On Friday the North Dakota Senate passed two bills:
- The first forbids abortion after a baby’s heartbeat is detected. For some babies, that is as early as six weeks.
- And the second bans abortions in cases of genetic abnormalities or sex selection!
North Dakota House Bill 1305 passed and is now on its way to the governor. It is the first bill to specifically protect unborn children with genetic abnormalities in the United States.
I know the likelihood of these pieces of legislation surviving court challenges isn’t great, but it is heartening to have an elected body speak so clearly of their desire to protect unborn children with disabilities.
And we should seek to provide unusual protections for these children because they are unusually vulnerable as they are both not yet born AND because they are disabled. Two years ago I summarized some secular arguments from disability activists who wanted unborn children with disabilities to be protected; they recognized that this culture denigrates people with disabilities which results in much higher rates of abortion simply because the children will live with disability.
The North Dakota House and Senate took that great extra step in asserting that all children are worthy of protection, disabled and non-disabled, girls and boys. If we need to start with a heartbeat and a strong statement about not aborting children with disabilities or children who are the ‘wrong’ gender, then lets start there. But let’s not stop there.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
(Psalm 139:13-14 ESV)
The Works of God 
Oh, yea!!! That is terrific. Way to go, North Dakota!
I pray that even just one of these little ones will grow to be an advocate for the millions of others who have been slaughtered in the name of convenience.
I am the Director of Alternatives Community Centre and we specialise in Pregnancy Crisis Counselling, offering a positive alternative to abortion. Abortion is so easily available in SA and I was so encouraged by this article.
It is about time! I have prayed for changes in our abortion laws. The changes have happened. Thank you North Dakota! I wish I could move to your state!
Reblogged this on Samuel Company and commented:
Some Good News for a change – North Dakota passes stricter rules for abortion…
I hope one grows up and finds a cure for cancer!
Lets hope the downs kids grow up and find a cure for cancer
May this lead other states to follow
I believe
Godwill bless this state and the men who made it posible!
praise God!
I am not familiar with the bill. Is the life of the mother covered? What about ectopic pregnancies or other life threatening conditions?
I DO NOT APPROVE of abortions for disabled children or for any children. I am concerned that it may lead to women having back alley abortions and does North Dakota provide adequate funding for the education and care of disabled children?
Well, unlike most of those replying, I’ve actually spent time in North Dakota. There’s no work except for growing cereal and slaving in oil and coal, everyone who can moves away once they are 18, and those who can’t leave head for Canada on weekends because there’s nothing to do there. It’s an island of mediocrity. No other state follows their “example”. The oil and coal companies own most of it, aside from several desolate Indian Reservations. The people who are stuck there are church-goers, and they need it badly, to keep from going insane and committing suicide. It’s the state least visited by any kind of tourist. They have to pass these kinds of laws or nobody will report about them!
I am so glad to hear about this protection for unborn children. Even somebody who does not acknowledge God cannot fail to see that if we claim that the mother’s stomach belongs to the mother then it follows that the baby’s stomach belongs to the baby.
[…] Find out more on this story from John Knight. […]
Dear Invisible Mikey…don’t like ND, stay the hell away. The people are kind, generous, helpful and hardworking. I was born and raised there, it’s a tough life not for judgmental, lazy ass, pussy bums like you. Canadians come to ND on weekends to shop. And oil & coal companies own the rights to extract the minerals, not the land/state. The major crops are grains, sunflowers, potatoes, sugar beets-FOOD. The people have morals and go to church why does that bother you? Seems like you wish you had been aborted and now you’re suicidal…OMG BUMMER! Go get your unemployment & welfare checks so you can be a man again:)
The second specifically states that it bans abortion for cases of genetic abnormalities, this means that a if the fetus is determined to have developed a severe genetic disease, one that would have it live a pathetically short lifespan of severe pain, that it is morally more acceptable to force it to endure a six week torture session ending in death, than to abort it before it can feel any of that
[…] is why I’m so amazed at North Dakota. I don’t know much about law, but apparently a bill being passed doesn’t mean it will […]
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