellow legislators to consider about HB136 (2019) Abortion Amendments, which passed both houses and was signed by the governor. Soon thereafter, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit to prevent its enactment. That case is in the district court in Utah, where it has been paused pending the outcome of the Hobbs case out of Mississippi, a bill very similar to HB136.
Utah HB136 (2019) Abortion Amendments in a Nutshell
Rep. Cheryl Acton
We can and we should do more
to protect the nameless, the outcast, and the vulnerable.
- Governor Gary Herbert, State of the State Address, January 31, 2019
It’s time to remember that the first thing we all belong to is humanity.
- Alexander Scholzenitsyn
Consideration #1 Legitimate State Interests
As stated in the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, the State (of Utah) “has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman's health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a ‘compelling’ point at various stages of the woman's approach to term.” Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 162 (1973)
Consideration #2 Serious Post-Abortive Risks
The “medical, emotional, and psychological consequences of abortion are serious and can be lasting …” H.L. v. Matheson, 450 U.S. 398, 411 (1981).L. Bartlett et al., Risk factors for legal induced abortion mortality in the United States, Obstetrics and Gynecology 103(4):729 (2004).
uRisks to Women’s Physical Health
Women who undergo D&E abortion are subject to many physical risks, such as hemorrhage, uterine and cervical laceration, blood clots, pulmonary embolism, amniotic fluid embolism, hysterectomy, and death. University of Michigan Medicine, Dilation and Evacuation, https://uofmhealth.org/health-library/tw2462,
uRisks to Women’s Mental / Emotional Health
More than 102 peer-reviewed studies published in international medical journals…suggest an association between abortion and adverse mental health outcomes….A study in the British Journal of Psychiatry found an 81% increased risk of mental trauma after abortion. A Road Map Through the Supreme Court’s Back Alley, Issues in Law & Medicine. Fall2018, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p175-205. 31p.
uAbortion Significantly Increases Risk of Suicide
A study from Finland found a more than three-fold increase in risk of suicide after induced abortion.
Judge Gruender (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit) noted that “even the evidence relied upon by Planned Parenthood acknowledges a significant, known statistical correlation between abortion and suicide.”A Road Map Through the Supreme Court’s Back Alley, Issues in Law & Medicine. Fall2018, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p175-205. 31p.
uAbortion Poses Serious Risks to Future Fertility
In 2009, three systematic evidence reviews were published that found an increased risk of pre-term birth after abortion. Placenta previa is also greatly increased.
A 2007 study in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine concluded that complications of pre-term birth after induced abortion for mother and child cost an estimated $1.2 billion in annual health care costs.
A Road Map Through the Supreme Court’s Back Alley, Issues in Law & Medicine. Fall2018, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p175-205. 31p.
uAbortion Risks for Women Increase with Gestational Age
Abortion-related mortality increases with each week of gestation https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Practice-Bulletins/Committee-on-Practice-Bulletins-Gynecology/Second-Trimester-Abortion
Consideration #3 Fetal Pain Perception
§ “It is universally accepted that the simplest neural circuitry required to detect and respond to pain is in place by 8-10 weeks….What is not universally accepted is at what point in development the ability to detect and respond to pain becomes psychologically and emotionally meaningful—both to the fetus and to society….Connections between the spinal cord and subcortical structures in the thalamus… are completed by 18 weeks.” The Development of Human Fetal Pain Perception, Maureen L. Condic, University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy 29 August 2015
§ “The human fetus can mount substantial stress responses. These have been shown… by examining stress hormone levels in the blood…before and after invasive procedure… the redistribution of blood flow within the fetus…. a significant fall in the pulsatility index …. These responses have been found at all gestations studied from as early as 16 weeks.” https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-0528.1999.tb08424.x
Consideration #4 Inhumane Dismemberment Procedure
§ The procedure employed in 95% of second trimester abortions involves the dismemberment and crushing of a living fetus, the allowance of which, for elective reasons, stands in sharp contrast with other statutes concerning the treatment of human life, including deceased human life, making it desirable to limit elective abortion to earlier stages of pregnancy. https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Practice-Bulletins/Committee-on-Practice-Bulletins-Gynecology/SecondTrimester-Abortion?IsMobileSet=false -
§ For example, Utah Code 76-9-704 Abuse or desecration of a dead human body -- Penalties. …
(2) A person is guilty of abuse or desecration of a dead human body if the person intentionally and unlawfully: …(b) disturbs, moves, removes, conceals, or destroys a dead human body or any part of it; …(d) dismembers a dead human body to any extent, or damages or detaches any part or portion of a dead human body;
Consideration #5 Preserves Right to Abortion
HB136 preserves a woman’s right to have an elective abortion, while limiting gestational age to 18 weeks.
Consideration #6 International/Western European Limits on Abortion
Though some consider 18 weeks restrictive, the limit is several weeks longer than abortion limits in most of the world’s countries, including most Western European countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHrihwWJv8o
Consideration #7 Preserves Five Exceptions / Adds One Additional Exception
HB136 preserves in code all of the exceptions allowing abortion after 18 weeks (briefly: life of the mother, permanent impairment of the mother, rape, incest, and fatal fetal defect), while adding one additional exception for a severe brain abnormality that is uniformly diagnosable and would cause the unborn child to live in a mentally vegetative state. "Severe brain abnormality" does not include: Down syndrome; spina bifida; or any other malformation, defect, or condition that does not cause an individual to live in a mentally vegetative state.
Consideration #8 Cost
HB136 has a fiscal note of $0. In-house attorneys from the AG’s office will defend the bill if/when it is challenged. No cost at all if we win a court challenge.
