It is called the Free the Ban protest and pro-life leaders from several organizations are headed to the Capital Thursday to send a message to GOP leaders: Pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
The event follows a similar one in March where eight pro-life leaders were arrested during a sit-in outside Speaker John Boehner’s Office.
This time their numbers are expected to be much greater.
House leaders originally planned to pass the late term abortion ban back in January until the vote was sabotaged by Rep. Renee Ellmers, who wanted to remove a rape reporting requirement in the legislation making it easier to get abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Pro-life leaders say that at 20 weeks the unborn child can feel pain, but is not the sole reason for banning all abortions.
Polls show that Americans are not comfortable and many oppose late term abortions, which occur legally within the US for any reason possible as demonstrated by these for profit abortion clinic advertisements:
Speaker Boehner and his fellow GOP leaders claim to be for the legislation and say they are working to draft the correct wording for the bill.
But, frustrated pro-life leaders like, Jill Stanek, who once held an aborted child in her arms, says that time is paramount and House leadership has delayed a vote for far too long.
Stanek told the media at that March 25th sit-in that she wanted to apply pressure to GOP House leaders to get the late term abortion ban passed.
“I held a little aborted human being until he died, 21 weeks, that this bill would have saved had it been in place. This little abortion survivor was the impetus of a bill passed eventually in the state of Illinois called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that Barack Obama, a state Senator voted against four times. We expect this sort of treatment of abortion from the Democrat side but we do not expect this treatment from the Republican side. And, that’s what we’ve seen here with the 20 week abortion ban,”
she said.
“Almost 4 months have now passed. Innocent children are dying and women are being diminished because of the Republican leadership’s inaction,” pro-life organizers Troy Newman, Rev. Pat Mahoney, and Jill Stanek state on their events page.
The group of over 13 pro-life organizations plans to go to Speaker Boehner’s office on Thursday, May 7th, to, “be a voice for the innocent children who die every day in America from the violence of abortion.”
Among the protest leaders will be Black pastor, Walter Hoye who plans to present Speaker Boehner’s staff with the fetal model of a 20-week-old African-American baby.
“My son was born at less than six months gestation. I held him in my right hand when he weighed a mere 1.9 pounds. There is no way I will support legislation that includes an exception for rape and fails to end abortion in the United States after 20 weeks.
“I want Speaker Boehner to know that not only do Black Lives Matter but all lives matter,” Rev. Hoye said.
According to the latest stats from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on abortion, 730,322 abortions were performed in 2011.
Of that number, the CDC reported 7.3% of unborn babies killed by abortion were between 14–20 weeks’ gestation and 1.4% were 21 weeks’ gestation or greater.
A chart published by the CDC for 39 states that reported abortions by gestation (520,304 of the 730,322 abortions reported in 2011) show that in those 39 states:
-
335,748 abortions were performed at less than 8 weeks
139,775 abortions were performed at 9-13 weeks gestation
17,952 abortions were performed at 14-15 weeks gestation
9,795 abortions were performed at 16-17 weeks gestation
9,709 abortions were performed at 18-20 weeks gestation
7,325 abortions were performed at 21 weeks gestation or greater.
A 2014 report published by the Lozier Institute found that the United States is one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion past 20 weeks.
This National Journal graph shows state by state abortion restrictions by weeks of gestation:
During the May 7th protest, organizers are asking for pro-lifers on social media to use the hashtag #FreeTheBan to pressure Speaker Boehner to call for a vote.
Learn more here.
Saynsumthn's Blog 