Few Americans are aware that a “Gosnell Prerogative Act” has been introduced in Congress. This bill would permit the grisliest abortion providers—like the now-convicted murderer, Kermit Gosnell—to set the standard of care for abortion.
Unsurprisingly, this bill is not actually called the “Gosnell Prerogative Act”—instead, S.1696 is deceptively titled the “Women’s Health Protection Act.” However, it is difficult to imagine a bill less protective of women and their unborn children.
In spite of court interference, we have made great strides in the enactment and defense of state legislation that regulates and limits abortions since Roe v. Wade, with approximately 160 laws enacted across the country between 2011 and 2013 alone.
Now, imagine the laws in 32 states requiring varying degrees of informed consent prior to an abortion invalidated overnight. Twenty laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion – gone. Twenty-nine state laws requiring abortion clinics to meet some degree of safety standards—gone. Other abortion bans, admitting privileges requirements, regulations on abortion-inducing drugs, ultrasound requirements, and limitations on the use of public funds and facilities for abortions and abortion training–all gone.
Imagine the vast majority of pro-life laws wiped out with the enactment of a single piece of federal legislation. That is the purpose behind S. 1696.
S. 1696 attempts to override U.S. Supreme Court precedent and other legal standards and would logically permit abortionists to set the standard of care for their patients with no oversight from the state and no effective remedies for the abortion industry’s abuses. This bill could reasonably be interpreted to invalidate virtually any type of state restriction or regulation on abortion, and would also prohibit the future enactment of any of these laws.
S. 1696 adopts the myths that abortion is good for women, asserting that it is “essential to women’s health,” and, condescendingly, that abortion is “central to women’s ability to participate equally in the economic and social life of the United States.”
Abortion advocates understand that Roe v. Wade will likely be overturned in the future. Abortion providers are also shaken by the success of pro-life laws enacted across the country. One surefire way to guarantee that the abortion industry continues to flourish in this country would be to enact federal legislation that invalidates state pro-life laws.
Shamefully, the abortion industry is pursuing this strategy in the name of protecting women, when in reality they are much more concerned about protecting their pocket book.
The Supreme Court has acknowledged that abortion is fundamentally different than any other procedure. No other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a human life. Abortion is “fraught with consequences” that do not exist with other “procedures.”
States must be free to regulate abortion differently than they regulate life-affirming healthcare. Congress should not even consider a bill that would obliterate over four decades of labor on behalf of our unborn children and their mothers. Surely, the Gosnell scandal taught us that much.
The Gosnell Prerogative Act is an insult to all those who suffered because of Gosnell – and others like him. It should never see the light of day.
