Pro-life bills set to die in Alaska legislature

By Joel Davidson
Catholicanchor.org

A number of bills are now before Alaska legislators in the State House and Senate in Juneau. The following legislation is a round-up of bills that deal directly with pro-life issues. All of these bills were introduced into the State House or Senate in early 2009. However, they have since stalled in the Health and Social Services Committees of the Senate or the House. If these bills are not brought to a vote during this session, they will die in committee. The current session ends April 18.

SB 5 and HB 34: Partial-Birth Abortion

These bills would explicitly ban partial-birth abortion in Alaska — a procedure that entails a baby being partially born and then killed through abortion. Alaska is one of only 14 states that have not restricted this practice. Senate Bill 5 was introduced last year and has been sitting in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee since Jan. 21, 2009. House Bill 34 was introduced last year and has been sitting in the House Health and Social Services Committee since Jan. 20, 2009.

SB 6 and HB 35: Notice & consent for minor’s abortion

These bills would require abortion practitioners to notify parents before they perform abortions on minor girls. It would also require parental consent for the abortion to proceed unless the minor chooses a judicial bypass of the parental consent provision. Both bills allow exemption from parental consent for married minors, minors who have been legally emancipated, minors who have entered the armed forces and minors who are employed and self-subsisting. The bills also provide for a judicial bypass for sexual abuse cases and include a provision prohibiting parents from coercing a pregnant minor to have an abortion.

Senate Bill 6 was introduced last year but has stalled in the Health and Social Services Committee since Jan. 21, 2009. House Bill 35 was introduced Jan. 20, 2009 and received a number of hearings early on. However, since April 18, 2009, it has sat in the House Health and Social Services Committee.

More than half the states have parental notice or consent laws on the books.

SB 15: Abortion, fetal pain, anesthesia and informed consent

A number of studies show that many women suffer psychologically after undergoing an abortion and some are further traumatized when they later discover information that was not made available to them at the time they made their decision. Currently, abortion practitioners are not required to tell women that the unborn baby may suffer pain during the abortion. At least a dozen states have initiated measures requiring that women receive information about the pain their fetuses feel during the abortion. Specifically, women must be told about the availability of anesthesia to prevent pain to the unborn child. Some states require abortion practitioners to advise women that, by 20 weeks gestation, an unborn child can experience pain. They are further advised that anesthesia is routinely administered to unborn children for prenatal surgery at 20 weeks gestation or later.

SB 15 brings Alaska in alignment with other states that provide more information to women regarding abortion.

This bill was introduced last year but has stalled in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee since Jan. 21, 2009.

SB 181: Ultrasounds before abortions

A number of states have passed a variety of informed consent laws intended to ensure that a woman’s decision to abort her baby is fully informed. To this end, 16 states have enacted laws requiring an abortion practitioner to give a woman who is considering an abortion the opportunity to view, and receive from the doctor a description of, the ultrasound images prior to the abortion.

Senate Bill 181 would require that when an ultrasound is performed by the abortion practitioner, the image be displayed so that the woman can see it if she so chooses. No longer would the mother in crisis need to ask to see the ultrasound. Instead the physician would be required to display the ultrasound screen to her. By the same token, however, there must be nothing to prevent the mother from averting her eyes from the screen if she decides not to view it.

This bill was introduced last year and but has stalled in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee since April 6, 2009.

SB 197: Pharmacist’s right of conscience

This bill addresses the moral and ethical decisions pharmacists face with respect to abortion and so-called “emergency contraception.” It allows pharmacists to refuse to refer, recommend or dispense emergency contraceptives; protects pharmacists from civil claims of damages for exercising this right and prohibits discriminatory employment action against pharmacists who exercise this right.

Emergency contraception often works by destroying a young human embryo. This raises moral concerns about causing an early abortion.

Numerous states have enacted conscience clauses that recognize the health care professional’s right to exercise conscientious refusal.

Currently, conscience clauses in federal law protect conscientious objection based on both religious and moral grounds, in contexts ranging from military service, capital punishment and sterilization. These laws are based on the understanding that forcing someone to engage in activity that violates deeply held conscientious beliefs is a violation of human rights and an abuse of government.

This bill was introduced on Jan. 10 of this year and referred to the Senate Health and Social Services Committee, where it currently awaits action.

Editor’s note: Sen. Bettye Davis is the chair of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee. She can be contacted by phone at 465-3822 or by email at Senator_Bettye_Davis@legis.state.ak.us.

The co-chairs of the House Health and Social Services Committee are Rep. Wes Keller (phone: 465-2186; email: Representative_Wes_Keller@legis.state.ak.us) and Rep. Bob Herron (phone: 465-4942; email: Representative_Bob_Herron@legis.state.ak.us).