From Carol Tobias,
National Right to Life President
One day, what happened this afternoon will be considered a landmark in our movement to return legal protection to the unborn.
Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), introduced in the Senate the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the law National Right to Life has helped pass in 10 states.
In the states where the law is in force, it protects the lives of unborn babies who are developed enough to feel pain. Medical science tells us they can feel pain by at least 20 weeks fetal age, so the law bans elective abortions at that point.
National Right to Life created, and after years of work enacted, a nationwide ban on partial-birth abortions. Now we are working with everything we have to pass a nationwide ban on abortions on babies old enough to feel pain.
And although the Supreme Court won’t let us protect the lives of all unborn babies yet, we will keep working with all our might to protect every single child we can.
When the history of the movement is written – when our nation, as President George W. Bush used to say, finally “welcomes the unborn in life and protects them in law” – this addition of protection for pain-capable babies will be seen as a milestone.
It’s a milestone because of the debate it’s creating and because of the suffering it will prevent. Senator Graham told Fox News Sunday that “this is a debate worthy of a great democracy.” Millions will learn from media coverage of the debate that medical science has advanced to where it now recognizes that many unborn babies truly can feel pain.
They will learn that surgeons now recognize they have to anesthetize unborn babies when they operate on them in the womb, something that wasn’t typically done at the time of Roe v. Wade. In short, the public will learn from the debate that unborn babies can feel the most excruciating pain when they’re aborted beyond some point in their development.
The U.S. House passed this landmark law in June. Now it’s up to us to make sure the bill gets a fair vote in the Senate. Even Senators who’ve voted against us in the past should have their consciences pricked by the thought of voting to allow any member of the human family to be tortured in such a brutal manner as abortion is for these babies.
But it won’t be easy. Our best chance is to get the grassroots to massively call, write, email and meet with their Senators and insist that they vote to protect these vulnerable babies. And no one’s better at generating that grassroots support for legislation than National Right to Life.
Will you help us make it a success? I know many of you faithfully supported us throughout the long process of passing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Because President Clinton vetoed our bill twice, it took several attempts before Congress could pass the law for a third time and President Bush could sign it into law.
It might take us several attempts again. But every time the bill comes up or the press has to cover the debate, more and more Americans will know that unborn babies can feel pain and deserve our protection. That will help us build the Culture of Life that will welcome AND protect these innocent unborn babies.
Please help us accomplish that with your generous financial support. We can reach more grassroots activists and educate more Americans if you can contribute to this critical campaign. Or think of the impact our ads and outreach can have if your gift is combined with the similar support of tens of thousands of your fellow pro-life Americans!
Together, we’ll win this fight and protect these babies from the barbarity of these horribly painful late abortions.
We have to.
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