Oracle The
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013
HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 18
Arkansas bill to abolish abortions based on fetal pain Stephanie Hartman News Editor
The anti-abortion campaign is making advances in the state of Arkansas. Three bills further restricting the circumstances under which a woman can get an abortion have been proposed by both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. The Senate bill would keep taxes from being used to pay for abortions. The first House bill aims to stop all abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected and the last bill would ban abortions on or after 20 weeks of pregnancy. On March 4, 2011, Rep. Andy Mayberry, a representative in the Arkansas House of Representatives and a Henderson graduate, proposed House Bill 1037, also known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This bill would ban performing abortions on pregnancies that were 20 or more weeks along. After a deputy from the office of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel spoke out against the bill, it failed to make it past the House Committee on Public Health, lacking only two votes. “A bill similar to this one was passed in Nebraska a couple years back,” Mayberry said. “I love this piece of legislation.” This year, the bill was re-proposed to the committee, and passed. In the bill, there shows evidence that at 16 weeks of preg-
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nancy, the unborn child has pain receptors throughout its body, and by 20 weeks, those receptors are linked to the brain of the baby. One of the major disagreements with the pain issue is that many doctors believe that pain cannot be felt unless there is a full functioning cerebral cortex. However, Mayberry fights against this in his bill, saying that children born with hydranencephaly, or lacking most of the cerebral cortex, are still capable of feeling pain. When painful stimuli is applied to an unborn child of 20 weeks or later, the child recoils away from the stimuli, and there is also an increase in the fetus’ stress hormones that are known as the stress response. Mayberry’s bill also states that fetal anesthesia is used when surgery is performed on unborn children. There is some debate, however, about whether or not the government should be involved with such an individually personal issue. Some students, like Noel Garling, a junior mass media major and pro-choice advocate, believe that the government shouldn’t be involved. “Is it okay to tell a woman she can’t have an abortion, yet the lives of people on life support are entrusted to those with power of attorney?” Garling asked. “I believe that it is a woman’s choice about what she does with her own body. At the end of the day, if a woman wants to go get an abortion, then she should have that right.” The opposition to government interference is not unknown to the pro-life students on campus. “I feel that the government doesn’t need a say because it’s a personal choice and the more control we give them, the more they are going to invade our privacy,” said Kim Davidson, a senior nursing major and prochoice student.
Current law states that abortions can be performed when the fetus is a result of rape or incest. The new bill will not include the exemption for rape or incest for anyone. “I think that it’s very unfortunate, but it’s still not endangering anybody,” Davidson said. “My only exception would be if it was endangering the health of the mother. In that case (referring to rape and incest), I would just say adoption.” The bill does include an exemption for abortions to occur if there is a direct threat to the health of the mother. However, if a mother subjects herself to harm in an attempt to attain an abortion, that is not covered under the new bill and would be considered illegal. Mayberry’s bill specifies several times that the exemptions “shall not be deemed to exist if it is based on a claim or diagnosis that the woman will engage in conduct that she intends to result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” In short, a mother can’t harm herself in any way just to get an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. This bill is not merely just a political move for Mayberry. This bill strikes home for him in a way that most do not know. “This bill is really personal to me because a lot of abortions are due to a prenatal diagnosis of a disability,” said Mayberry. “92 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome are aborted and 87 percent diagnosed with Spina Bifida are aborted.” Mayberry and his wife, Julie Mayberry, have four children. Their second child, Katie, was born with Spina Bifida. Spina Bifida is when there is a gap in the neural tube that surrounds the spinal cord. Children with Spina Bifida often experience different levels of lower body paralysis.
Image from Arkansas.org
BILL OF HEALTH The bill presented to congress by
Representative Andy Mayberry would not allow abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. “This is something I have felt strongly about for many years,” said Mayberry, who is also a member of the National Rights of Life Association. In a study observed by Mayberry, of 1,200 women that went in to get an abortion at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy, over half decided not to have an abortion after they were notified that their child can feel pain at that point. However, that still left 600 pregnancies to be terminated. “I honestly feel that women that want an abortion aren’t really thinking about how their baby feels,” Garling said. “Most people that get an abortion are doing it for themselves because if you feel that you can’t give your baby your all at that point, then maybe abortion is the best thing you can do for that baby.” Garling also wondered about
the people who have children, but aren’t there while that child is growing up. “So many things come up from a parent not being in that child’s life,” Garling said. “Granted, there are some success stories, but what about the people that have the child and then really don’t want it, like Casey Anthony?” Although the bill is surrounded by many questions pertaining to morality and privacy, Mayberry is confident that the bill will go the distance. Last Monday, Feb. 4, Mayberry presented his bill to the full House floor and it passed with 75 ‘yes’ votes. The bill will now be proposed to the Senate Public Health Committee and if passed there, will be presented to the full Senate floor. The bill could go to the Senate Committee as early as this Wednesday.
Black Student Association holds State of the Black Union Cherith Cobbs Staff Writer
Index
The room was filled with random chatter as students listened to each person’s opinion. Students and panel members spoke as they replied with their honest answers at the Black Student Union Forum. The Black Student Association held a Black Student Union Forum in the Garrison last Monday. The banquet room was filled with students anxiously waiting for the topics that were going to be discussed. The topic at hand was the African-American community and the problems they are facing in today’s society. The Black Student Association is a student group populated with predominantly African-American members. The group focuses on the ad-
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vancement of African-American students on campus through programming. They also support their community through community service projects. The panel consisted of seven delegates chosen to give their opinions on the discussed topics. Kyle Jones, Arsala Khan, Pae Vantrice, Jordan Williams, Jeremy Smalls, Rafael Powell and Jeremy Lee completed the panel. Each person chimed in at their own rate as the topics were given to them by the moderator, Mariah Brown. Mariah Brown, BSA president, acted as the moderator of the program. Brown’s job was to make sure that everyone stayed on the right track and that the conversations taking place were not too long and did not
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get out of hand. At times, the moderating became difficult for her when the conversations became serious. “The aspect that was difficult was being able to control everyone’s opinion because you have people in the audience and people on the panel that have different views,” Brown said. Race was also a big part of the discussion that night. The tension of the situation could be felt throughout the room. “I think it got tense when we started discussing that we as black people had to change how we are to fit into today’s world,” Kalayah Anderson, senior sociology major, said. The students were asked to take part in the conversations. Many were sheepish or scared
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to say what they felt at first, but after the conversation took off they began to identify with what was being said. “I identified because some of the things that they said I also have said myself, so it made me want to do better,” Charde Wade, senior education major, said. The panel was also very expressive when they were asked questions. They were very brutally honest when they were questioned. Many people had different reasons for joining the panel. “It’s nice to let your voice be heard and see people’s different opinions,” Rafael Powell, senior music education major, said. The overall reaction to the program was a success. Many people felt that it made somewhat of a difference, but there were changes that many people felt needed to be made.
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The crowd was predominately African-American. “If I could make a change, I would reach out to other ethnic groups,” Powell said. “We need other races there to voice their opinions.” According to some attendees, the program helped them to think a little different. They left more knowledgeable in some areas. Many people felt that they opened up a gateway into changing things in the future. Brown hopes that all people who came left with one important piece of information. “Learn to express your opinion to your fullest capacity,” Brown said. “If you have a view on something express it in a way that people will understand, and in a way that you will understand that you are equally genuine about your view.”