Senate Will Vote on House-Passed Pro-Life Bill Banning Late-Term Abortions After 20 Weeks10/16/2017
The bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will get a vote in the Senate at some point soon. The House has already approved the legislation and the top Republican in the Senate confirmed a vote is forthcoming, but a timetable was not provided.
From The Hill: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that the Senate will vote on a 20-week abortion ban, though he didn’t specify when the legislation will come up. “It’s supported by virtually all of my members, and we expect to have a vote on it at some point,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference in the Rose Garden with President Trump.In the House, the vote for the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act broke down on mostly partisan lines with Republicans supporting the ban on late-term abortions and Democrats opposing it. The House approved the bill on a 237-189 vote. The Senate would need 60 votes to pass the bill because pro-abortion Democrats would filibuster. Should the Senate approve the bill, President Donald Trump would sign the pro-life bill into law. (read more) WASHINGTON, D.C., October 16, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- In a stunning change of direction from the Obama administration, the Trump Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not only declared that human life begins “at conception,” but has made protecting citizens “from conception to natural death” one of its top priorities.
While the Obama HHS under Kathleen Sebelius championed abortion coverage, the HHS under Trump’s pick Tom Price proposed in its newly released draft “strategic plan” to rescind that mandate and defend life and religious liberty. The strategic plan, dated September 2017, sets goals beginning in 2018 and ending 2022. The proposed plan states that HHS will serve and protect Americans at “every stage of life, beginning at conception” and up through “natural death.” (read more) One of the biggest hurdles the pro-life movement has to clear is convincing pro-abortion activists that preborn children are independent, living human beings. We must show these children are not just a clump of cells that the mother can remove at will.
Ultrasounds have been powerful tools to dispel this myth, and as science and medicine advance, it has become increasingly difficult to deny the humanity of preborn children. Still, how do we give these children a voice? A pro-life feminist group in Chile found a genius way to do just that. Reivindica Feminist Movement confronted the abortion culture in Chile with an amazing demonstration in October. The women met at Plaza de la Constitution, and then they marched together to the government buildings. But they didn’t chant or carry signs; instead, they let their preborn babies do all the talking. The women strapped fetal monitors to their stomachs, amplifying the sound of their babies’ heartbeats with megaphones. (read more) An ACLU lawsuit suggests putting aside Federal Drug Administration regulations to make abortion drugs more readily available.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii on behalf of a Hawaii doctor and three healthcare groups. The suit seeks to overturn the regulations – collectively known as Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy – that prevent the abortion pill Mifeprex® (RU486) from being sold at retail pharmacies. Patients currently can purchase the prescribed abortifacient at clinics, medical offices, or hospitals. But the ACLU attorneys argue their clients want their prescription available in pharmacies. Dr. Gene Rudd of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations contends the current regulations make sense. Rudd "If anyone in healthcare can prescribe these pills," Rudd wonders, "where does a woman go when she's in trouble? Does she go back to a pharmacy – or does she go to a primary care doctor who wrote the prescription but isn't trained or equipped to care for the complications? That's just not good healthcare." (continue reading) JEFFERSON CITY – Lawmakers aren’t to blame for Planned Parenthood’s most recent expansion in Missouri, according to some of the state’s pro-life advocates. Instead, the abortion industry is making a comeback in the state with the help of judicial decisions – and the Satanic Temple.
Planned Parenthood’s legal fight to gain ground in Missouri took a turn in the abortion industry’s favor because of an order released, Oct. 2, by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court battle centers around state regulations that, according to Planned Parenthood, are similar to Texas laws that the U.S. Supreme Court ousted last year. According to Missouri’s regulations, physicians at abortion clinics must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, and abortion clinics must have high enough medical standards to be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Pro-life leaders in Missouri claim that these regulations protect the women who visit abortion clinics. But in April, a U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction against these regulations, citing the Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling. Last month, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the preliminary injunction, but reversed its decision on Oct. 2. As a result of the court’s decision, Planned Parenthood may reopen abortion clinics in Springfield, Joplin and Columbia. (read more) |
Contact your elected officials Senator Josh Hawley 212 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 202-224-6154 www.hawley.senate.gov/contact-senator-hawley Senator Eric Schmitt 260 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5721 www.schmitt.senate.gov/contact/ Representative Ann Wagner 2350 Rayburn Office Building Washington, DC 20510 (202) 225-1621 wagner.house.gov/contact Washington Missouri Office 516 Jefferson Street Washington, MO 63090 (636) 231-1001 Click here to find your House Representative
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