Republicans revive bill to criminalise abortions administered after 20 weeks
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Version 0 of 1. Efforts to criminalise abortions carried out after 20 weeks of pregnancy were revived in Congress on Tuesday as Senate Republicans sought to capitalise on pro-life issues as a midterm election weapon against Democrats. Minority leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleague Lindsey Graham urged Senate majority leader Harry Reid to allow a vote on their proposed bill, called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. It would impose prison sentences of up to five years on doctors carrying out terminations in an estimated 1.5% of later abortion cases that fall between 20 weeks and the current 24-week limit. Though the bill is likely to remain blocked by Reid for now, McConnell said his public call for a vote was intended to put senators on the spot on a controversial issue that Republicans claim is supported in opinion polling. A similar bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last June and would be a top priority for Senate Republicans if they succeed in gaining the six seats need to take charge of the upper chamber in November's midterm elections. Graham pointed to rare cases of babies surviving after premature births at this stage of pregnancy as a reason to change the law and claimed there was medical evidence that foetuses can also feel pain at this age, although such claims are contested by pro-choice groups. “Our view is that at 20 weeks you are already a member of society,” Graham told a press conference held after a brief Senate debate. “You need our help and we are here to provide it.” He was joined by a group of pro-life campaigners who said they had chosen today for their announcement because it was the one-year anniversary of the prosecution of rogue Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted of murder after killing babies after they were delivered. Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, one of several women to talk against the bill on the Senate floor, dismissed its revival by Republican leaders as a “dangerous political game” and questioned the relevance of the Gosnell case, which was tried under existing criminal laws. Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal added: “The fact of one incident of possible medical malpractice should not justify this sweeping abrogation of a woman's reproductive rights.” Blumenthal and Baldwin are pushing a rival bill that would permanently bar states from various recent attempts to tighten abortion laws in ways campaigners argue are undermining the legal principle of choice established by the supreme court in Roe v Wade. They also argue that the small number of abortions carried out between 20 and 24 weeks are often necessary due to dangerous medical complications such as pre-eclampsia. “The majority of medical procedures occur due to health issues that would put the foetus and mother at risk.” said Blumenthal. “Under this law the doctor would have to wait until she was facing death [before being able to act]." Such arguments are rejected by pro-life groups, who claim it is more humane to allow babies with life-threatening conditions to be born. “It's argued that abortion is a necessary option for those very rare cases where there is devastating diagnosis and my heart goes out to those families … but women who are offered abortion in this situation are being offered a lie,” said Maureen Ferguson of the Catholic Association. “They are told this is a compassionate choice, but the reality of abortion is a premature and violent end for the baby. The alternative is authentically compassionate: there is hospice care for these disabled babies that help grieving parents to say goodbye in a loving, humane way after birth.” Graham argued that the US was an outlier as one of only seven countries in the world to allow abortion at this stage of pregnancy – naming China, North Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands. His list omits Britain however, which also currently allows abortions up to 24 weeks. |