by Lauren Garcia,
Communications and Outreach Specialist, Nebraska Catholic Conference
By this time most years, the staff at the Nebraska Catholic Conference is working on fall projects, planning outreach events, and looking forward to the next Legislative session. But this year has been full of unexpected events, including 17 days of rigorous end-of-summer debate over the state budget, property taxes, and many other issues in the Nebraska Legislature.
Over the next few weeks, senators will work to reach agreements on these important issues as they complete their interrupted session. But no agreement or vote will be quite as significant as the historic pull motion to bring LB814, the bill to ban dismemberment abortion, out of committee.
A pull motion is an attempt to “pull” a bill out of a committee to the full Legislature for debate. It is used when a committee has failed to take action or is deadlocked on a vote. In the case of LB814, the Judiciary Committee took no action on the bill, so the sponsoring senator, Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, filed a pull motion. Thanks to the courage of pro-life senators and the voices of the pro-life movement, the vote Tuesday, July 21, was successful!
While we are celebrating that LB814 can now be debated by the full Legislature, the road to victory is long and we need to continue to educate about the brutal procedure of dismemberment abortion. During a dismemberment abortion, an abortionist inserts grasping forceps into the mother’s uterus and grabs a living unborn child’s body, limb by limb, tearing the baby apart until it bleeds to death.
In the committee hearing for LB814 in February, a former abortionist, Dr. Kathi Aultman, explained how these abortions are performed. After draining the amniotic fluid and bringing the baby into the lower portion of the uterus, Dr. Aultman said she would “use a clamp to grasp whatever [she] could, usually an arm or a leg, and by pulling down and twisting [she] would tear it from the body and place it on a tray.” After further describing this gruesome procedure, Dr. Aultman gave her support for LB814 because it would prevent “the infliction of needless pain and suffering on innocent human beings,” and would help to preserve the integrity of the medical profession.
A former abortion counselor also testified at the hearing for LB814. She watched a dismemberment on an ultrasound screen as it happened, while holding the mother’s hand. She described watching the doctor grasp the baby’s limbs with forceps. The baby pulled away each time and curled “into a fetal position with its back towards the forceps,” until he finally lost his fight for life. After the abortion, she saw “a little boy perfectly formed, but missing two arms and a leg,” assembled on a cold medical tray. She left the abortion industry three months later.
Her witness and the witness of so many others who have left the abortion industry after similar experiences are a living testament to having courage in the face of evil and the power of prayer.
We need your prayers and advocacy to ensure the passage of LB814. Please take a moment right now to say a prayer with your family and pass along a prayer request to your friends. Then, contact your State Senator by phone or email (find information at necatholic.org/be-an-advocate/join-our-network.html) and urge them to pass LB814 and end dismemberment abortion in Nebraska now.
As we pray and work to build a Culture of Life, let us reflect on these words from St. John Paul the Great: “Christ needs you to enlighten the world and to show it the path to life. The challenge is to make the Church’s ‘yes’ to Life concrete and effective. The struggle will be long, and it needs each one of you. Place your intelligence, your talents, your enthusiasm, your compassion and your fortitude at the service of life!”
