Sen. Mike Lee: We should be 'rushing' to ban abortion at 20 weeks

The United States Senate will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Monday, a bill that would create a federal ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.

Last week, Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, discussed the legislation in a Facebook Live, noting that the United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allow elective late-term abortions.

"Our abortion laws are as extreme as the abortion laws in Vietnam, in China, and in North Korea," Lee said. "Now it pains me, and it should pain all of us as Americans, that the United States lags so far behind the rest of the world in protecting unborn children."

[facebook https://www.facebook.com/senatormikelee/videos/1749476905083995/?notif_id=1516909068646567¬if_t=live_video_explicit expand=1]Sen. Lee pointed out that at twenty weeks of development — five months — a preborn child is "roughly the size of a banana" and can sleep, wake, suck her thumb, and see light filtering through the womb. Twenty weeks of development is also the point at which a preborn child can feel pain.

"Each year in this country, more than 10,000 abortions occur after this point in the baby's development," Lee said. "We can stop this. And we must."

Sen. Lee quoted from several scientific studies showing that preborn children at 20 weeks can feel pain.

"The takeaway from these studies is this: Science, at a minimum, suggests that unborn children can feel pain at 20 weeks — can feel the abortionist's knife and suction tube as it rips them apart in the womb," Lee said.

"That possibility alone should have us rushing to ban abortion at 20 weeks."

Members of the House of Representatives passed a version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in October 2017 in a roll call vote of 237-189. The vast majority of Republicans in the Senate and a handful of Democrats are expected to vote for the bill, but most believe the Senate is short of the 60 votes needed to close debate, meaning the bill will die.

If the bill is defeated, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are bound to take the issue on the campaign trail in 2018. The pro-life position may have the advantage with the American people, however. A recent nationwide poll found that more than six in ten Americans support a 20-week abortion ban. And 62 percent of Americans also believe that life begins within the first three months of pregnancy, which is well inside that 20-week threshold.

A majority of the American people stand with preborn children and stand for life. Will a majority of the U.S. Senate?

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