National Right to Life sets legislative strategy conference to capitalize on state election victorie

WASHINGTON (November 9, 2010) – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the nation’s largest pro-life group with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide, today announced that it will hold a State Legislative Strategy Conference for state right-to-life leaders and key state legislators to plan how best to capitalize on dramatic pro-life gains in state legislative and gubernatorial elections last week. The conference will be held Tuesday, December 7, in the Washington area.

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Among the measures to be discussed will be a model bill based on Nebraska’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prevents abortions after 20 weeks from fertilization, when substantial medical evidence indicates unborn children feel pain [See Doctorsonfetalpain.org]. The Nebraska law took effect October 15, 2010.

“As a result of last week’s elections, the number of states where pro-life legislation stands a realistic chance of enactment has substantially increased,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., NRLC Director of State Legislation. “At twenty weeks into pregnancy, unborn children have pain receptors throughout their bodies connected by nerves to the brain’s thalamus, they recoil from painful stimuli, their stress hormones shoot up, and they are routinely anesthetized when undergoing fetal surgery. While we expect substantial resistance from abortion advocates, we believe most Americans agree in rejecting abortions that cause excruciating pain, and look forward to protective laws being given serious consideration in a significant number of states.”

Other measures likely to be discussed at the strategy conference include bills to ensure that women contemplating abortion can see ultrasounds of their unborn children, bills to “opt out” of abortion coverage in state insurance exchanges mandated by the new Obama Health Care Law, and bills to protect the right of patients not to be denied lifesaving medical treatment, food, and fluids against their will. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life organizations and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide, is the nation's largest pro-life group. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.