Ohio 20-Week Abortion Ban Goes Into Effect

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (ChurchMilitant.com) - A new Ohio law, banning abortion up to 20 weeks gestation, went into effect March 15.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (SB 127) allows for the killing of children up to 20 weeks but places a total ban with no exceptions for any time afterwards.

Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said, "Whether we save one life or 1,000 lives, it's the right thing to do, and we're going to keep doing it."

Brigit Jones of Catholic Stand, however, objects to this approach: "Much like the morally noxious idea of relativism, incremental thinking focuses on a particular detail of an issue and fails to see the larger picture. Instead of thinking of babies as equally valuable individuals, who all have a right to live, this mindset separates subcategories of babies from the rest."

Pro-abortion advocates have yet to issue a challenge to the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the courts, but if a challenge is issued in court it is likely to be stopped by a federal judge. In August, U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett issued an injunction blocking an Ohio bill defunding Planned Parenthood at the request of the abortion giant.

On the same day the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act went into effect, the Iowa Senate also approved a bill banning abortion at 20 weeks.

After the Ohio senate session, Sen. Randy Feenstra said, "The conversation and dialogue on this subject has always perplexed me. At 20 weeks, it is a life — it is a girl; it is a boy. The question that I have always asked myself is, 'Why shouldn't that life have rights?'"

The bill further states that anyone who murders a child in the womb after 20 weeks gestation commits a class C felony. According to reports, "The legislation also allows an exception for a pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks when a doctor determines the pregnancy has a fetal anomaly incompatible with life."

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