FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2017
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected] 202-223-8073
Nat’l Pro-life Group Calls on Democrats to Prove their Words about Re-opening the Party to Pro-lifers
Washington, D.C. – Ahead of a scheduled vote tomorrow in the U.S. House of Representatives on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would limit abortion after 20 weeks based on the unborn child’s ability to feel pain, the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) released the following statement:
“Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders have lately signaled that the Party might be ready to stop freezing out pro-life Democrats. Now it’s time for them to prove it,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “The United States is one of only seven nations, including China and North Korea, that allow babies in the womb to be killed for any reason up until the moment of birth. Protecting unborn children after five months – more than halfway through pregnancy, a point when science shows they can feel the excruciating pain of late-term abortion – is compassionate and popular. Polls consistently show that more than two-thirds of Americans support this bill. Large majorities of women, millennials, African-Americans, and Hispanics, support it. Twenty states have passed their own Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and overall one-third of Democratic legislators in those states voted for it.
“With such a clear popular mandate, a vote for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is politically smart, especially for vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2018. Meanwhile the high-profile infighting over the Party’s treatment of pro-lifers has not been good for Democrats and their hopes of winning back battleground state voters. We call on Party leadership not to whip votes on this bill, but instead allow their Democratic caucus members to vote their conscience, like they used to many years ago. Pro-abortion ideologues in the Party should stand down and recognize that they are grossly out of step with the American people on this matter of basic human decency.”
DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján faced backlash from abortion activists over his assertion earlier this year that there will be no “litmus test” on abortion for the Democratic Party. Other prominent Democrats who have voiced support for allowing pro-life Democrat candidates to run include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and California Governor Jerry Brown.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is SBA List’s top legislative priority. Nationwide polling by the polling company, inc./WomanTrend, Quinnipiac, National Journal, Huffington Post, NBC/Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post/ABC News has found that a plurality or majority of Americans support limiting abortion after five months, women in higher numbers than men.
President Donald Trump has made four key commitments to the pro-life movement, including signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act into law.
Susan B. Anthony List and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out spent more than $18 million in the 2016 election cycle, knocking on more than 1.1 million doors in battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton and maintain a pro-life Senate. SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women. The SBA List is a network of more than 600,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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