When should North Dakota laws start applying to people? That’s a question that was asked in the House Human Services committee today. A new bill would change the definition of a living person to start at fertilization instead of birth when it comes to offenses like murder and assault. Under the bill, civil actions can be brought up for death caused by wrongful acts towards the preborn.
Proponents of the bill say bill 1373 will protect people at the start of life.
Ginna Cross is Executive Director of Alliance Family Services. She says, despite banning abortion and adding penalties for the doctors who perform them, North Dakota still has a problem with chemical abortions performed by the women themselves. She says this bill takes a stand in making women culpable for these abortions.
"I'm thrilled that with HB 1373 my home state of North Dakota has the opportunity to lead the way across the nation in finally protecting the most vulnerable among us: the preborn child."
A number of people testified in opposition to the bill, saying it’s wording would jeopardize fertility treatments like IVF. There was also concern that the bill would be immoral in punishing vulnerable women for having abortions. Christopher Dodson is codirector of the North Dakota Catholic conference. He says, not only is this bill harmful to women, but it is not easy to interpret and difficult to enforce.
"This bill is so vague that is relies on the action and intent without the clarification. It's an example of, it's not so much about how you feel sometimes about life or how you feel about criminalizing the women, it's about whether this is a good bill or not, and this has a lot of problems."
The committee did not take immediate action.