by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Late this afternoon, a public hearing was held for Senator Frank Aguon, Jr's Infant Child's Right to Life Act. Bill 195 recognizes a proposal introduced in a previous legislature that aimed to protect the life of a child who is brought into the world through the abortion process and upon extraction from the mother's womb is found to still be alive.

The Esperanza Project's Tim Rohr was in support of the measure saying nearly half of the U.S. states already have similar legislation. "So now we're giving it another try, we're saying at least, people of Guam at least care enough to pass a law that protects a child once its outside of the womb, it's a legal person, let's make sure that that child has normal medical treatment so that's good," he said.

Rohr hopes Aguon will introduce a companion measure similar to the Pain Capable Abortion Act that would make it illegal to perform an abortion after 20-weeks based on scientific data that the child in the womb at that stage can feel pain.

Governor Eddie Calvo had introduced similar legislation at the beginning of his term to establish the Unborn Child Act of 2011. If Bill 195 is enacted, any physician who intentionally or knowingly failed to provide reasonable and medically appropriate care and treatment in the course of an abortion shall be guilty of a criminal homicide.