Why Hasn’t Planned Parenthood Challenged Any of the State Bans on Abortion After 20 Weeks?

National   |   Sarah Zagorski   |   May 11, 2015   |   6:57PM   |   Washington, DC

This week the United States House of Representatives will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36), which would ban abortions after 20-weeks based on the concept that unborn children at this age can feel pain. House Republicans want to vote on the legislation now because it’s the anniversary of the murder conviction of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia “doctor” who killed babies born alive after abortion by snipping their spinal cords.

Of course, Planned Parenthood adamantly opposes the legislation because they say it threatens women’s health. However, the odd thing is they’ve never actually challenged any of the 20-week abortion bans in the country. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, Casey Mattox, explained why the ban hasn’t been to court.

He said, “The Texas restriction on abortions after 20 weeks has been in effect without challenge since October. This is no surprise. Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses have taken a similar posture with almost every other law limiting abortions after the unborn child can feel pain. Similar laws have been enacted, over the strenuous objections of big abortion in 12 other states. Yet, for all of the talk about how they would harm women’s health, abortionists have chosen not to challenge any of them in federal court except those in the Ninth Circuit. In fact, when an abortionist challenged the Georgia law, it did so in state court and has expressly argued that it is bringing only state law claims and is not asking for any decision on U.S. constitutional grounds.”

Mattox believes this is because there’s a good chance their arguments won’t hold weight outside of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is known for their pro-abortion ideology and for being one of the most overturned appellate courts in the nation. Currently, Planned Parenthood’s main objection is that the legislation would put women at risk by forcing them to continue pregnancies that are “unsafe.”

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The problem is this argument is erroneous because there really is no situation in which a mother must have a late-term abortion to save her life. As LifeNews previously reported, if a medical situation does occur that is extremely dire at this stage of pregnancy, doctors can delivery the baby early and do everything possible to save both mother and child.

Mattox concludes by explaining that this isn’t the first time Planned Parenthood has argued that pro-life laws threaten women’s health. He said, “[They] claimed that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act would harm women’s health. But when the Supreme Court called its bluff and invited abortionists to file an “as applied” challenge to that law whenever any woman truly needed the procedure for health reasons, Planned Parenthood went mysteriously silent. Almost 7 years later, Planned Parenthood has identified no such cases.”

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