Alaska Representatives Christopher Kurka and David Eastman, both from Wasilla, have reintroduced a Life at Conception Act with the goal of directly challenging the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade which declared a right to abortion.
Closely mirroring legislation Eastman introduced two years ago, House Bill 206 would establish that all persons from the moment of conception have a natural right to life, and are entitled to equal protection under the law. The legislation would outlaw abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, but does not criminalize situations where efforts to save a mother’s life result in the unintended death of a baby.
“The Declaration of Independence plainly declares: ‘all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,’” Kurka said in a May 10 statement upon introducing the bill. “The Constitution of the State of Alaska is even more explicit: ‘all persons have a natural right to life,’ and “no person shall be deprived of life … without due process of law,’” he observed.
Essentially, Kurka’s argument is that the case for the legalized killing of the unborn has collapsed.
Kurka noted that the U.S. Supreme Court indicated in Roe v. Wade that if a fetus’ personhood is established, the whole case for abortion would collapse, for the unborn child’s right to life would then be protected by the 14th Amendment.
“With the quantum leap in technology and scientific understanding since 1973, it is impossible to defend the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade,” Kurka’s stated. “It’s time to stop being science deniers, to move out of the dark ages and update our laws to reflect current scientific knowledge.”
He added that those who persist in claiming that an unborn child is not a human person are akin to “modern day flat-earthers” who have no respect for reason or science.
Kurka observed that with 3-D and 4-D ultrasounds, combined with scientific advancement in understanding of DNA and child development, “we are in a much more advantageous position to identify the child in the womb than the Supreme Court was in 1973.”
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Essentially, Kurka’s argument is that the case for the legalized killing of the unborn has collapsed.
“The only question left is whether we’re going to be honest with ourselves as a society, and summon the will and moral courage to do what we know is right,” he said.
Critics of outright abortion bans include some among the pro-life movement who believe demanding too much too soon would create a backlash. There is also fear that the U.S. Supreme Court might strike down abortion bans and deliver a setback to the pro-life movement. Many in this camp hold that an incremental strategy is more effective with the ultimate goal of eventually ending abortion.
While no state has successfully enacted and applied an abortion ban from the moment of conception, supporters of this approach believe that laws directly challenging Roe v. Wade are needed, even if their passage is a long shot. Taking this approach generates a public conversation wherein Christians can clearly articulate and defend the right to life from the moment of conception.
TAKING ACTION
- House Bill 206 has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Click here to contact committee members about scheduling it for a public hearing.
11 Comments
It’s time we stop MURDERING children and saying it’s OK. You complain constantly about shootings but not one word ever about parents MURDERING children. It’s time to make murdering children illegal. I think it’s the number one on the death list. I vote to support this bill!
they will call a one cell organism on mars life but refuse a child at conception fuzzy science
…Maybe the american and european liberators of Nazi concentration camps should had taken a step down approach before completely ending concentration camps gradually reducing the deaths before complete closure. Same thing has been occurring including the church’s silence. Nothing has changed. Governments are still silently killing lives for science, medicine, and oppression.
I can’t believe we need a law to state the truth, life begins at conception and all life has a right to be protected. Thank you to these legislatures. I am in support of these bill.
Stop the KILLINGS
If you don’t want to take care of your mistakes or the inconvenience.
There are so many people out there that will raise the child as there own.
AGAIN STOP THE KILLINGS
My opinion on this subject may no be popular on this page: however I feel I must say it anyways. I am not a fan of abortions however I have seen an 11 year old child who was molested by a family member almost die giving birth. I am not saying that abortions should be birth control but I do believe there are situations in which a victim of rape should have a choice early on in pregnancy such as the abortion pill. I do think there should be a cut off date no matter the situation that caused the pregnancy which should be fetal viability meaning when the baby can live independently of their mother which from my understanding is around 21 weeks. I also believe that life at conception is pushing it a little far and may take away the option of the morning after pill for young people who made a mistake and are not prepared to be a parent. I also disagree with tbe concept that in order to be a conservative I must buy into the extremes of the right…we have roe vs wade which is a good compromise and we should just leave this alone. We have bigger fish to fry and will lose our younger conservatives if we get stuck on this one issue that was resolved by the Supreme Court many years ago. What we need to focus on is our 1st and 2nd amendment rights which are truly in jeopardy not focus on bills that will never have enough support to pass…such a waste of time and resources when we are facing losing everything to communism…please focus on election integrity, our 1st and 2nd amendment rights before arguing the same old arguments that will just wast valuable time that we do not have.
Every effort should be made to treat and save the life of any mother with a life-threatening condition. However, that does not justify the intentional killing of her child. She can be treated without murdering her baby — even if the baby does not survive the emergency treatment. A child conceived in rape does not deserve the death sentence. What other crime executes the innocent bystander instead of the perpetrator? Fetal viability laws will save very few lives, as the overwhelming majority of abortions are committed in the first 6-9 weeks. Life BEGINS at conception; how is that “pushing it a little far?” What if someone said saving people your age is “pushing it a little far?” The morning after pill is abortifacient – it can kill the growing embryo if conception has already occurred. Equal protection for all humans is not an “extreme of the right.” Roe v. Wade is NOT a compromise! It’s a horrible, evil ruling by a gang of men who were mocking life, and it has opened the door to any abortion at any time for any reason.
We have bigger fish to fry? Seriously? Aside from being a dreadful choice of words, what is more important than the tiny, innocent, helpless human being who has never existed before and, once murdered, will never exist again? Protecting humans from slaughter is NEVER a waste of valuable time. Without the right to life, all other rights are useless.
Preborn Child Equality Act of 2021
Proverbs 24:11-12 (KJV) If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
SOLUTION: In the interest of reducing unwanted pregnancy AND curbing violence, I propose all men and boys who are involved in any violent situation should be immediately surrendered for medical sterilization. Let’s get some laws on the books that govern what men and boys can and can’t do with their bodies. Lower unwanted pregnancy rates and lower instances of violence. WIN-WIN!!
And ectopic pregnancies? What do you propose for the woman? The fetus will not survive and the woman has a good chance of dying when she bleeds out.
I am not a doctor, but I have been researching ectopics for several years now. Treatment of an ectopic pregnancy is not the same as an abortion. No abortion clinic anywhere treats ectopic pregnancies – that is a surgical emergency and cannot be treated by abortion because the child is not in the womb. In most cases , the child has already died when the ectopic is discovered or when the tube ruptures. In the rare event the child has not died, the physician may be able to utilize what is known as “watchful waiting,” depending on the location of the ectopic and the stability of the mother. The physician keeps a very close watch on the mother (usually admitting her to the hospital) to wait for the baby to pass naturally and watch for any symptoms that her tube is rupturing. Although nobody is suggesting for a moment that we simply allow a rupture to happen without emergency treatment, it is a fact (source: “Ectopic Personhood” that only a small percentage of women die following a tubal rupture. And if a woman is hemorrhaging, she can be auto-transfused — meaning her own blood is recirculated back into her while her condition is treated. Occasionally, the embryo migrates into the womb unaided. What should never be done is methotrexate to intentionally kill the child. If the tube and child must be removed to save the mother’s life, this is a tragedy but it falls within the concept of “emergency delivery,” even though the child will surely die outside the womb. Finally, the medical community and news media are quick to mock the suggestion that we at least attempt to relocate the embryo into the womb – however, we do so every day with IVF embryos, and a successful ectopic relocation was reported in a medical journal in 1914 — and it was never proven false. We have the medical technology to transplant an ectopic embryo. Dr. Grudzinsky, fertility specialist, stated: “The only thing remaining is to perfect the technique.”