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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 13, 2022 10:03 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Andrew Lewis |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Stop Experiments and Trafficking of Electively Aborted Babies Act |
| Donation of a human body for scientific purposes is honorable and valuable, though significant precautions must be taken to ensure ethical boundaries are maintained. This bill ensures that status-quo scientific research can continue to occur when a child dies because of stillbirth, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or dies because of non-elective abortions reasonably necessary to prevent either the death of the pregnant mother or the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the mother. However, experimenting upon or harvesting organs from electively aborted babies is unethical. This bill would modify the existing Abortion Control Act’s section regarding experimentation or research on a dead child to prevent harvesting and experimenting upon babies who die because of an elective abortion. This bill would also ensure that pregnant women are protected from coercion and face no risk of liability because of this bill. Harvesting of body parts from electively aborted babies creates perverse incentives and structures in society for a continual supply of bodies that are electively chosen for abortion. There should be zero incentive for someone to choose an elective abortion, and there should be zero incentive for continued societal structures that benefit from a continued supply of bodies that are electively chosen for abortion. But current law incentivizes and unavoidably props up these structural systems. They also have the unavoidable potential to create coercive pressure on women to follow through with an elective abortion because of the chance that it might serve some utilitarian end. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |