With majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans have renewed their push to ban late-term abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
On Wednesday, Reps. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”
In a joint press release, Franks said that his bill would protect “innocent and defenseless children” who are capable of feeling pain and surviving outside of the womb. He says that 18,000 late-term abortions take place each year, ending the lives of unborn children “who are torturously killed without even basic anesthesia.”
Blackburn cited a “moral obligation to end dangerous late-term abortions in order to protect women and these precious babies from criminals like Kermit Gosnell” as inspiration for the bill.
In June 2013, when Democrats still controlled the Senate, Franks introduced an identical bill that the White House subsequently threatened to veto.
At the time, the White House said the legislation “shows contempt for women’s health and rights,” and noted that if it made it to the president’s desk, “his senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill.”
Obama, who is the only sitting president to publicly address a Planned Parenthood gala, is adamantly pro-choice.
While still an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, then-candidate Obama explained that he voted “no on the late-term abortion ban” because “I trust women to make these decisions.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will introduce similar legislation in his chamber where Democrats are expected to oppose it.
On this issue, Heritage Foundation analyst Sarah Torre notes that the United States is outside the global consensus and not in line with popular opinion among women.
“The U.S. is one of only seven countries – in the company of North Korea, China and Vietnam – in which elective, late-term abortions after 20 weeks are allowed,” she said.
“Sixty percent of women believe that late-term abortion should generally be illegal.”
