H.B. 1155 “Prenatal Non-discrimination Act” (PreNDA)

by Mike Griffin, Legislative Director

This piece of bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Georgia House by our good friend Representative Barry Loudermilk and cosigned by 5 other Representatives. Four out of the first six names are African Americans and two out of the six are Democrats. The bill would make it a crime for anyone attempting to coerce or solicit a female to abort based on the race or sex of her unborn child would be guilty of a crime.  It also would be a crime to perform an abortion, while knowing it was motivated by the baby’s race or sex.  Likewise, it would be a crime to perform abortions intended to control the population of a specific race or sex.

Pregnant women targeted for criminal solicitation of abortion would not be criminally or civilly liable.  Victims of violations could recover all damages available under state tort law, as well as damages for the homicide of an unborn child.  Systemic violations of abortion law could be prosecuted under the corrupt organization statute and harmed individuals would have a private cause of action.  Convicted abortionists could be sentenced to prison for one to ten years.

H.B. 1155 is partly based upon existing federal legislation that Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona introduced last year in the U.S. Congress. Our bill, like his, would make it illegal to abort a child for reasons of sex or race or the race of their parents. Note the evidence from the outline below that shows some of the reasons justifying this kind of legislation:

1)      In 2008, blacks made up 30% of the population but over 59% of the abortions in Georgia.

2)      In 2008, Georgia had 18,901 black abortions – which is the highest reported number of black abortions in the U.S. (in the 37 states that report.)

3)      Because of targeting, 94% of the abortion clinics nationwide are located in urban areas where blacks reside.

4)      As a result of coercion and solicitation, black women abort their babies 3 times the rate of white women.

5)      Prenatal sex selection is available in the United States and worldwide.

6)      Young Georgia women pregnant with bi-racial babies have been coerced into abortion to prevent mixed-race births.

To view HB 1155, http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/sum/hb1155.htm

For more statistics check out www.toomanyaborted.com