Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have refused a request to allow a vote on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that would stop infanticide and provide medical care and treatment for babies who survive abortions. They’ve refused a vote not just once but 80 times over the last six months.
To draw attention to this, Republicans will hold a minority hearing on the Born Alive bill next Tuesday. This is not an official Congressional hearing, but a special event in a hearing style designed to bring public attention to the fact that hundreds of babies across the United States are born alive after failed abortions and left to die — all without abortionists facing any criminal consequences.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), and Pro-Life Caucus Chair Chris Smith (R-N.J.) today announced the hearing on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, featuring expert witnesses on abortion procedures and abortion statistics.
“Republicans have spent months asking House Democrats to take up legislation protecting babies born alive during an abortion,” they told LifeNews. “Since Democrats have consistently refused to acknowledge or address the dangers faced by abortion survivors, Republicans are holding a hearing to discern the facts and educate the public on the desperate need for legal and medical protections for these most vulnerable members of our society.”
More than 20 lawmakers will participate in the hearing and expert witnesses will include Dr. Robin Pierucci, a board-certified Clinical Neonatologist, gynecologist Dr. Kathi A. Aultman, and nurse Jill Stanek, who witnessed firsthand a baby born alive after a botched abortion and left to die in a Chicao hospital.
Democrats in both congressional chamber shave blocked a vote on the bill a total of 82 times — 80 times in the House and twice in the Senate.
On the same day, Father Frank Pavone tells LifeNews.com will lead a lobbying effort through the halls of Congress to persuade Democrats to sign on to the discharge petition allowing a vote on the bill on the House floor.
“The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has refused to bring this bill up for a vote, despite Republican members requesting a vote some 80 times on the House floor,” Father Pavone said. “A separate discharge petition that would allow a vote needs just 17 signatures from Democrats courageous enough to go on the record as opposing infanticide.”
“We will visit House members – some of whom have agreed to meet with us – to ask them to sign the discharge petition,” Father Pavone said. “They don’t even have to vote for the bill, all they have to do is sign the petition so the House can vote on the bill. It’s a very simple thing we’re asking. The vast majority of Americans support a bill to save babies who survive abortion. And despite the pro-abortion lobby’s insistence that this doesn’t happen, it is a matter of public record that it does.”
At the end of July, in the most recent request for a vote, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-PA) offered a unanimous consent request to allow a vote on the anti-infanticide bill but Democrats ruled it out of order. As they have done numerous times, after Democrats denied the request to vote on the bill, they cut off her microphone so she could not object to their denying a vote.
Earlier this year, Democrats voted to fund infanticide. LHHS Ranking Member Tom Cole (R-OK) offered an amendment to withhold funds to any medical entity that does not ensure that any infant born alive following an abortion receives the same medical care as any other infant born at the same gestational age. Every Republican voted for the pro-life amendment to stop infanticide while every Democrat on the committee, except Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, voted for infanticide.
In April, Republican Whip Steve Scalise and Representative Ann Wagner moved forward with a discharge petition to force Speaker Pelosi to schedule a vote. That’s a petition any member of Congress can sign to allow legislation to move out of committee and to the House floor when the party controlling Congress refuses to allow a vote on it.
So far, 201 members have signed on, including three Democrats — short of the majority necessary to get the bill to the floor for a vote.
SIGN THE PETITION: Stop Infanticide! Stop Abortions Up to Birth!
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a leading House member, discussed the discharge petition in a recent interview with the Daily Signal.
“It’s just heartbreaking. I was disheartened by the vote, 44 senators that voted against legislation that would protect babies who were born alive, babies that had survived an abortion, were outside the womb, and yet they were not willing to bring in the insurer under law that they would bring in the doctor’s care,” she said. “In years past, this is passed with unanimous consent in the Senate. So it really exposed the extreme position that the left is taking right now, that Democrats are saying they reject legislation to protect babies born alive.”
“In the House, we are moving forward with a discharge petition. As you know, the Democrats have the majority in the House. One way that we can bring a bill to the floor is to demand a discharge petition,” she added. “You have to get 218 people to sign a discharge petition, and then you can bypass Speaker Nancy Pelosi and bring the bill directly to the floor. We’re working actively on that right now.”
Republicans would need all GOP members to sign the petition, along with 21 Democrats. Rodgers said she hoped polling data showing Americans strongly oppose infanticide would help change members’ minds.
The blocking of a vote on a bill to stop infanticide come even as national polling shows Americans — including people who are “pro-choice” on abortion — oppose abortion up to birth and infanticide. And doctors indicate abortions are never needed to protect a woman’s health and women admit having abortions on healthy babies.
And a new poll finds a massive 17 percent shift in the pro-life direction after Democrats have pushed abortions up to birth and infanticide nationally.
H.R. 962, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), ensures that a baby born alive after a failed or attempted abortion receives the same medical care as any other newborn. It would also penalize doctors who allow such infants to die or who intentionally kill a newborn following a failed abortion.
Every single Democrat in the Senate who is running for president voted against a bill that would stop infanticide and provide medical care and treatment for babies who are born alive after botched abortions. That includes Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar.
While they all voted to support infanticide, President Trump spoke out against infanticide in two tweets saying that it’s nothing short of “executing” babies to let them die after failed abortions.
ACTION: Contact members of Congress and urge them to sign the Discharge Petition to bring the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the House floor for a vote.
