Wyoming House Defeats Bill for Pre-Abortion Ultrasound

by Steven Ertelt | Cheyenne, WY | LifeNews.com | 1/26/11 4:13 PM

The Wyoming state House has defeated a bill that would allow the 90 women who get abortions ever year in the Cowboy State see an ultrasound of their unborn baby beforehand. The rejection is another sign the fiscally conservative Republicans in the state legislature are no pro-life advocates.

The House voted 32-23 against the bill, sponsored by pro-life Rep. Bob Brechtel, a Casper Republican who is frequently the sponsor of much of the pro-life legislation brought up in the Wyoming legislature over the years.

Brechtel said women deserve to know full information about the development of their unborn child before an abortion — information they are not usually given beforehand. He said he wanted women to know about “the haunting question, and the torture and pain that can be inflicted, especially during late-term abortions,” during debate on the state House floor.

“I’m going to stand strong for the defense of life, and at least try to help people understand where we’re injuring women and certainly damaging families and children,” he said after the vote, according to an AP report.

Rep. Sue Wallis, a Republican who said she had had an abortion in years’ past and who is one of the most vocal abortion advocates in the state legislature, publicly opposed the bill as she has other pro-life bills to help women.

Rep. Lisa Shepperson, another pro-abortion Republican, also spoke against the bill. She is one of many Republicans who voted against the measure that went down to defeat in a GOP-controlled legislature. That upsets Becky Vandeberghe, the head of the pro-family group WyWatch.

She told LifeNews.com today her group “is very disappointed in the 24 Republicans who did not deem it appropriate to support the most basic pro-life legislation put before the legislature. Planned Parenthood’s foothold in Wyoming politics only gets stronger with each defeat that the Republican legislators encourage.”

Vandeberghe commended Brechtel “for his efforts to protect a women’s right to information prior to a surgical abortion in Wyoming.  His continued efforts to defend women and the sanctity of life in the form of HB0118 Abortion-Information for Decision was greatly appreciated by the thousands of pro-life families in Wyoming.”

She said her organziation would “continue to support this and similar legislation in the future. We hope pro-life Wyoming families will engage in the legislative process”

The group will continue to recruit and train pro-life candidates for office.

Pro-Life Votes in Favor of HB118:
Rep. Brechtel: bbrechtel@wyoming.com;
Mr. Speaker Ed Buchanan: ebuchanan@wyoming.com;
Rep. Burkhart: dburkhart@wyoming.com;
Rep. Campbell: rcampbell34@wyoming.com;
Rep. Cannady: rcannady@wyoming.com;
Rep. Edmonds: aedmonds@wyoming.com;
Rep. Eklund: jeklund@wyoming.com;
Rep. Gay: ggay@wyoming.com;
Rep. Gingery: kgingery@wyoming.com;
Rep. Greene: mgreene@wyoming.com;
Rep. Harshman:sharshman@wyoming.com;
Rep. Harvey: harvey00@tctwest.net;
Rep. Jaggi: ajaggi@wyoming.com;
Rep. Kroeker: kkroeker@wyoming.com;
Rep. Krone: skrone@wyoming.com;
Rep. Loucks: bloucks@wyoming.com;
Rep. McKim: rmckim@wyoming.com;
Rep. Miller: repmiller@wyoming.com;
Rep. Peasley: fpeasley@wyoming.com;
Rep. Petersen: opetersen@wyoming.com;
Rep. Quarberg: lquarberg@wyoming.com;
Rep. Semlek: msemlek@wyoming.com;
Rep. Teeters:mteeters@wyoming.com

Pro-Abortion Votes Against HB118:
Rep. Barbuto: jbarbuto@wyoming.com;
Rep. Berger: rberger@wyoming.com;
Rep. Blake: sblake@wyoming.com;
Rep. Blikre: gblikre@wyoming.com;
Rep. Bonner: dbonner@wyoming.com;
Rep. Botten:jbotten@wavecom.net;
Rep. Brown: kermitbrown@wyoming.com;
Rep. Byrd:jbyrd@wyoming.com;
Rep. Connolly: cconnolly@wyoming.com;
Rep. Craft: bcraft@wyoming.com;
Rep. Esquibel: kesquibel@wyoming.com;
Rep. Freeman:freeman@wyoming.com;
Rep. Greear: mgreear@rtconnect.net;
Rep. Hunt: hhunt@wyoming.com;
Rep. Kasperik:nkasperik@wyoming.com;
Mr. Majority Floor Leader Tom Lubnau: tlubnau@vcn.com;
Rep. Madden: madden@wyoming.com;
Rep. McOmie: dwmcomie@bresnan.net;
Rep. Moniz: gmoniz@bresnan.net;
Rep. Nicholas:bob@ncwyolaw.com
Rep. Patton:johnpatton@wyoming.com;
Rep. Pedersen:  bpedersen@wyoming.com;
Rep. Petroff: rpetroff@wyoming.com;
Rep. Roscoe: jim@roscoeco.com;
Rep. Shepperson: lshepperson@wyoming.com;
Rep. Steward: jebsteward@union-tel.com;
Rep. Stubson: tim@stampedeforstubson.com;
Rep. Throne:mthrone@wyoming.com;
Rep. Vranish: vranish@wyoming.com;
Rep. Wallis:sue.wallis@vcn.com;
Rep. Dan Zwonitzer: dzwonitzer@wyoming.com;
Rep. Dave Zwonitzer: davezwonitzer@wyoming.com