Wisconsin may become the 11th state in the US to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
Republicans in the midwestern state announced a bill on Thursday that could become law within weeks.
Governor Scott Walker, who used a moderate-sounding campaign ad on abortion during his re-election last fall, said he would sign the bill when it crosses his desk. Republicans control both houses of the legislature.
The law would make it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks and impose a $10,000 fine along with a possible three-year, six month prison term.
The state revised its child abuse statutes in 1998 to allow authorities to take a fetus into protective custody if the mother is abusing drugs or alcohol during her pregnancy.
The bill’s sponsor in the state assembly, Republican representative Jesse Kremer posted a statement on his web site explaining that the procedure would impose undue pain on a fetus.
“Viability is not the only compelling reason to preserve life. It has been determined that by the fifth month of pregnancy, or 20 weeks, an unborn child is able to feel pain,” he wrote.
Science casts doubt on the accuracy of this statement, and a 2010 report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists indicated that even at 24 weeks fetuses do not feel pain.
While the question of pain may be debated, health practitioners and others point out that many genetic defects, some of which may be fatal, may not be discovered before 20 weeks of gestation. The time needed to complete genetic tests is one factor, but the fetus’s own development, for example in relation to cardiac issues, can be another. The Guttmacher Institute, a research entity focusing on reproductive health, found that 89% of abortions are conducted during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
“Last time I checked, not even one legislator was a doctor, much less someone specialized in women’s health or obstetrics,” Democratic representative Melissa Sargent told the Guardian. “I’ve had so many people call my office and share such personal stories of where this legislation would be very, very damaging. I’m concerned that people are being political and partisan rather than focusing on what we really value as a society.”
Governor Walker recently came under fire from conservatives for his lukewarm answers about abortion in an interview on Fox News. During his re-election campaign last fall, however, Walker declared himself “pro-life” and yet supportive of legislation that “leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor”.
