Action Needed to Stop Unlimited Abortions in Nation’s Capital

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 20, 2012   |   10:48AM   |   Washington, DC

Leading pro-life groups are urging pro-life advocates today to do everything possible to secure a House vote for a bill, that passed in committee this week, to stop unlimited abortions in the nation’s capital.

The National Right to Life Committee has been leading the charge for the legislation and its president, Carol Tobias, is asking for calls and emails to get the bill moved forward before Congress wraps up to begin the Fall election season. From a letter to NRLC’s members provided to LifeNews:

In our nation’s capital, babies who can feel great pain are being brutally dismembered on a regular basis.  We’re trying to stop it.  But we need your help.  Time is very short.

In the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal for any reason, until the very moment of birth.  That’s because a local body called the “District Council” repealed the entire abortion law.  An abortion facility not far from the White House now advertises dismemberment (“D&E”) abortions on request, to 26 weeks of pregnancy — the beginning of the 7th month!

There is a mountain of scientific evidence that 26 weeks is far past the point at which the unborn baby will feel excruciating pain as the abortionist twists off his or her little arms and legs, using a long steel tool called a “Sopher clamp.”   And abortions in the District may well be occurring even later — because it is perfectly legal until birth, and no reporting is required.

Since January, National Right to Life has been urging Congress to act to stop the abortion of pain-capable babies in the nation’s capital.  Yesterday (July 18), the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives finally approved, 18-14, a bill conceived by NRLC, the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803).    The bill will ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks fetal age, except to save a mother’s life.

The bill is now eligible for action by the full House of Representatives.  But this must happen fast, or it will not happen at all!  And we are encountering fierce opposition.  Well-funded pro-abortion groups such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood are mobilizing their resources to defend D.C.’s abortion-until-birth policy.  They know that if they can delay the bill for even two weeks, it will die, because only two weeks remain before Congress goes into recess.  The bill must pass the House before August 3 to have a chance of consideration by the Senate in September.

The bottom line is this:  We have the votes on the House floor to pass this bill — but it will die without a vote, unless House Leaders disregard the protests of opponents and put the bill on a fast track immediately.

I am asking you to urge your representative in the U.S. House to demand immediate action on H.R. 3803.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is also asking for strong support for the legislation:

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

Washington, D.C. may be the capital of America, but it shouldn’t be the capital of abortion. At least that’s what 18 House Republicans concluded yesterday in a key vote of the Judiciary Committee. Led by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), conservatives voted 18-14 to ban abortions in the District after 20 weeks after fertilization–when research suggests that babies can feel pain. Not one Democrat supported the bill.

“We are talking about [legislation that] protects children from being torturously dismembered while they are capable of feeling pain,” Franks repeated. Still, liberals not only opposed the bill but offered hostile amendments–which, to our relief, were all defeated.

If anything, the vote on H.R. 3803 again proves how stunningly out of touch the Left is. In a new poll released this week by the National Right to Life Committee, Americans overwhelmingly side with conservatives on this issue. Sixty-three percent of all respondents (and 70% of women) favor banning abortion after the point where the unborn child can feel pain, and 58% of all respondents and 62% of women would be more likely to vote for a Member of Congress who votes to ban abortion 20 weeks after fertilization in the District of Columbia.

Join the majority! Call or email your congressman and ask him to support H.R. 3803. Then, contact your senators and encourage them to cosponsor Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) companion bill, S. 2013.

Go to https://www.house.gov to urge your member of Congress to support the bill and request a floor vote for it.