UPDATE: House Votes to Ban Abortions after 20 Weeks 

UPDATE: On October 3, 2017, H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives. With a vote of 237 to 189, this crucial pro-life bill received bipartisan support, and now we will press forward as it moves to the U.S. Senate.

Abortion is slaughter, plain and simple. In one year, over one million innocent babies were killed before seeing the light of day. Today, Congress is finally taking action to defend the lives and dignity of many of these innocent unborn children.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a critical late-term abortion ban – the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The bill is a common-sense piece of legislation that would ban abortions (subject to limited exceptions), nation-wide, after 20 weeks – when science has proven that babies can feel pain. This is a major step forward in the ongoing fight to protect the right to life.

Numerous studies show that unborn babies can feel pain by 20 weeks of gestation. When an abortion occurs, the unborn baby can feel their body being torn apart and their life ending before they even had a chance. In fact, babies are scientifically known to have pain receptors throughout the body by 8 weeks of gestation.

Worse yet, these tragically aborted babies could have gone on to live long and healthy lives. Many children born prematurely, including after only 20 weeks in the womb, go on to live long, happy, and healthy lives. Their lives must be protected.

Yet the radical pro-abortion Left will stop at nothing to defeat these efforts to protect and preserve life. They claim these studies are inconclusive or that most abortions happen earlier. In the name of a court created “right,” abortion zealots prefer to “error on the side of cruelty,” as these innocent babies face the excruciating pain of abortion.

Instead, those of us who believe in the inherent dignity and value of all human life choose to error on the side of caution – on the side of life. In the face of a growing body of scientific evidence, we choose not to ignore the pain and suffering of innocent children.

This legislation would be a big step forward for the pro-life movement. Unfortunately, this is not the first time this same bill has come before Congress. Twice before it passed the House and died in the Senate. Of late, this has become an all too common practice for the supposedly pro-life Senate majority to let pro-life bills die on the Senate floor. This can’t happen again.

The lives of 20,000 unborn children each year are at stake – babies this bill could help save.

We cannot let this bill fail again. We cannot allow another year go by while hundreds of thousands of innocent babies are slaughtered. It is time to let Congress know where you stand.

At the ACLJ, we have continuously fought the radical abortion lobby in Congress, in the courts, and across the globe. We have won in the past, and we will win again. With your support, we can protect the right to life; we can make this time different from the last; we can make the difference, together.