Trump Tells March for Life: I Will Sign Bill Protecting Babies Born Alive After Botched Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 19, 2018   |   4:17PM   |   Washington, DC

President Donald Trump today told hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans gathered for the March for Life that he will sign a bill the House passed today to protect babies born alive after abortions. He also bashed abortion policy in the United States that allows legal late-term abortions, even up to the point of birth in some states.

“For example, in the United States, it’s one of only seven countries to allow elective late-term abortions, along with China, North Korea, and others,” the president said. “Right now in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be ripped from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month. It is wrong. It has to change.”

“I strongly support the House of Representatives Pain-Capable bill, which would end painful, late-term abortions nationwide,” Trump said. “I call upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it to my desk for signing.”

As hundreds of thousands of pro-life people prepare to march in the March for Life, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — legislation protecting babies who survive abortions.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 4712) passed 241-183. All Republicans voted for final passage, but only six Democrats voted in favor of it.

Now that the House has approved the bill, President Trump is asking the Senate to vote to approve it and several Republican senators are requesting a vote on a related bill that would ban abortions after an unborn baby is 20 weeks old. Five Republican senators on Friday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule a vote on a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

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The bill, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is unlikely to pass because it will need at least 60 votes in the Senate and does not have enough votes even if all 51 Republicans were to support it. But anti-abortion activists have urged leaders for a vote because they want to have senators on the record with their vote ahead of the midterm elections.

“A vote would make our constituents immediately aware of the members of Congress who support elective late-term abortions and oppose extending legal protection to pain-capable unborn children nationwide,” senators wrote in their letter.

The letter was sent by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Steve Daines of Montana and Roy Blunt of Missouri. They urged the bill to reach the floor close to the 45th annual March for Life on Friday, a rally in Washington that protests abortion.

“The United States is currently one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion after 20 weeks,” the letter stated. “Polling numbers consistently show that the majority of Americans support a ban on abortion at this stage of pregnancy; these Americans no longer want to keep the company of countries like China and North Korea.”

The similar language makes it clear Trump and Senate Republicans are on the same page.