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Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, who was the main sponsor of H.R. 36, said, "this bill is a deeply sincere effort to protect both mothers and their little pain capable unborn babies."

May 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – After months of wrangling, pro-life politicians and outside organizations praised the House for passing H.R. 36, the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” which aims to ban most abortions after 20 weeks.

The final vote was 242-184, with one Republican voting “present.” Four Democrats voted for the bill, and four Republicans against it.

“I think America is at its best when we are standing up for the least among us,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said in a statement released after the vote. “This debate is long overdue.” The senator is expected to introduce similar legislation in the Senate.

The vote took place on the two-year anniversary of the murder conviction of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, and was something pro-life groups had pushed for several months. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Gosnell's state of Pennsylvania, invoked the convict in comments on the House floor just before the vote took place.

“Scientific evidence now shows that unborn babies can feel pain by 20 weeks post-fertilization, and likely even earlier,” said Kelly. “A late term abortion is an excruciatingly painful and inhumane act against children waiting to be born and their mothers.”

Citing concern for the safety of women – “women terminating pregnancies at 20 weeks are 35 times more likely to die from abortion than they are in the first trimester, and 91 times more likely to die from abortion at 21 weeks or beyond,” according to Kelly – the congressman said that “overwhelmingly, most Americans…support legislation to protect these innocent people.”

“The hideous case of Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia is a brutal reminder of what can occur without this type of legislation in place,” said Kelly.

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The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins said that “it's been four months of intense negotiations in working through concerns raised about this measure in January, but today the Republican leadership kept their promise to pro-life Americans.”

“Science has proven that these precious unborn children are able to feel pain at 20 weeks after fertilization, and even earlier. Their humanity demands they be treated with basic decency,” said Perkins.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-VA – whose committee passed the original bill in January – said that H.R. 36 “would give America the gift of thousands more children, and consequently thousands more mothers, and thousands more fathers, with all the wondrous human gifts they will bring to the world in so many amazing forms, including their own children, for generations to come.”

In a statement released after the vote's conclusion, Goodlatte said that passage “is a victory for the most innocent and defenseless among us, our children.” 

Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, who was the main sponsor of H.R. 36, said, “this bill is a deeply sincere effort to protect both mothers and their little pain capable unborn babies entering their sixth month of pregnancy from the unspeakable cruelty of evil monsters like Kermit Gosnell.”

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said, “This legislation to protect the most innocent among us is an opportunity for clarity heading into the 2016 elections. Protecting pain-capable babies and mothers at risk during a late-term abortion is a winning issue and one that has unified the entire Republican presidential field.”

Pro-life leader Chris Smith, R-NJ, said in a floor statement that “fresh impetus for the bill came from a huge study of nearly 5,000 babies—preemies—published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The next day, a New York Times article titled: 'Premature Babies May Survive at 22 Weeks if Treated' touted the Journal’s extraordinary findings of survival and hope.” Smith noted that the 22-week age of children cited by the Times is the same as children of 20 weeks' gestational age.

Smith previously told LifeSiteNews that “our House leadership is genuinely pro-life.”

Heritage Action Communications Director Dan Holler told LifeSiteNews that “this should not be a partisan issue – it is about the life of a five-month-old child. And our hope is that the Senate will act on the bill once it passes the House.”

“Rand Paul effectively changed the narrative,” said Holler. “Lawmakers opposed to banning elective abortions after five months should go on record as to when they believe it is acceptable to begin protecting life.”

Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp, who has long criticized the House GOP leadership for not passing H.R. 36 more quickly, said in a letter to his colleagues earlier this week, “…[T]hese unborn children are patients. They deserve to be treated with the utmost concern and care, not subjected to violent and painful late-term abortions.”

“All human life is precious,” Huelskamp said after the vote, “and we should protect it from conception. This bill significantly advances the cause of life.”

Randy Hultgren, R-IL, said after H.R. 36 passed the House that “regardless of one’s views on abortion, majorities of Americans agree that the gruesome killing of unborn children at five months—who can feel pain—should be barred. The United States is one of only seven nations to allow abortion on-demand after 20 weeks, placing us in the company of human-rights violators such as China and North Korea.”

“As science shows the complex development of human life inside the womb, it is on legislators to stand up for their human dignity and right to live. No woman should have to undergo the pain of late-term abortion, nor should her child feel such unspeakable pain. I urge the Senate to act quickly to pass this bill and build a culture of life.”

Rep. Jackie Speier of California was one Democrat who opposed the bill. Speaking before passage, Speier appeared on the House floor wearing a doctor's coat, and accused her colleagues of trying to replace doctors in the lives of women.

“We believe that we are doctors in this august body,” said Speier. “That we should be making decisions on behalf of the women who are pregnant and their spouses and their physicians. That we know better than everyone else.”

Speier also cited her two abortions, saying that the second — lost at 17 weeks, while the first was aborted at 10 weeks due to no heartbeat —  “was an extraordinarily painful experience.”

Texas Republican Rep. Kenny Marchant said after the vote that H.R. 36 “takes meaningful strides to protect unborn children, their mothers, and the right to life. Limiting abortion after the fifth month of pregnancy – a point when unborn children can feel pain – is a matter of fundamental human dignity.”

Like many of his colleagues, Marchant urged the Senate to pass the pro-life legislation.