Washington Fails to Enact Pro-Life Protections
Last week started with excitement but ended with Washington disappointing us yet again. On Tuesday, the Senate failed to pass two important pro-life pieces of legislation.
The first, S. 3275 or The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act failed 53-44. Thankfully, the bill received two Democratic votes from Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). But, Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted against it.
These Senators and the rest of the Democrats who voted with them, knowingly ignored the fact that at 20-weeks babies can feel pain. In fact, there has been recent evidence that babies can feel pain earlier than this. Pain-Capable would have prevented abortion after 20-weeks.
The second piece of legislation, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act or S. 130, failed by a vote of 53-44. This vote garnered the support of Democratic Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Doug Jones (D-AL). Both Murkowski and Collins also voted in favor.
Specifically, Born-Alive requires medical personnel to perform the same life-saving measures on an infant born-alive, after a failed abortion attempt, that they would provide to any other baby born at the same gestational age. These healthcare practitioners must also immediately transport and admit the infant to a hospital where they can continue to receive care.
Born-Alive builds upon the 2002 law, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. This legislation ensured that “every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any state of development” is a “person” for all purposes under the law. But this legislation failed to provide clarity as to how this is meant to be interpreted in terms of babies born alive from abortions.
The recent radicalization of Democrats and their anti-life agenda have made clear the need for Federal protections for babies born from botched abortions.
Sadly, the 116th Congress has been marked by an inability to pass any pro-life legislation. The House has been fighting with Democratic leadership since April of last year to even get a vote on Born-Alive. Just today, Republicans attempted to pass a Motion To Recommit on Born-Alive. This is a legislative tool to amend a bill being considered right before the final vote and put House Members on the record on this legislation. The tool was defeated 187-220 with Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Collin Peterson (D-MN), and Ben McAdams (D-UT) voting in favor.
Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith said, “While this was a disappointing week in Washington, we are hopeful and will continue to fight for the rights of all people, not just the preborn.”
