| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 29, 2018 |
CONTACT: Mallory Quigley [email protected] | 202-223-8073 |
Senate will vote today on legislation with 2018 political consequences; Most Americans want to protect babies at five months
Washington, D.C. – The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) today called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (“Micah’s Law”), which would protect unborn children from late-term abortion after five months of pregnancy, a point by which science shows they can feel pain. The Senate will vote this evening on the bill, which passed the House of Representatives last year by a vote of 237 to 189.
“Today’s vote forces Senators to either stand with the majority of Americans who want to end cruel late-term abortions, or with the radical abortion lobby seeking to maintain abortion on-demand until the moment of birth. If every Senator, including Democrats, votes the way their constituents want them to on this bill, then the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will be on President Trump’s desk this week for signing.
“Vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year like Sens. Claire McCaskill, Sherrod Brown, and Heidi Heitkamp, ought to vote in line with their constituents and support this compassionate bill. Voting to keep the brutality of late-term abortion legal isn’t just morally abhorrent, it defies national consensus and is a major political liability.”
SBA List’s field team is already on the ground in four battleground states reaching out to low-turnout pro-life voters as well as Democratic women and Hispanics to educate them on their Senator’s record on life.
Polling data commissioned by SBA List and made widely available last fall shows that large majorities of voters in 2018 Senate battleground states support legislation limiting abortion after five months, and a majority or plurality of those voters would be less likely to support a Senator who voted to allow late-term abortion:
- Ohio – 67% support, 56% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
- Wisconsin – 64% support, 57% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
- Montana – 63% support, 59% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
- Missouri – 60% support, 56% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
- Florida – 59% support, 46% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
- N. Dakota – 56% support, 61% less likely to support Senator who votes to allow late-term abortion
Voter support for the legislation is especially high among millennials (78 percent), African-Americans (70 percent), and Hispanics (57 percent). Several national polls have found that as many as 51 percent of Democrats support limiting abortion after twenty weeks.
President 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 connected 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.
###
