Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will do exactly that: protect unborn children who can feel pain. Studies have shown that babies can feel pain by 20 weeks or 5 months into pregnancy, and it is unconscionable to subject a child, at any stage in their life, to such pain.

Anesthesiologists protect these children from the pain of surgery in the womb. Today these premature babies have a one in four chance of living a full and complete life.

Do a quick Google search and type in ``20-week baby'' or ``20-week baby pictures.'' Take out your smartphone and Google it. The results of that search will pull up something like you see here to my right--a baby whose facial features are clearly visible. In fact, only seven countries in the world allow babies 20 weeks or older to be aborted--seven countries. The United States is one of them, along with North Korea and China, to name a few.

Overwhelmingly, Americans support this commonsense legislation. According to a November 2014 poll, 60 percent of Americans support a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, including nearly 60 percent of American women. This is a bill that a majority of the American people are behind, protecting babies after 20 weeks when they can feel pain.

We must continue to fight for the most vulnerable in our society--the elderly, the disabled, and the unborn--for they don't have a voice up here on Capitol Hill. Their right to life is protected by our Constitution and is part of the framework of the Declaration of Independence, and because of that, we speak up.

During the Gosnell trial, we all learned about the gruesome methods of ending the life of just-born children by using a method similar to dismemberment, which occurs in several clinics throughout our country. Science tells us that this method causes pain to the baby, some of whom were a little over 20 weeks old.

Why do we allow these late-term abortions? If Gosnell aborted these children moments before they were removed from the womb, would the loss of life have been any less tragic or less appalling?

We cannot stand idly by and allow such painful terminations of human life to continue. We must continue to be a voice for those who don't have a voice. The Senate needs to join the House of Representatives and get this legislation passed and on the President's desk.

I yield back my time.

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