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Senate OKs rules for living fetuses

Abortion bill may have sweeping effects

Saturday, March 31, 2001
By Dennis Conrad
The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD — The Senate approved new rules Friday for a
rarely used abortion procedure in which the fetus sometimes survives briefly,
but foes said the move would have far more sweeping effects.  The package of
bills essentially would require hospitals to provide care for any fetus that
lives through an abortion."  This ... suggests that appropriate steps be taken
to treat that baby as a citizen of the United States and afforded all the
rights and protections it deserves under the Constitution," said the sponsor,
Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R-Palos Park).  Critics argued key language is worded so
that it threatens a woman's right to abortion. They said the legislation is
doomed to defeat in the House or certainly in the federal courts.  Past
abortion rulings in federal courts have suggested that states can take steps
to protect a viable fetus, one able to survive outside the uterus. Viability
generally occurs around the sixth month of pregnancy. Illinois law allows
abortion of a viable fetus only to save the life or health of the
mother.  These bills, because of how they define what would be a "born-alive
infant," would effectively restrict abortions even before the fetus is
viable, argued Mary Dixon, an American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist."  We
think the bills impose an undue burden on the woman's constitutional right to
have an abortion pre-viability," Dixon said. "These bills would impose
liability on doctors such that physicians would no longer perform abortions
and that would, in fact, burden the abortion right that women have."  The
Illinois State Medical Society had no immediate comment.  The lead bill was
sent to the House on a 34-6 roll call, with 12 senators voting "present." The
other two measures in the package passed by similar margins.  The legislation
targets abortions in which doctors induce premature labor, delivering a fetus
that sometimes survives an hour or more.  The procedure usually is performed
before the fetus reaches 20 weeks and when the fetus has problems that give
it little chance of living long after birth. There are no statistics on the
number of such procedures, but they are relatively rare, said Pam Sutherland,
president of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.  O'Malley's bills include
a declaration of intent to protect children born alive as a result of an
induced labor abortion. They would require the presence of a second doctor
just to monitor and care for the fetus.  The fetus would be "fully recognized
as a human person" and all reasonable measures consistent with good medical
practice would have to be undertaken to preserve the life and health of the
child.  A parent or the county's public guardian could sue any health care
provider that fails to provide medical care.  Colleen Connell, the Illinois
ACLU's executive director, said the bills would require "futile and
expensive" care when there is no doubt the fetus has little time to live.  The
care requirements for a second attending physician, she said, would have to
be extended to even 8-week-old fetuses that have heartbeats or 12-week-old
fetuses with movement of voluntary muscles."  The Constitution does not say
that a child born must be viable in order to live, to be accorded rights of
citizens," O'Malley said. "It simply says it must be born."

© 2001 Associated
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