On Monday, the Utah State Senate voted 20-3 to pass legislation requiring any abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy to include anesthesia for the preborn baby.

The bill, SB 234, is based on a body of medical research strongly indicating that preborn children are capable of feeling pain around 20 weeks. Current law only requires abortionists to inform women of fetal pain and offer anesthesia as an option.

It contains one amendment waiving the requirement in cases of the mother’s health (a standard pro-lifers fear is too broad under the Supreme Court’s definition of health, and could theoretically exempt any abortion) and cases where the baby is not expected survive outside the womb if carried to term.

On Monday, the Utah State Senate voted 20-3 to pass legislation requiring any abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy to include anesthesia for the preborn baby.

The bill, SB 234, is based on a body of medical research strongly indicating that preborn children are capable of feeling pain around 20 weeks. Current law only requires abortionists to inform women of fetal pain and offer anesthesia as an option.

It contains one amendment waiving the requirement in cases of the mother’s health (a standard pro-lifers fear is too broad under the Supreme Court’s definition of health, and could theoretically exempt any abortion) and cases where the baby is not expected survive outside the womb if carried to term.

Federal pro-life legislative efforts and many state efforts prefer to ban abortion outright at 20 weeks, but bill sponsor Sen. Curt Bramble maintains that this measure is the most feasible at the moment: “If we could prohibit all abortions except in the rarest of circumstances, if we could overturn Roe v. Wade, I would be a proud sponsor of that bill.”