A ban on almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy failed to advance in the U.S. Senate on January 29, as a motion to proceed with debating the bill gained only 51 votes, short of the 60 required under Senate rules. Three Democrats (Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia) voted for cloture on the misleadingly-named Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, joining most Senate Republicans, including Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted no, as did most of the Democratic caucus. Two Democrats facing potentially tough re-election campaigns this year–Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri–opposed the bill.
The U.S. House approved the same legislation in October on a mostly party-line vote of 237 to 189. Republicans Rod Blum (IA-01), David Young (IA-03), and Steve King (IA-04) supported the legislation, while pro-choice Democrat Dave Loebsack (IA-02) opposed it.
Nineteen states already ban most abortions after 20 weeks; Iowa joined their ranks in May 2017. Most terminations at that stage of pregnancy happen either because the mother has a serious health problem or because of a severe (often unsurvivable) fetal anomaly. Five women who have faced those difficult circumstances allowed Bleeding Heartland to share their stories last year.
I enclose below statements from some of the Iowans in Congress and background on the bill, which uses a faulty premise as an excuse to restrict women’s ability to make decisions about their own medical care.
Sara Miller of LiveScience reviewed the research on when a fetus can feel pain in 2016.
“The science shows that based on gestational age, the fetus is not capable of feeling pain until the third trimester,” said Kate Connors, a spokesperson for ACOG [American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists]. The third trimester begins at about 27 weeks of pregnancy. […]
Scientists’ knowledge of the fetal nervous system was summed up in a 2005 review in the journal JAMA. The authors of that review outlined in detail the evidence on how this system develops, based on a number of previous studies on the anatomy of the fetus at various stages of development.
Anna North reported for Vox this week,
“There’s actually conclusive evidence that shows that the neurologic structures in a fetus aren’t completely laid down and working yet until much further along in pregnancy, we think even the third trimester,” said Jennifer Conti, a clinical assistant professor and OB-GYN at Stanford University and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. Twenty weeks, she said, “is just an arbitrary limit set in place by politicians that has no medical or scientific backing.”
The Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for “sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally,” commented on this “misguided” legislation last September.
The 20-week abortion ban, misleadingly labeled as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is based at least in part on the assertion that fetuses can experience pain starting at 20 weeks post-fertilization—a claim that is not supported by the preponderance of scientific evidence. The bill is also patently unconstitutional, since it would prohibit abortion before viability without any exception to preserve a woman’s health. The bill also includes particularly callous and cruel rape and incest exceptions that force rape victims to wait 48 hours and make two visits to see two different providers before having an abortion.
Moreover, the 20-week abortion ban would fall hardest on low-income women, the very group bearing a disproportionate burden of unintended pregnancies. According to a study by researchers at UCSF, women obtaining an abortion at or after 20 weeks’ gestation were much more likely than women obtaining an abortion in the first trimester to report delays because they had difficulty raising funds for the procedure and travel costs, or because they had difficulty securing insurance coverage.
In addition to the harmful ban on safe abortion care, the bill would impose a little-noticed provision that could be used to target abortion providers. The bill would require abortion providers to submit annual summaries of abortions provided at or after 20 weeks post-fertilization to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Requiring physicians to report certain abortions directly to NCHS serves no discernible public health purpose, but rather appears to be part of an ongoing trend to politicize U.S. abortion surveillance.
The bill also requires NCHS to issue annual reports of all reported abortions, with patients’ identifying information protected. However, given ongoing threats against and harassment of providers, it is alarming that the bill says nothing about protecting physician and provider information and confidentiality. This is in clear contrast to many state policies, as 34 of the 46 states with abortion reporting requirements specifically protect the confidentiality of providers.
