Arizona legislators are taking steps to stop the inhumane treatment of aborted babies’ bodies by abortion clinics and research facilities.
In a 4-3 party line vote, a state Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would ban the use of any human fetus or embryo in research, experimentation, study or transplanting, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Legislators who introduced the bill said they were prompted by the undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress showing top Planned Parenthood officials selling aborted babies’ body parts.
State Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, lead sponsor of the bill, said the videos “shocked the soul.”
“They revealed a side to the abortion industry most Americans didn’t know about,” Barto said.
Arizona Senate Bill 1474 would make it a crime to knowingly “sell, transfer, distribute, give away, accept, use or attempt to use any human fetus or embryo or any part, organ or fluid of the human fetus or embryo resulting from an abortion.” The bill includes exceptions for pathological studies to determine the cause of death and diagnostic tests to preserve the life of the mother or the unborn baby.
Noting that the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Arizona says it does not harvest aborted babies’ body parts for research, Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, questioned why abortion supporters oppose the bill, according to the AP.
“We watched in horror after videotape after videotape showed Planned Parenthood executives, discussing the sale of baby body parts, livers, tissues…brain,” Herrod said. “Planned Parenthood claims that they do not engage in these practices within Arizona. That means they should not have any issue with this bill.”
Pro-abortion legislators who opposed the measure claimed the undercover videos had been discredited and states that investigated Planned Parenthood had not found any evidence of wrong-doing, according to the report.
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Both statements are wrong. Several states have discovered the abortion chain violating laws, while others have not concluded their investigations yet. The videos have not been discredited either. A U.S. Congressional panel also is investigating the abortion industry and the sales of aborted babies’ body parts.
Pro-life leaders in several other states, including Indiana, Wisconsin and Colorado, also have introduced bills to ban the sale or harvesting of aborted babies’ body parts for research.
Late last year, the horrific videos also prompted Arizona lawmakers to drop Planned Parenthood from the list of approved charities in its employee charitable giving program, LifeNews previously reported.
As LifeNews previously reported, the Planned Parenthood videos have sparked outrage across the country from grassroots activists and stay-at-home-moms to lawmakers and even presidential candidates. In the first undercover video, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical research for Planned Parenthood, admits that Planned Parenthood charges per-specimen for baby body parts, uses altered abortion procedures in order to get intact body parts, and is aware of their own liability for doing so and takes steps to cover it up.
