Heritage Action supports the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard.
The Senate will vote Tuesday on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S. 3275), introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and cosponsored by 47 Republicans. This legislation would protect unborn children by preventing abortions 20 weeks after fertilization, at which time scientific evidence suggests the unborn child can feel pain. A more recent study suggests the baby could potentially feel pain as early as 12 weeks.
In her report “Defending Life: Opportunities for the 116th Congress,” research associate in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation Melanie Israel writes:
Congress should pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to protect women and unborn children from inhumane late-term abortions performed after 20 weeks. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion past 20 weeks (five months), at which point scientific evidence suggests that the baby is capable of feeling excruciating pain during an abortion procedure. A poll released in January 2019 found that 75 percent of Americans want abortion restricted to, at most, the first trimester. More than a dozen states across the country have enacted 20-week bills. Congress is overdue to pass the bill at the federal level.
In 2017, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that passing this bill could potentially save 10,000 lives each year—a number widely considered to be on the conservative side. As Sen. Graham previously explained in sponsoring the bill, “I don’t believe abortion, five months into pregnancy, makes us a better nation. America is at her best when she’s standing up for the least among us and the sooner we pass this legislation into law, the better. We are on the right side of history.”
More than a dozen states have implemented similar legislation so far, and the time has come to protect the sanctity of life at the national level. After all, the first duty of the federal government is to protect the life of its citizens. As Justice Anthony M. Kennedy explained in the case of Stenberg v. Carhart, “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.”
Left-leaning political officials have become so extreme on the issue of abortion that several states have even passed or proposed laws to legalize abortion up until birth. Recently, House Democrats held a hearing on a bill that would invalidate every state law in the nation designed to protect women and unborn children from the harms of abortion. Our elected officials have a responsibility and duty to push back against this troubling trend by creating a culture that celebrates life. Enacting legislation like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would represent a good starting point in creating a culture of life that protects the most vulnerable members of American society.
Related:
Journal of Medical Ethics: Reconsidering fetal pain
The Heritage Foundation: Defending Life: Opportunities for the 116th Congress
The Daily Signal: Democrats’ Radical Push on Abortion Will Backfire
Congressional Budget Office: H.R. 36 Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Heritage Action: Key Vote “YES” on Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) (2017)
Heritage Action supports the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard.