Geist eyes end to life-ending procedure

A Nebraska legislator says she has a "flood" of support for her effort to end the dismemberment of living preborn babies.

State Senator Suzanne Geist (R), who authored LB814, tells OneNewsNow the measure "very narrowly defines what it wants to outlaw, and that is dismemberment of a live baby."

"It's talking second trimester, between the weeks of 12 and 24, and it's when a physician dismembers the baby when the baby is alive," she details.

If Geist's measure is approved, abortionists would only be allowed to perform dismemberment procedures on babies in the womb who are already deceased. That is because a live baby can feel excruciating pain.

The senator says the way the bill is written helps uphold its constitutionality, and it is not designed to deny access to abortion. The measure's opponents, however, point out that courts have stopped similar laws from going into effect in nine other states because this type of ban creates an undue burden to accessing abortion during the second trimester of pregnancy. 

Earlier this month, LB814 was pulled from committee on a 30-12 vote; 25 votes were needed to get the bill out of committee. It was at an impasse in the committee, which could not get past a 4-4 split vote — not enough to kill it or to bring it to the floor for debate.

Geist now has 32 of the needed 33 votes to limit a filibuster, but getting the final vote is tough because of opposition.

"There has been an action alert by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood just on the day that I was presenting the bill," she reports. "Up until today, I might have received a handful of opposition emails and a flood of people supporting."

Except in cases of medical emergency, any abortionist who violates the measure would face a Class IV felony conviction, punishable by up to two years in prison and 12 months post-release supervision, a $10,000 fine, or both.