Prepared Floor Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
On the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
January 29, 2018
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This commonsense measure recognizes that the government has an interest in protecting our children from the excruciating pain they’re capable of experiencing during a late-term abortion.
This is a measure that many Americans—including a majority of women—broadly support and it’s time that we get this bill passed. As Judiciary Committee chairman, I convened a hearing on this bill in 2016. Witnesses, including a Northwestern professor of pediatrics, a woman who survived a botched abortion as a baby, and a former abortion provider, offered compelling testimony in support of this legislation.
There’s an Iowa boy, Micah Pickering, who is living proof that we need to do more to protect unborn babies at this stage of development. Micah and his parents visited me in Washington last September. They tell me that, when Micah was born at 20 weeks post fertilization, he received intensive care, including medication to minimize his pain and discomfort.
Babies like Micah, born in the fifth month of pregnancy, are capable of feeling pain. That’s why it has now become routine procedure to give premature infants anesthesia for fetal surgeries. How could anyone think that these unborn babies would not experience excruciating pain from an abortion, when premature babies like Micah are being born at the same stage of development and are surviving long term?
Once again, I call upon my colleagues to support the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and embrace the sanctity of an innocent human life.
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