WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Senator Steve Daines has a degree in chemical engineering, spent 13 years managing sales and products for Proctor & Gamble, and was a vice president of a technology start-up before coming to Congress in 2013.
So it makes sense that one of the first things the Montana Republican told LifeSiteNews is that people can “Google 'Baby 20 weeks' and look at the images that come up” as the debate on life continues in America.
“I've always believed that people will believe what they discover for themselves,” said the first-term senator, who was in the House from 2013 to 2014. “Thanks to technology,” he said, you can “look at the images that come up at what a baby does look like at 20 weeks.”
“At 20 weeks, that's when we know that is when a baby feels pain. We know that is when anesthesiologists, when they're doing … surgery, will administer anesthesiology to protect that baby from pain.”
“None of us want to see our children experience pain, yet a baby at 20 weeks experiences pain,” said the father of four. “So I think this is a chance for us to come together, on both sides of the aisle, to do the right thing for children, and do the right thing that the majority of the American people support.
“We're starting to change the thinking of men and women across this country as they see what a baby looks like at 20 weeks.”
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Daines spoke to LifeSiteNews while walking to a pro-life press conference, where he joined Senators James Lankford, R-OK, and Lindsey Graham, R-SC, to promote the 20-week abortion ban that was blocked later that day by Democrats.
“We shouldn't have late-term abortions,” Daines emphatically stated. “This is a chance for D.C. to come together. I recognize it's a very polarizing issue, but this is a commonsense piece of legislation that does bring the American people together. It should bring Congress together, and we should get this passed and put it on the president's desk.”
“We should join the House in doing what they did, and get this passed.”
Asked about the Planned Parenthood funding fight – he separately told LifeSiteNews he intends to vote on the Senate's short-term Continuing Resolution that defunds Planned Parenthood – Daines responded, “I do not want to fund Planned Parenthood. We've seen the horrible videos that have come out. We should take the dollars that go into Planned Parenthood, and redirect those to community health clinics, so women can still receive the health care they deserve and they need.
However, the senator said that “I also believe that we should keep funding government operations, and I hope we can find a compromise that would defund Planned Parenthood but also allow us to continue funding the government.”
Asked about comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, that appear to place blame for a partial government shutdown on the GOP, and whether the GOP as a whole has been aggressive enough in educating the public on Planned Parenthood, Daines said he's worked hard to convince the public of the pro-life position.
“I've been very active, speaking on the Senate floor, very active in speaking to Montanans, that I don't think we should be funding Planned Parenthood, that the federal government should be funding Planned Parenthood – that we should be redirecting those dollars to community health clinics,” he said.
“And I think it's important that we stand for protecting the most vulnerable in our society.”
The vulnerable include “the unborn,” said Daines, but also “the elderly [and] the disabled. And that's why I'm continuing to fight for those who are most vulnerable, that's why I'm continuing to fight to defund Planned Parenthood and moving those dollars to community health clinics around Montana, around this country.”
“I also believe we should continue the operation of our government past September 30.”
In closing, Daines cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She said, “You must win the argument, and then you can win the vote,” said Daines. “I think these [Center for Medical Progress] videos help make the argument in a very graphic fashion about what's really going on.”
“The truth has been exposed, the truth has been revealed, and I think it is part of the process of helping to persuade the American people about what is the right thing to do – and that is we should defund Planned Parenthood, and move these same dollars to community health clinics so that women receive the health care they need in this country.
