(LifeSiteNews) — A Republican congressman is introducing a bill to punish abortionists who commit brutal partial-birth abortions with five years to life in prison without possibility of parole, according to a report by The Daily Wire.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a father of six, told the conservative media outfit that “[p]artial birth abortion is a cruel and gruesome means to ending human life.”
“I believe wholeheartedly that every human life is precious and that life begins in the womb,” Mullin said. “We have to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”
NEW: Following the discovery of premie sized aborted babies in DC, @RepMullin is introducing legislation to punish abortionists who perform gruesome partial birth abortions with 5 years to life in prison without parole. Details in @realDailyWire. https://t.co/91MMf8HJlF
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 26, 2022
The Daily Wire noted that Mullin’s Partial Birth Abortion Is Murder Act would levy far more severe punishments against abortionists than the law currently on the books, the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003 in Gonzales v. Carhart.
Under the 2003 law, an abortionist who “deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the mother’s body, or, in the case of a breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the mother’s body” before cutting the baby’s neck would only face fines and/or imprisonment for up to two years.
Mullin’s legislation would significantly increase the penalties for performing the illegal procedure, slapping abortionists with “five years to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
The Republican congressman’s legislative proposal comes in direct response to the discovery of five “extremely late-term” aborted babies outside a Washington, D.C. abortion facility last month.
RELATED: ‘Murders were committed’: Pro-lifers demand justice for five late-term aborted babies found in DC
Though the babies may have been the victims of illegal partial-birth abortions or outright infanticide, D.C. authorities and federal law enforcement agencies have refused to listen to demands from pro-lifers and dozens of Republican lawmakers to conduct investigations into how the babies died.
“Those five defenseless lives inspired this bill,” Mullin said, urging a “complete investigation into the deaths of the five preborn babies found in our nation’s capital.”
RELATED: DC mayor, city officials unresponsive to outcry for investigation into deaths of aborted babies
While the Oklahoma congressman’s pro-life legislation is unlikely to pass, the move continues to bring attention to the gruesome realities of abortion and increase the push for justice for the five “preemie-sized” babies found murdered in D.C.
The proposal also adds to an ongoing push by Republican governors and state lawmakers toward protecting the unborn as the U.S. Supreme Court edges closer to weighing in on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case currently on the docket, which could see the “constitutional right to abortion” overturned this summer.
Republican-led states including Texas, Idaho, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, have already moved to enact pro-life legislation in anticipation of the Court’s ruling.
RELATED: New Oklahoma law will ‘stop the murder of the unborn,’ make it a felony to kill babies via abortion
Forbes reported that according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, “more than 100 laws restricting abortions were enacted in 2021, the most ever in a single year since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.”