Representatives Blum, Loebsack, and Young did not release statements following the October 3, 2017 House vote on the 20-week abortion ban. King’s office sent out this press release that day:
King Votes to Protect the Lives of Unborn Children
Unborn lives matter to King, House supporters of the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act”
Washington, D.C.- Congressman Steve King released the following statement celebrating the House passage of important pro-life legislation he cosponsored. The legislation, H.R. 36, the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” seeks to end abortions after an unborn child has attained the post-fertilization age of 20 weeks. There is substantial medical evidence that an unborn child is capable of experiencing pain at least by 20 weeks after fertilization, if not earlier. Under the legislation, an abortionist killing an unborn baby during or past the 20th week could be subject to both criminal penalties and civil remedies. The “Pain-Capable” legislation passed the House of Representatives today on a vote of 237-189, with King voting in favor of passage.
“Each one of these lives is so utterly precious, and we’re not going to stop. We’re going to defend every life that we can; we’re going to protect every life we can. We’re going to do the right thing that we can for the babies that we can save.”
To watch Congressman King’s entire speech, click the image or click here.
Background:
Pain receptors (nociceptors) are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than 20 weeks after fertilization.
By 8 weeks after fertilization, the unborn child reacts to touch. After 20 weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling.
America is one of 7 nations that allow elective abortion after 20 weeks (along with North Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Netherlands and Canada.)
Congressman King has introduced H.R. 490, “The Heartbeat Protection Act” which would protect unborn babies prior to the 20 week threshold established in the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” Under the King legislation, “if a heartbeat is detected, the baby is protected.” King’s legislation currently has 168 cosponsors.
Senator Joni Ernst’s office released this statement on January 29:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) released the following statement after the Senate failed to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, legislation that would prohibit abortion after about five months post-fertilization, the point in development that science has shown unborn children can feel pain:
“At five months, we know that babies can yawn, make faces, wiggle their ten fingers and ten toes, and feel pain. At just five months gestation, Micah Pickering from Newton, Iowa proved that a baby this small is so full of life.
“The United States is only one of seven countries that allows abortions after about five months, putting us in the company of countries like China and North Korea. I am deeply saddened by the outcome of today’s vote and that some of my colleagues chose to stand with North Korea instead of innocent life. I cannot believe this is who we want to be as a nation.
“I will continue to fight for these babies until they are given the life full of opportunity that they too deserve.”
Senator Ernst has been a strong voice of the pro-life movement, and just last year, championed legislation that was signed into law by President Trump that overturned an eleventh-hour rule issued by the Obama administration, and restored decisions about the best eligible Title X providers to the states.
The Iowa Senator has also led the fight to safeguard taxpayer funds for women’s health care by redirecting them from Planned Parenthood, which is the nation’s single largest provider of abortion, to other eligible entities like community health centers, which provide greater health care services but do not provide abortions.
Senator Ernst delivered remarks from the Senate floor today urging her colleagues to support the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Watch her full remarks here.
Senator Chuck Grassley’s office released the prepared text of his January 29 speech on the Senate floor (video):
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This commonsense measure recognizes that the government has an interest in protecting our children from the excruciating pain they’re capable of experiencing during a late-term abortion.
This is a measure that many Americans—including a majority of women—broadly support and it’s time that we get this bill passed. As Judiciary Committee chairman, I convened a hearing on this bill in 2016. Witnesses, including a Northwestern professor of pediatrics, a woman who survived a botched abortion as a baby, and a former abortion provider, offered compelling testimony in support of this legislation.
There’s an Iowa boy, Micah Pickering, who is living proof that we need to do more to protect unborn babies at this stage of development. Micah and his parents visited me in Washington last September. They tell me that, when Micah was born at 20 weeks post fertilization, he received intensive care, including medication to minimize his pain and discomfort.
Babies like Micah, born in the fifth month of pregnancy, are capable of feeling pain. That’s why it has now become routine procedure to give premature infants anesthesia for fetal surgeries. How could anyone think that these unborn babies would not experience excruciating pain from an abortion, when premature babies like Micah are being born at the same stage of development and are surviving long term?
Once again, I call upon my colleagues to support the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and embrace the sanctity of an innocent human life.