Consideration #9 States Approach Abortion Differently
NY and VA have the abortion laws they want. Utah should be able to enact reasonable abortion laws that reflect the will of the people of our state.
Consideration #10 Utah Has a Culture of Life
Utah, with the nation’s highest birthrate, should be the safest place in the nation for women and children (for all people), born and unborn.
Consideration #11 Personhood Has Been Convincingly Established
In 1973’s majority opinion on Roe, the justices conceded that if “personhood is established” for the unborn, the case for abortion rights “collapses, for the fetus’ right to live would then be guaranteed specifically by the [fourteenth] amendment” (Roe, 410 U.S. at 156-157.) If having unique DNA, a heartbeat, fingerprints, and distinct facial features does not establish personhood, what will?
In 2017 Utah had 2,973 abortions. The total for the US in 2017 is estimated at 881,000. The total number of abortions worldwide in 2014 is estimated at 56 million (from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.)
U.S. DEATHS FROM WARS (as of 2019):
The Civil War. 750,000
WW II 405,399
WW I 116,516
Vietnam 58,209
Korean Conflict 54,246
American Revolution 25,000
Gulf War 4,500
Afghanistan 2,216
U.S. LIVES LOST FROM ALL U.S. WARS 1,431,086
U.S. LIVES LOST TO ABORTION SINCE ROE v WADE (1973-2019): 46,000,000+
A May 2018 Gallup poll showed that
59% of Americans think abortion should be legal in the first trimester (weeks 1-12)
28% of Americans think abortion should be legal in the second trimester (weeks 13-26)
13% of Americans think abortion should be legal in the third trimester (weeks 27+)
I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am NOT willing to stand aside and allow THE CONCEPT OF EXPENDABLE HUMAN LIVES to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live. – Dr. Mildred Jefferson, 1st black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School
Crisis pregnancy is a very real problem, but WHAT THE COMMUNITY AROUND A WOMAN MUST TACKLE IS THE CRISIS rather than the pregnancy. The community should focus on finding a way to solve…the difficulties that may be causing the crisis, but what must not be done is to kill an innocent unborn baby, which is already a unique, irreplaceable human being. – Obianuju Ekeocha
Rep. Cheryl K. Acton
Web Site: CherylActon.com
Op-Ed Published in the Salt Lake Tribune
Feb. 24, 2019
A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on. - Carl Sandberg
Published in the Salt Lake Tribune at link:
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/02/24/commentary-proposed/
Commentary: Proposed Abortion Law Would Set a Reasonable Standard
By Rep. Cheryl Acton
As the sponsor of HB136 in the Utah House, I’ve had to get up to speed quickly on the subject of abortion after a lifetime of averting my eyes. Abortion is not a pleasant topic, and no one really wants to talk about it or think about it. It's also a very contentious issue – a barn-burner of a word not to be mentioned in polite company. Above all, we do not want to know the gory details of the abortion procedure, perhaps because if we did know those details, we might be compelled to do something. Second trimester dismemberment abortion shocks the conscience.
HB136 narrows the window of opportunity for a woman in Utah to receive an abortion from 22 weeks gestation (or “viability,” the Constitutionally mandated minimum) to 18 weeks. It also expands the current array of exceptions to include a new exception for very severe brain abnormalities. Under this bill, a woman may obtain an abortion for any of these reasons after 18 weeks, and for any reason at all before 18 weeks. The bill is a reasonable step in the right direction that would save some babies’ lives and prevent some suffering, not only for the babies, but also for their mothers.
That’s right – women themselves are often secondary casualties of abortion. Like any surgical procedure, abortion can cause serious complications, up to and including maternal death, though severe physical problems as a result of abortion are rare. What is more common, and very under-reported, are the psychological risks of abortion, including a greatly increased risk of suicide. A Finnish study showed a six-fold increased risk for suicide in the first 12 months after abortion. The British Journal of Psychiatry published a 30-year study showing an 81% increase in mental health problems for post-abortive women. Future fertility problems like pre-term birth and placenta previa are also common side-effects of abortion. All of these risks increase with gestational age, making it desirable to limit abortion to an earlier point in pregnancy.
When Roe v Wade became the law of the land 46 years ago, we did not know these risks existed. Lacking the window into the womb that is modern ultrasound technology, we could not watch babies in utero fanning their fingers and sucking their thumbs. We did not suspect that fetuses as young as 8-10 weeks could perceive pain and mount “substantial stress responses,” indicated by stress hormone levels in the blood, blood flow to the brain, and changes in the pulse.
What are we to do with 46 years of accumulated data on the after-effects of abortion? The courts have repeatedly said that our pre-viability options are limited. If we want to abort children on their due date, as they allow in New York and Virginia, we are free to do so, but if we want to restrict abortion to prevent maternal complications and fetal pain, we will be sued.
As a society, we absolve ourselves of complicity in the atrocity of abortion by parroting familiar mantras: “It’s between a woman and her doctor.”(This is something a modern-day Pontius Pilot might say, forgetting that an innocent life hangs in the balance.) “Keep abortion safe and legal.”(Abortion is never safe for the baby, and often it is not safe for the woman herself.) “My body, my choice.”(The body within the woman’s body is powerless and has no legal protection at all. He or she is not even acknowledged as a human being); and my favorite from a legislative perspective: “Abortion is settled law.”Slavery and segregation were once “settled law” – as settled as abortion has ever been – but Constitutionality did not make them morally right.
There are few absolutes, but I have observed that love is always the answer, no matter the question, and life is always better than death. To paraphrase Pablo Casals, our challenge as a society is to find a way to make the world worthy of its children. In order to do that, we must first let children be born. Life and death take care of themselves in the natural course of things – let us find ways to take care of each other.