Houses passes bill to protect unborn children, live-born abortion survivors

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation to extend federal protections to unborn children who have reached 20 weeks fetal age and those who are born alive during late abortions.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed by a 242-184 margin. The bill was developed from model legislation developed by National Right to Life in 2010, enacted thus far in 11 states.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act has been the right-to-life movement’s top congressional priority for the 114th Congress. Like the state bills, the proposed federal law would generally extend legal protect to unborn humans beginning at 20 weeks fetal age, based on congressional findings that by that point (and even earlier) the unborn child has the capacity to experience great pain during an abortion.

“This bill would save thousands of unborn babies annually from terribly painful deaths,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in a statement. “It is now clear that the overwhelming majority of House Democrats believe that painfully dismembering babies, in the sixth month and later, is just fine – now let them try to explain that to their constituents.”