Scott Walker Signs Extreme 20-Week Anti-Abortion Bill With No Exceptions For Rape, Incest, Into Law

Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, just one week after joining the 2016 presidential race, signs an extreme anti-abortion bill into law.

Just days after saying he does not believe abortion should be allowed to be an issue between a woman and her doctor, and just one week after launching his presidential campaign, Scott Walker today signed into law an extreme anti-abortion bill.

The bill offers women no exemptions for rape or incest, with only a narrow emergency exception, and otherwise bans all abortions at the 20-week mark. That emergency exception is only when the life of the mother is immediately at risk.

Anti-choice activists have succeeding in providing enough cover to lawmakers that a false claim – that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks, which is widely disputed in the medical community – that has fueled a rash of false “pain-capable” bills at the state level, with one also working its way into Congress.

“At five months, that’s the time when that unborn child can feel pain,” Walker said. “When an unborn child can feel pain, we should be protecting that child.”

The legislation is quite likely unconstitutional, but strengthens Walker’s bonafides among the anti-choice, largely evangelical Christian crowd.

MSNBC notes that Gov. Walker had actually called for the 20-week anti-abortion bill, including the no-exceptions for rape or incest portions, from the legislature. “He got his wish with unusual speed,” Steve Benen reports. “Walker also offered assurances on conservative media. On her radio show last week, Laura Ingraham asked Walker about the ad, saying, ‘You don’t believe the final decision should be between a woman and her doctor? You believe –’ Walker cut in, ‘No.'”

Benen also notes that Walker’s pain-capable at 20 weeks claims “are disputed by the medical evidence, which has overwhelmingly found that pain receptions come weeks later in gestation.”

“This is bad medicine, based on the thoroughly debunked fallacy that a 20-week fetus — which is not viable — can feel pain,” wrote 99 physicians, all members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in a letter. They said the law “would block Wisconsin ob-gyns from being able to treat our patients in a medically appropriate and humane manner.”  

 

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