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Doctors debate start of life for abortion bill
By Deanna Martin
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS – A Senate committee will likely make significant changes to a bill that would require clinics to inform women seeking abortions that life begins at conception, the panel’s chairwoman said Wednesday.
Sen. Patricia Miller, who heads the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee, said changes will be offered during a committee meeting next week, when she anticipates a vote on two abortion bills.
One bill would require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that a fetus may feel pain. It would also require abortion providers to give women written information that “human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm.”
Doctors testified both for and against the bill at a committee meeting Wednesday.
Dr. Robert Rogers, a retired Indiana University gynecology professor, said the state should not pass such requirements.
“They impose a barrier between a patient and her physician,” Rogers said.
Other doctors, such as Dr. Mark Gentry of Danville, said life begins at conception.
“This debate divides our medical community as much, if not more, than it divides our society at large,” Gentry said.
Some doctors said that eggs, sperm and fertilized eggs are living cells.
But Rabbi Dennis Sasso said it is difficult to pinpoint the moment when “personhood” begins from a cluster of living cells.
“Science offers no answers,” he said.
Sasso, with Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis, said Jewish faith believes that full life begins at birth, not conception. He said the bill would inject a religious belief into law.
Miller said one possible amendment to the bill could contain a “conscience clause” so that doctors who do not believe that life begins at conception or those with religious objections would be exempt from the law.
However, Miller said if that amendment was brought up, it could open the door for other amendments that would add a conscience clause for pharmacists who do not want to give out “morning-after” pills.
Doctors also testified Wednesday about research that shows a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks of gestation.
Some said pain receptors form on parts of a fetus as early as seven weeks, but those receptors are not connected to the brain until at least 20 weeks’ gestation.
Indiana’s bill would tell women at all stages of pregnancy that a fetus may feel pain, although Miller said that part of the bill could be changed.
“I think there’s still a question about when there is pain,” said Miller, an Indianapolis Republican.
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By Deanna Martin
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS – A Senate committee will likely make significant changes to a bill that would require clinics to inform women seeking abortions that life begins at conception, the panel’s chairwoman said Wednesday.
Sen. Patricia Miller, who heads the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee, said changes will be offered during a committee meeting next week, when she anticipates a vote on two abortion bills.
One bill would require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that a fetus may feel pain. It would also require abortion providers to give women written information that “human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm.”
Doctors testified both for and against the bill at a committee meeting Wednesday.
Dr. Robert Rogers, a retired Indiana University gynecology professor, said the state should not pass such requirements.
“They impose a barrier between a patient and her physician,” Rogers said.
Other doctors, such as Dr. Mark Gentry of Danville, said life begins at conception.
“This debate divides our medical community as much, if not more, than it divides our society at large,” Gentry said.
Some doctors said that eggs, sperm and fertilized eggs are living cells.
But Rabbi Dennis Sasso said it is difficult to pinpoint the moment when “personhood” begins from a cluster of living cells.
“Science offers no answers,” he said.
Sasso, with Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis, said Jewish faith believes that full life begins at birth, not conception. He said the bill would inject a religious belief into law.
Miller said one possible amendment to the bill could contain a “conscience clause” so that doctors who do not believe that life begins at conception or those with religious objections would be exempt from the law.
However, Miller said if that amendment was brought up, it could open the door for other amendments that would add a conscience clause for pharmacists who do not want to give out “morning-after” pills.
Doctors also testified Wednesday about research that shows a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks of gestation.
Some said pain receptors form on parts of a fetus as early as seven weeks, but those receptors are not connected to the brain until at least 20 weeks’ gestation.
Indiana’s bill would tell women at all stages of pregnancy that a fetus may feel pain, although Miller said that part of the bill could be changed.
“I think there’s still a question about when there is pain,” said Miller, an Indianapolis Republican.
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