Failure to respect life

Richard A. Sokerka

A procedural vote on a Senate bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks failed Jan. 29 when the cloture motion, which would have prevented a filibuster on the bill, failed to get the required 60 votes to pass with a final vote of 51-46.

“After 20 weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling,” according to the text of the Pain-Capable Act. Because of an unborn child’s sensitivity to pain at this stage, anesthesia is regularly administered during in-utero surgery after 20 weeks. An ultrasound can reveal the gender of an unborn child, who can be viewed sucking their thumb, yawning, or stretching by 20 weeks of pregnancy. The nervous system begins functioning in the fourth month of pregnancy.”

Sadly, the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in October, was opposed by most Senate Democrats. To prevent a filibuster, Republicans needed Democratic support, in addition to the votes of the 51 Republican Senators.

Those Senators, including the two from New Jersey, who failed to vote for the bill’s passage, turned a deaf ear to a recent Marist poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus that found that 76 percent of Americans support limiting abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy. In addition, 21 states currently have a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

“There is no reason why this should be a partisan issue,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) “The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act reflects a mainstream, growing consensus that unborn children should not be subjected to elective-abortion after 20 weeks.”

A disappointed President Trump had this to say: “Recently, when I addressed the 45th annual March for Life, I called on the Senate to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, important legislation that would protect our most vulnerable. Scientific studies have demonstrated that babies in the womb feel pain at 20 weeks. The vote by the Senate rejects scientific fact and puts the United States out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only seven out of 198 nations, including China and North Korea, allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. We must defend those who cannot defend themselves. I urge the Senate to reconsider its decision and pass legislation that will celebrate, cherish, and protect life.”

We hope that Democrat members of the Senate can once and for all drop the partisan politics of voting along party lines and finally see that not passing the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is a crime against humanity that makes the U.S. no different than China or North Korea, two rogue nations, in how we respect life in the womb.