WASHINGTON, D.C., September 27, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Next week, the U.S. House will vote on banning late-term abortions on babies who can feel pain.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would prohibit abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. It contains rape and incest exceptions. For an abortion to take place, the abortionist must file a medical report with a state or federal agency saying an act of rape or incest conceived the child.
The U.S. House will vote on it on October 3.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2013 there were at least 5,770 late-term abortions on babies older than 20 weeks.
“Next week, I’m bringing legislation to the House floor that will respect the sanctity of life and stop needless suffering,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA. “The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will protect the voiceless, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.”
Similar legislation passed the U.S. House in 2013 and 2015. It hasn’t passed the U.S. Senate.
The bill “will protect those children who science has proven can feel pain, and give them a chance to grow and live full and happy lives,” McCarthy continued. “We have an obligation to speak and defend for those who can’t speak for themselves. I welcome every member of the House and the Senate to unite together and say that when children can feel pain, when you can see their noses and ears, when you can hear their heartbeats and feel their movement—at the very least we can all agree these children should be protected.”
“The United States is a global outlier when it comes to our extreme, permissive abortion laws,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List. “We are one of only seven nations in the world that allow children in the womb to be killed for any reason up until the moment of birth, putting us in the company of China and North Korea.”
Dannenfelser noted that 20 states have passed their own legislation to protect babies at five months, and “polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans – women in higher numbers than men – support bringing our laws into line with basic human decency.”
Some late-term abortions are committed using the “dilation and evacuation” method, which involves opening a woman’s cervix with laminaria (seaweed), draining amniotic fluid from her uterus, and pulling the baby apart limb by limb.
“The most difficult part of the procedure is usually finding, grasping and crushing the baby’s head,” AbortionProcedures.com explains.
Other late-term abortions on babies who would be viable outside the womb are committed by injecting digoxin into the womb, causing fatal cardiac arrest for the baby. The baby can feel the needle piercing its body. The stillborn baby is then delivered, usually several days later.
When doctors operate on 20-week-old children in the womb, they administer fetal anesthesia.
President Trump has promised to sign the legislation if it passes.