Trump Administration ‘Strongly Supports’ 20-Week Abortion Ban: ‘Science-Based Approach to Unborn Life’

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 27: Thousands of people rally on the National Mall before the sta
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Dr. Susan Berry

The Trump administration “strongly supports” a bill that would ban most abortions in the country past the fifth month of pregnancy, says a Statement of Administration Policy from the White House.

The House will vote Tuesday on the bill introduced by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ).

“The Administration strongly supports H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and applauds the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections,” the Trump administration’s statement asserts, and continues:

H.R. 36 would generally make it unlawful for any person to perform, or attempt to perform, an abortion of an unborn child after 20 weeks post-fertilization, with limited exceptions. The bill, if enacted into law, would help to facilitate the culture of life to which our Nation aspires. Additionally, the bill would promote a science-based approach to unborn life, as recent advancements have revealed that the physical structures necessary to experience pain are developed within 20 weeks of fertilization. The United States is currently out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only 7 out of 198 nations allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. America’s children deserve the stronger protections that H.R. 36 would advance.

If H.R. 36 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.

President of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List Marjorie Dannenfelser says it is time for the United States to join the vast number of other nations that protect unborn babies from late-term abortion.

She explains:

The United States is one of only seven nations, including China and North Korea, that allow babies in the womb to be killed for any reason up until the moment of birth. Protecting unborn children after five months – more than halfway through pregnancy, a point when science shows they can feel the excruciating pain of late-term abortion – is compassionate and popular.

Polls consistently show that more than two-thirds of Americans support this bill. Large majorities of women, millennials, African-Americans, and Hispanics, support it. Twenty states have passed their own Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and overall one-third of Democratic legislators in those states voted for it.

Planned Parenthood claims late-term abortions are “routine care.” Despite the popularity of the Pain-Capable legislation, the abortion giant opposes it, arguing it will “harm women and families and criminalize doctors for providing routine care.”

Dannenfelser, however, points to the recent firestorm that broke out in the Democratic Party over the issue of abortion and whether or not Democrats should allow pro-life candidates into the party.

“Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders have lately signaled that the Party might be ready to stop freezing out pro-life Democrats,” she says. “Now it’s time for them to prove it.”

The pro-life leader adds:

With such a clear popular mandate, a vote for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is politically smart, especially for vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2018. Meanwhile the high-profile infighting over the Party’s treatment of pro-lifers has not been good for Democrats and their hopes of winning back battleground state voters. We call on Party leadership not to whip votes on this bill, but instead allow their Democratic caucus members to vote their conscience, like they used to many years ago. Pro-abortion ideologues in the Party should stand down and recognize that they are grossly out of step with the American people on this matter of basic human decency.”

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As a candidate for the presidency, President Donald Trump outlined four policy commitments in a letter to pro-life leaders:

  • Nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court
  • Signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide
  • Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women
  • Making the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions

The SBA List observes “polling by the polling company, inc. WomanTrend, Quinnipiac, National Journal, Huffington Post, NBC/Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post/ABC News has found that a plurality or majority of Americans support limiting abortion after five months, women in higher numbers than men.”

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