A pro-life Bill aimed at barring late-term abortions in the United States has been defeated in the country’s Senate after Democrat legislators blocked a vote on the issue.
The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Bill had passed successfully through the House of Representatives earlier this year, but once it reached the Senate, Democrat senators staged a filibuster, speaking at length during the debate on the legislation so as to delay it indefinitely. Under the rules of the Senate, those seeking to end such a prolonged debate must secure the backing of 60 senators in order to move business to the voting stage. However, despite a plea from Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for legislators to “look in your hearts and help us stand up for the most innocent life”, the attempt to end the filibuster was defeated 54-42, with the numbers divided mainly along party lines, though three Republican senators backed the Democrat stance on continuing late-term abortions.
It is estimated that some 18,000 foetuses are aborted every year in the United States after the 20th week of pregnancy.
During the debate on the ban, Indiana’s republican Senator Dan Coats said a bar on late-term abortions would not just save infants, but deal with negative impacts on women procuring such terminations.
Quoted on Lifesite News, Senator Coats said: “It is indisputable that the later in pregnancy an abortion occurs, the riskier it is for the mother and the more painful it is for the child. Research shows that a woman seeking an abortion at 20 weeks is 35 times more likely to die from abortion than she was in the first trimester. At 21 weeks or more, she is 91 times more likely to die from abortion than she was in the first trimester. These significant risks to maternal health should cause all of us concern.”
Fellow Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah added: “This bill recognises the indisputable fact that each of us, including each individual member of the US Senate, was a living human being before we were born. This bill reflects the indispensable principle that each individual member of the human family has inherent dignity and worth prohibiting the killing of innocent human beings who can feel pain is only a small step in the right direction, but it is a step that we must take.”
