On the anniversary of Roe . Wade, dozens of pro-life people set up shop at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ office to demand she allow a vote on a bill to stop infanticide and protect babies who survive abortion. Some of the pro-lifers, many of whom were young people, were arrested and taken away by U.S. Capitol police.
A pro-life women’s group sponsored the sit-n at Pelosi’s office and told LifeNews.com that it is “calling for an end to infanticide in America.”
Before the protest, Brandi Swindell of Stanton Public Policy told LifeNews: “We are going to Speaker Pelosi’s office to call for an end to infanticide and demand she allow a vote on protecting children born alive from late-term abortions. It is unconscionable that Speaker Pelosi is refusing to allow a vote on this critical human rights issue.”
“Participants are wearing purple sashes to stand in solidarity with our founding sisters who heroically worked to empower and inspire women by securing the right to vote and strongly embracing human rights and equality. Suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood against abortion and rejected the notion that abortion violence is a way to advance women’s rights,” she said. “As the #PurpleSashRevolution protest is taking place at Speaker Pelosi’s office, it will mark a powerful kickoff to the 2020 national election in which infanticide and abortion violence will take center stage in the race for the White House. In the history of America we have never seen such a sharp divide on the issue of abortion between Presidential and Congressional candidates. With the vast majority of Americas opposing late-term abortions and infanticide, it promises to be a significant year for pro-life victories.”
Some of the participants prayed in front Pelosi’s office and were threatened with arrest and eventually arrested. Pelosi was not at her office at the time.
Members of Students for Life of America also participated in the sit-in.
“It should be common-sense and completely bipartisan to support any bill banning infanticide. Democrats have become so extreme that they are even stalling a vote that protects innocent babies born alive during an abortion. We are calling on Speaker Pelosi to allow a vote immediately to protect the rights infants born during an abortion. Abandoning a child born during an abortion is inhumane and should be unthinkable and illegal,” said Stephanie Stone, Capital Area Regional Coordinator for Students for Life of America.
Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats continue to refuse 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.
SIGN THE PETITION: Stop Infanticide! Stop Abortions Up to Birth!
In July, the last time Republicans requested a vote on the anti-infanticide bill, 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 his 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.
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.
LifeNews Note: Photo courtesy Students for Life.
