Yesterday the National Right to Life Committee held a state legislative strategy conference in Washington. I asked if I could attend, my blog tagline being, “With her typing fingers on the pro-life pulse,” as you’ll notice, and NRLC graciously consented.

The 1st hour of the conference was open to the public. During that time NRLC officials  gave an overview of the 3 key pieces of state legislation they plan to promote in 2011, with an eye toward making the greatest impact to stop abortion in this newly conducive political climate. For your information…

Obamacare abortion opt out

Here is NRLC’s model language for states to opt out of subsidizing abortion with taxpayer funds in Obamacare. Here are the 5 states that have already opted out and their language.

Ultrasound legislation

Many states have passed laws forcing abortionists to offer mothers the opportunity to see the baby they are about to abort. By now we know many of these laws are deficient, as abortionists find loopholes to avoid providing this visual informed consent.

But last April the State of Oklahoma passed an ultrasound law that forces the abortionist to turn the ultrasound screen toward the mother and then to “provide an explanation of the results, display the ultrasound images, and provide a medical description of the ultrasound images such as pointing out the presence of external members and internal organs if present and viewable,” as NRLC’s Q&A memo explains.

No surprise, the Oklahoma law has been challenged in court, but NRLC is confident it is constitutional. Yesterday Balch compared it to government mandates that cigarette packages display warnings and that airlines provide safety information before every flight. People don’t have to view or listen to the warnings, but they must be presented.

Fetal pain legislation

Last year the State of Nebraska passed a law that totally changes the rules of the game.

I’ve written many times about the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which I’m very high on. It breeches the “viability” threshold that has been the standard for determining when a state can express statutory interest in the preborn child, stating that since a child can feel pain at 20 weeks, that child should not be tortured via abortion. It also has no “health” exception.

I was surprised pro-aborts didn’t challenge the law. They either expect their challenge to fail before the Supreme Court, or they don’t want the adverse PR, such as they got during the partial-birth abortion decade, or both.

At any rate, already we see the PCUCPA has forced late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart out of his lair and into other states, which has prompted 2 of the 3 to begin the process of passing their own fetal pain legislation.