On June 4, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice approved, 6-4, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R 1797). The subcommittee held a hearing on the legislation on May 23 (see The Source, 5/24/13).
The bill, sponsored by Chair Trent Franks (R-AZ), would ban abortions after 20 weeks. During consideration of the legislation, the subcommittee adopted, 6-4, a manager’s amendment by Rep. Franks to expand the bill’s provisions nationwide. As introduced, the bill only applied to the District of Columbia.
Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) praised the subcommittee’s vote and said, “The taking of innocent life is a practice all too common in this nation. The recent [Kermit] Gosnell trial reminds us that when newborn babies are cut with scissors, they whimper and cry, and flinch from pain. And unborn babies, when harmed, also whimper and cry, and flinch from pain. Delivered or not, babies are babies, and it has been shown that they can feel pain at least by 20 weeks. It is time to welcome young children who can feel pain into the human family. And this bill, at last, will do just that.”
Ranking Member of the subcommittee John Conyers (D-MI), who voted against the bill, said, “I am deeply disappointed that today my colleagues in the majority opted to use our limited working time to consider legislation that is a blatant attack on women’s most fundamental constitutional rights…Aside from its unconstitutionality, this legislation ignores the real world problems that women may face during pregnancy, including critical medical complications. Rather than consider the varying circumstances of a pregnant woman, the legislation hurts vulnerable women in the most desperate of circumstances.”
