FRC Action:
January 30, 2018 – Tuesday
A Painful Reality
It was painful to watch just how beholden the Left is to the abortion mentality as the Senate voted yesterday evening 51-46 against sending the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36, S. 2311) to the floor for a vote (60 votes were needed for it to proceed). The Pain bill would ban abortions after five months, when research shows an unborn child is capable of feeling pain. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) broke rank with their Republican colleagues and voted against the motion. Senators Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) were the only three Democrats to cast affirmative votes.
The bill, which was introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.), includes exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and when the health of the mother is at risk, and passed the House last October by a vote of 237-189. The Senate’s failure to pass the bill keeps the United States in league with only seven other nations in the world, including China, North Korea, and Vietnam, that perform elective abortions after five months. This is the second time the bill has been killed in the Senate, having failed previously in 2015. At the state level, 18 states have passed their own versions of the pain-capable bill to protect unborn children after the 5th month of pregnancy.
President Trump, who addressed attendees of this year’s March for Life, expressed disappointment with the outcome of the Senate vote. “We must defend those who cannot defend themselves. I urge the Senate to reconsider its decision and pass legislation that will celebrate, cherish, and protect life,” he said in a statement released by the White House.
The vote followed several hours of tense debate, in which advocates of the bill urged their colleagues to vote in favor of protecting unborn children from a painful and inhumane death. “There’s a disconnect not only between science and law, but between what’s right and where we are at today,” said Senator Graham.
In response, Democrats trotted out their familiar tired arguments that the Republicans are trying to drive women back to “back alley butchers” or bring the Handmaid’s Tale to life by protecting unborn children.
Senator Patty Murray (R-Wa.) called the bill an “extreme ideological abortion ban,” and claimed that it revealed how “out of touch” the Republican party is with the American people. Senator Murray’s cherry picking of statistical support neglected to mention that 63% of Americans support banning abortions after 20 weeks, as Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) noted.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), never one to shy away from statements of questionable veracity, attacked the bill as a nefarious effort made by “politicians who have never been pregnant.” She had apparently forgotten that Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who had spoken in support of the bill moments before, and was one of the bill’s original cosponsors, is herself a mother.
Amid the emotional handwringing from the other side of the aisle, the bill’s supporters again pointed to the science that supported the legislation.
“As a doctor, I have to look at the scientific evidence,” said Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.). “At 20 weeks, studies have revealed that babies can feel pain…that is why fetal anesthesia is administered when unborn children require surgery in the womb.”
Not only do these unborn children feel pain, but as noted in FRC’s white paper on fetal pain, unborn children at this age feel pain even more acutely than children outside the womb because their pain receptors are not only fully developed but are far closer to the surface of the skin than they are at birth.
“Where will we draw the line?” Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) challenged his colleagues. “Have our hearts in this body grown cold to the truth?”
For Senators Walsh and Warren, and the forty-four other members who voted with them in allowing the deaths of innocent children, the answer appeared to be yes.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.