White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended abortions up to birth yesterday in a response to a new national bill in Congress that would ban late-term abortions up to birth.
As LifeNews reported, Senate Republicans introduced legislation to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks. The legislation is an important pushback against blue states that currently allow most abortions or abortions up to birth and would protect babies from late-term abortions in those states.
The legislation is the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 15 weeks when scientific evidence shows unborn babies can feel pain.
Without the bill, blue states like California and New York will continue allowing abortions up to birth for any reason. And Jean-Pierre says Biden and Democrats are just fine with that. She claimed the bill is “wildly out of step” with the country even though polling shows Americans are generally pro-life on abortion.
“This bill is wildly out of step with what Americans believe,” she said. “The President and Vice President are fighting for progress, while Republicans are fighting to take us back.”
The irony is Democrats want to take the nation back to 1973 while Republicans want to stick with the 2022 Dobbs decision.
She called Graham’s bill “an extreme piece of legislation” even though abortions up to birth is the most radical position in America.
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“The first thing is the senators’ proposal would keep in place the most extreme, the most extreme state level abortion bans that ban all abortions and have no exemptions for health,” she said.
However, doctors have repeatedly said killing babies in abortions is never medically necessary.
Jean-Pierre said that Biden and Democrats in Congress are committed to restoring Roe v. Wade. The White House has pushed for Congress to pass a radical bill that would legalize abortions up to birth nationwide and overturn every pro-life law in America.
“President Biden and Congressional Democrats are committed to restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade in the face of continued radical steps by elected Republicans to put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians instead of women and their doctors, threatening women’s health and lives,” Jean-Pierre said.
One pro-life group condemned Democrats like Biden who supports abortions up to birth and can’t support reasonable limits on abortions.
“We commend pro-life Senator Lindsey Graham and pro-life Congressman Chris Smith for their untiring efforts and dedication on behalf of unborn children and their mothers,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “The Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act would prevent cruel and painful abortions from being performed on innocent children.”
“In contrast, pro-abortion Democrats are pushing for unlimited abortion for any reason throughout pregnancy and using tax dollars to pay for abortion. In fact, the only thing the Democrats are offering the American people in this campaign is an opportunity to kill more and more children by abortion,” Tobias continued. “President Biden and the entire Democratic Party are pouring more effort into promoting and expanding abortion than on addressing any of the critical issues facing Americans today.”
The legislation has no chance of getting to the Senate floor under Chuck Schumer and pro-abortion Democrat leadership but it begins the process of moving the legislation ahead if Republicans capture the House and Senate. If they can move forward with returning the White House to pro-life leadership in 2024, the legislation has a path for success.
Senator Graham’s bill falls in line with public opinion, which is increasingly favorable towards common sense abortion limits to protect babies and moms. Polling repeatedly shows that 80–90% of Americans oppose abortion throughout all 9 months of pregnancy, and recent polling from Harvard/Harris shows that 72% of Americans support a limit on abortion no later than 15 weeks.
“Since the historic Dobbs victory, more than a dozen states have taken action to protect unborn children and mothers, potentially saving more than 200,000 lives. This is incredible progress, but much more action is needed. In Washington and in states across the country, Democratic Party leaders refuse to name any limits whatsoever on abortion that they support. Democrats in Congress are united around the deceptively named ‘Women’s Health Protection Act’ to expand abortion until the moment of birth and block pro-life protections nationwide, while states such as California and New York not only permit but are actively seeking ways to expand abortion on demand until birth,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.
She added: “Democrats’ pro-abortion extremism flies in the face of American public opinion which strongly supports compassionate limits on abortion like those proposed today by Sen. Graham and Rep. Smith. Seventy-five percent of women, 70% of Independents and 60% of rank-and-file Democrats support legislation to protect babies by at least 15 weeks. This bill would bring the U.S. in line with 47 out of 50 of our European allies who protect life at this stage or even earlier.”
While abortion activists say unborn babies can’t feel pain until later in pregnancy, a leading U.S. neonatologist testified that a majority of the medical evidence indicates that unborn babies can feel severe pain, according to the Catholic News Agency.
Dr. Colleen A. Malloy, a professor of neonatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Senate committee that “anesthesiologists, and surgeons use pain medication” at the 20 week stage, “because it’s supported by the literature completely.”
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“The standard of care for NICUs requires attention to and treatment of neonatal pain,” she said. “There is no reason to believe that a born infant will feel pain any differently than that same infant if he or she were still in utero.”
“I could never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to a horrific procedure such as those that involve limb detachment or cardiac injection,” Malloy added.
Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into fetal pain. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for unborn pain.
He has testified before Congress in the past that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.” Researchers also have found that unborn babies respond to touch as early as six weeks.
He and his colleagues Dr. Vincent J. Collins and Thomas J. Marzen wrote, “The functioning neurological structures necessary to suffer pain are developed early in a child’s development in the womb.”
“Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation. Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus before the 9th week of gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th and 10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal column takes place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body,” they continued.
Further research showed that hormone levels in unborn babies decrease when pain-relievers are supplied, LifeNews previously reported.
