Pass abortion bill — science and basic human decency say these babies are worth saving

One of the sweetest privileges granted to anyone, especially those who work in the pro-life movement, is to look into the faces of children who have beaten enormous odds to be alive, and not only are living, but thriving.

Even sweeter is to realize that through simple actions we take, many more children can have the chance to live and thrive as well.

Lawmakers recently got a taste of this experience when a little boy named Micah Pickering and his parents, Danielle and Clayton, visited Capitol Hill to urge Congress to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, or “Micah’s Law.”

Micah was born at twenty weeks post-fertilization (twenty-two weeks gestation) —  a “micro-preemie.” After he was born, he spent more than four months in intensive care before he could go home. Micah is now five years old and in good health. He just started kindergarten. He is adorably bashful, but at his young age is already profoundly influential with some of the biggest movers and shakers in Congress.

Micah’s parents fought for his life, and now they are fighting for thousands of other children who aren’t protected in law at the age when their son was born.

Passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 237 to 189 and introduced in the Senate last week by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Micah’s Law would protect babies from late-term abortion after twenty weeks, more than halfway through pregnancy, a point by which science shows they can feel the excruciating pain of being torn limb from limb by the abortionist.

The shocking reality is that the United States is one of only seven nations in the world, including China and North Korea, that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks. This is barbaric. It is cruel. It is a disgrace to our nation, which can do so much better than this.

Micah’s Law, which would save between 12,000 and 18,000 unborn children each year, is incredibly popular. Polls have consistently shown that large majorities of Americans support legislation limiting abortion after five months. That overwhelming support holds true regardless of age, race, or political affiliation, and women support it in higher numbers than men.

Twenty states have taken action to change the status quo and pass Micah’s Law. In those states, support for the bill has been largely bipartisan with overall one-third of Democrat legislators voting for it. In the House of Representatives late last month, three Democrats crossed party lines to vote in favor of the bill.

Critically for vulnerable Senators up for re-election in 2018, post-election polling data commissioned by the Susan B. Anthony List and made widely available last week shows that large majorities of voters in six battleground states support Micah’s Law, and a majority or plurality of those voters would be less likely to support a Senator who voted to allow late-term abortion.

Votes on the Pain-Capable bill have happened before, but never under a president who has promised to sign it, as President Trump has. By bringing Micah’s Law to the floor, the pro-life majority in the Senate will force those vulnerable incumbents to decide whether they stand with their constituents or with the abortion lobby and a small, extreme minority of pro-abortion ideologues. Going on the record supporting late-term abortion is not likely to be a winning political issue for any Senators running in states carried by President Trump.

More importantly, they will have to decide whether they will embrace children like Micah, living proof that these babies are worth saving, or harden their hearts and look the other way.

As Senator Graham said in his remarks when he introduced the bill, “America is at her best when she’s standing up for the least among us.” SBA List urges the Senate to pass Micah’s Law and bring our laws into line with science and basic human decency, and we hope that one day they, too, will be blessed to look upon the faces of the children who live because of them.

Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, which has a network of more than 600,000 members nationwide.