House Passes Major Pro-Life Legislation as Thousands March for Life in DC

WASHINGTON - Just before thousands of pro-life advocates began their march from the National Mall to the Supreme Court, the House passed major pro-life legislation that would legally protect babies born alive after botched abortions.
 
"As tens of thousands of Americans march in D.C. today to celebrate the sanctity of life, I'm proud that the House took action to protect human life with the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act," said House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (R - Wash.). "This legislation affirms that every human life deserves the God-given chance to reach their full potential."
 
The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act prohibits health care professionals from refusing to give the proper care to babies who survive attempted abortions. It also requires abortion practitioners to immediately take survivors to the hospital for care, and carries criminal penalties if they fail to do so.
 
McMorris Rodgers told CBN News this legislation is important to making sure our laws reflect that all life is worthy of protection.
 
"It's really heartbreaking to imagine what is happening. This is really important that we're protecting these babies that have already endured an attempted abortion procedure and making sure that we are affirming the life that they are," McMorris Rodgers told CBN News. "I am proud to be a part of the pro-life generation now that is recognizing what every life has to offer and also recognizing that life starts so much earlier."
 
The House also recently passed the pro-life Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, but the future of these bills remain unclear until the Senate takes them up for a vote. House Speaker Paul Ryan told CBN News it's equally important that the Senate step up to help send bills to the president's desk.
 
"We see ourselves in the House as sort of the engine room of these ideas, of advancing the pro-life cause and moving these bills to the Senate," Ryan told CBN News. "We do just want to make sure that people in the Senate own up to these things. There have got to be Democrats in the Senate who also believe in at least limits to abortion at the very least."
 
This week pro-life Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) delivered a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requesting he announce a Senate vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
 
"The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would prohibit abortion after 20 weeks—the point at which scientific evidence shows that unborn children can feel pain," said the letter. "The United States is currently one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion after 20 weeks.  Polling numbers consistently show that the majority of Americans support a ban on abortion at this stage of pregnancy; these Americans no longer want to keep the company of countries like China and North Korea."
 
"As pro-life marchers from every corner of our nation come to Washington this week, it is important that we announce a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  A vote would make our constituents immediately aware of the members of Congress who support elective late-term abortions and oppose extending legal protection to pain-capable unborn children nationwide."
 
Congressional leaders are confident President Trump will sign any pro-life legislation that makes it to his desk.