CINCINNATI, OH (May 8, 2015) – Life Issues Institute has joined other pro-life groups in support of a revised version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, now pending a vote in the US House next week and expected to pass. The bill would ban abortion nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy because by that stage of development babies feel extreme pain during an abortion and many are able to survive outside the womb. Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who sponsored the bill, noted that 18,000 late-term abortions are done in America every year.
Said Bradley Mattes, president of Life Issues Institute, “While I do not believe this legislation needs an exception for rape when protecting babies beginning in the sixth month, the compromise wording is a positive outcome. We now move forward to protect women and their babies from late-term abortion.”
As the nation approaches the second anniversary of the conviction of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, it is heartening that leaders in Congress are determined to say “never again” will fully-formed and pain-capable infants be brutally dismembered in their mother’s womb with the approval of the US government.
The revision also has the support of the National Right to Life Committee and the Susan B. Anthony List.
A recent Quinnipiac poll showed that 60 percent of women specifically support banning abortion after 20 weeks. A majority of Americans believe abortion should be illegal or strictly limited, according to polls conducted by CBS News (60 percent) and CNN (58 percent). Abortion currently is legal in all 50 states throughout an entire pregnancy.
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