Leading pro-life members of Congress held a press conference today to discuss their plan for how to try to get around Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats who are blocking a bill to stop infanticide. As LifeNews reported, House Democrats have blocked a request by Republicans to vote on a bill to require medical care and treatment for babies who survive abortions – and they have done so 16 times.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) held a press conference to call on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats to stop blocking a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation to protect babies born alive in failed abortions.
They were joined by pro-life advocates Jill Stanek, national campaign chair for Susan B. Anthony List; Olivia Gans, outreach director for the National Right to Life Committee and president of the Virginia Society for Human Life; and Melissa Cifuentes, a Rhode Island pro-life activist, all representing states where Democratic lawmakers have introduced radical legislation to expand abortion on demand through birth.
House Republicans are working to get a vote on legislation that would protect babies born alive after abortion. They are moving forward with a discharge petition. Since Democrats have the majority in the Housethe only way pro-life lawmakers can bring a bill to the floor is to demand a discharge petition and getting a majority of the members of Congress to sign it.
That’s a tall order because it would require obtaining signatures from pro-abortion Democrats who would likely be reluctant to buck their party’s leadership even if they support the bill.
During the press event, Stanek, a former nurse who witnessed babies born alive during failed abortions and left to die, gave remarks about a bill in the Illinois legislature that would enshrine abortion as a “fundamental right”
SIGN THE PETITION: Stop Infanticide! Stop Abortions Up to Birth!
“Abortion advocates are trying to eradicate even the meagerest protections for unborn and born babies… This ruthless bill repeals protections for abortion survivors and criminal penalties for abortionists. It repeals all abortion facility regulations. It repeals conscience protections for hospitals and health care professionals from being forced to participate in abortions.
“It allows abortion up to the moment of birth, for any reason, by a nondoctor, in a clinic that’s not inspected and doesn’t have to report injuries. It allows self-abortions and forces all health insurance policies to cover abortions, including religious organizations. Incredibly, this bill even repeals the Illinois Partial Birth Abortion Ban. I appeal to both Illinois and federal legislators to halt the insanity and work to protect unborn and born babies rather than provide a killing ‘oasis.’”
Republicans believe in providing mandatory medical care for every baby born alive. We must #EndInfanticide. https://t.co/yWPP8umz7l
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 13, 2019
Yesterday, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) offered the unanimous consent request to allow a vote on the anti-infanticide bill but Democrats, as shown below, ruled it out of order. After Democrats denied Johnson’s request to vote on the bill he criticized them for failing to allow a vote. As Democrats have done on five occasions, the pro-life Congressman’s mic was ultimately cut off as he attempted to speak further on the legislation.
If the Democrats continue to block consideration of H.R. 962, after 30 legislative days, Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Wagner plan to file a motion to discharge the resolution from the Rules Committee.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a leading House member, discussed that 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, 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.
