By Dave Andrusko
Senator Roy Blunt
In Part One, we talked about the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which is also the subject of this week’s first edition of Pro-Life Perspective (www.prolifeperspective.com).
Introduced with the strong backing of National Right to Life, the measure predictably drew the scattergun pro-abortion approach. Their idea is throw out enough spurious objections and, in the confusion, the public will somehow decide the measure is “extreme.”
But National Right to Life President and PLP Host Carol Tobias systematically explains why the time to pass such a measure, patterned after a measure which is already the law of five states, is now.
Mrs. Tobias begins with this grim truth:
“Did you know that in our nation’s capital, unborn children daily are subjected to terribly painful deaths, even during the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy, or even later? Did you know that these practices are perfectly legal — because in the District of Columbia, abortion is now legal at any point in pregnancy, for any reason, as long as someone is willing to pay the abortionist for the gruesome ‘service’?”
She first dismisses the notion that somehow Congress is overstepping its bounds. Article I of the U.S. Constitution established that the national seat of government would be placed forever not within any state, but in a special Federal District — and that the Congress would “exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District.”
But after demolishing that jurisdictional ploy, Mrs. Tobias asks a powerfully disturbing question:
“So then, what would the Framers of our Constitution say if they returned today — and learned, to their horror, that well-developed unborn babies are legally being put to death, in terrible pain, virtually within the shadow of the U.S. Capitol?”
So, what would the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (bill number H.R. 3803) do? Congress would declare that at least by 20 weeks after fertilization, an unborn child has the capacity to experience pain — and, on that basis, the bill would prohibit abortions within Washington, D.C. (except when acute physical problems endanger the life of the mother) from that point on.
Mrs. Tobias offers several suggestions how you can help. At the top of the list is going to the Legislative Alert at www.capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=60793686&type=CO (“Urge Congress to end the torment of unborn babies in the Nation’s Capital!”).
As she explains at the end of today’s episode, once you are at the alert you can “send a message to your Representative. Ask them to cosponsor the bill and urge quick action on the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. We’ve provided a draft message that you can customize.”
Passing the measure is NRLC’s top priority. Referring to pro-abortion groups, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting delegate who represents the District of Columbia in the U.S. House of Representatives, said they ”have also indicated that stopping this bill will be a top legislative priority in 2012.”
Be sure to listen today at www.prolifeperspective.com and pass the link along through your social networks.
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