Background:
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
With limited exceptions, this bill makes it unlawful to perform or attempt to perform an abortion if the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child is 20 weeks or greater. The bill asserts a compelling governmental interest in protecting unborn children beginning at 20 weeks because of the substantial medical evidence that an unborn child can experience pain at least at this stage. There are other compelling reasons to ban late-term abortions including that they pose more serious dangers to women.
The House passed this bill on October 3, 2017 (237-189) but it has not been allowed to come up for a vote since. The Senate took it up on January 29, 2018 but failed to reach the necessary 60 vote threshold to end debate (51-46). To see the text of S. 3275 and the current list of co-sponsors
click here
.
Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Today, states are not just expanding abortion but allowing infanticide as well. New York and Illinois passed drastic laws that eliminated some specific protections for babies who survive an abortion attempt. And the Governor of Virginia has openly talked about denying care to babies born alive during a late-term abortion.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (S. 311) would require any health care practitioner present when a child is born alive following an abortion to give the same degree of care to preserve the life and health of the child as would be given to any other newborn at the same gestational age. And after giving such care, it requires the practitioner to ensure that the child is immediately transported to a hospital. To see the text of S. 311 and the current list of co-sponsors
click here
.
