Following the horrific discovery of more than 2,200 remains of aborted children in the garage of deceased Indiana abortionist Ulrich Klopfer, legislators are taking action in an attempt to bring some form of human dignity to the lives lost to abortion.
Indiana Senator Mike Braun is leading the charge, telling CBN News how the discovery of the aborted remains impacted him personally: “It’s always hard for me when you hear stuff like that that it can even happen, just due to the humanity of it.” He, along with several other U.S. senators, have introduced the Dignity for Aborted Children Act. As reported by the Susan B. Anthony List in a press release:
The Dignity for Aborted Children Act’s co-sponsors include Sens. Todd Young (R-IN), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Cornyn (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Ted Cruz (R-TX). The bill is similar to an Indiana law, signed in 2016 by then-Governor Mike Pence and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, requiring the humane and dignified disposition of human fetal remains.
As SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser pointed out, “While the Supreme Court has upheld Indiana’s law requiring respectful treatment of the remains of aborted babies, Illinois and many other states have no such law.”
Typically, abortion facilities use medical waste disposal companies to transport away the bodies of the children they abort. The Washington Examiner points out, “After an abortion, providers treat fetal tissue as medical waste to be incinerated, flushed into the sewage system, or discarded in a landfill. Some states want to change that, but few have been successful. A federal judge stuck down a fetal burial law in Texas last year, and an appeal is currently being weighed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Ohio’s state Senate also advanced a fetal burial law in March.”
READ: SCOTUS upholds Indiana fetal remains disposal law; denies abortion bans for disability, sex
Stericycle is one such disposal company, which has been pressured by pro-life groups to cease doing business with the abortion industry. Those in the abortion industry have expressed frustration in the past with being unable to find disposal companies willing to cart away human remains, and some have stored bodies in freezers for months. One abortion facility owner expressed that she had such trouble with disposal that she considered sending the bodies home with abortion patients in “gift bags” so she didn’t have to deal with the problem of too many bodies. “We were really tempted to give the fetus back,” facility owner Renee Chelian is heard saying in an audio recording. “Um, we thought, we’ll give it to everybody in a gift bag – they can take it home, figure out what to do with it. It’s their pregnancy, and why is this our problem?”
According to Tri-State, the senators expressed the idea that they believe abortion takes a human being’s life, and at the very least, that human being should be treated with dignity in death. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mon.) remarked, “An unborn child is a precious human life. Ensuring a dignified burial for aborted babies is a matter of human decency,” and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said, “The dignity of human life remains unchanged regardless of a person’s age at his or her death.” Senator James Inhofe remarked, “A human life—especially a child’s—is sacred. Recently, we’ve seen disturbing cases that show us yet again that the abortion-on-demand industry has no respect for the dignity of human life. These babies deserve a proper burial….”
Tri-State also notes that failure to properly dispose of “the remains of unborn children just as any other human being” would result in a “fine and up to 5 years in prison.” The bill also requires the mother of the child to sign a consent form, with the opportunity to either “retain possession of her unborn child or allow the provider to cremate or inter the unborn child.”
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