Pro-Abortion Iowa Candidate Bruce Braley Falsely Claims He Opposes Late-Term Abortions

State   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Oct 17, 2014   |   3:07PM   |   Des Moines, IA

Thanks to the indispensable John McCormack of The Weekly Standard for not allowing pro-abortion Iowa Democratic senatorial candidate Bruce Braley to run away from his record.

In yesterday’s debate with pro-life Republican senatorial candidate Joni Ernst, Braley claimed

“I have always stated, contrary to what Senator Ernst said, that I oppose all late-term abortions that aren’t necessary to save the life or health of a mother.”

McCormack patiently explained how that is not accurate.

brucebraleyFirst, as a member of the House of Representatives Braley voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. H.R. 1797 would provide nationwide protection for unborn children who are capable of feeling pain, beginning at 20 weeks fetal age.

Second, Braley co-sponsored the “Women’s Health Protection Act”—which, as National Right to Life President Carol Tobias told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee back in July, would be more accurately described as the “Abortion Without Limits Until Birth Act.”

The bill “is really about just one thing: stripping away from elected lawmakers the ability to provide even the most minimal protections for unborn children, at any stage of their development,” Tobias explained.

McCormack wrote

“[The bill] would invalidate state laws passed in more than a dozen states, most recently in Texas, that would ban most abortions after the fifth month of pregnancy–laws that garner strong support in national polling. It would abolish laws requiring a 24-hour waiting period prior to obtaining an abortion–measures that Americans back nationally by a 41-point margin, according to Gallup. It would strike down laws requiring that abortionists inform women of alternatives to abortion, measures that Americans support by a 77-point margin, according to Gallup.”

And for those (we hope that’s everyone) who remembers convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors,” the Women’s Health Protection Act would strike down the 1989 Pennsylvania law used to prosecute Gosnell.

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McCormack quotes National Right to Life Legislative Director Douglas Johnson who explained that the bill

“would invalidate nearly every provision of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, including the prohibition on performing abortion after 24 weeks except in acute medical circumstances, which was used to prosecute Gosnell. Abortion until birth would be explicitly protected, as long as a single physician asserts that it would protect ‘health,’ including emotional health.”

The Senate race in Iowa is among the most competitive this year with Ernst holding a narrow lead in recent surveys.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared at National Right to Life News Today.