CNN/AP wrote:
While they still can, House Republicans are looking at scheduling a vote next week on a fetal pain abortion bill in a parting shot at incoming majority Democrats and a last bid for loyalty from the GOP's base of social conservatives.
The measure is tentatively on House GOP leaders' list of bills to be considered in a lame-duck session before Democrats assume control of Congress. It has no chance of passing the Senate during the waning days of Republican control. But, with Democrats ascending to agenda-setting roles, passage isn't the point, said one conservative leader.
[...]
The bill, by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, defines a 20-week-old fetus as a "pain-capable unborn child" -- a highly controversial threshold among scientists. It also directs the Health and Human Services Department to develop a brochure stating "that there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain."
The measure is tentatively on House GOP leaders' list of bills to be considered in a lame-duck session before Democrats assume control of Congress. It has no chance of passing the Senate during the waning days of Republican control. But, with Democrats ascending to agenda-setting roles, passage isn't the point, said one conservative leader.
[...]
The bill, by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, defines a 20-week-old fetus as a "pain-capable unborn child" -- a highly controversial threshold among scientists. It also directs the Health and Human Services Department to develop a brochure stating "that there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain."
Leaving aside the abortion aspect, this story makes me question when (if ever) it is correct to legislate science. Regardless of whether or not fetuses do feel pain at twenty weeks, if this law was to pass, it would supercede the scientific fact. Wasn't there a bill in one of the state legislatures earlier this year (I want to say California) which would has legislated that life began at conception? I remember making a similar statement that you can't just legislate scientific fact to suit your agenda but I can't remember the details of the story.
Not that this has any chance of passing (per the story) but I could imagine interest in using the same tactic regarding stem-cell research or the Intelligent Design debate -- not so much saying that ID is correct but rather legislating that evolution is just a theory and thus no more sound than any other theory.