By Scott Tibbs, December 12, 2013
If Joe Donnelly is "pro-life," as he claims to be, why has he not signed on as a co-sponsor of S.1670, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act?
Donnelly has campaigned as a "pro-life" candidate and has cast some pro-life votes during his time in Washington. At the least, he should publicly pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the measure to the Senate floor for a vote.
Abortion-rights apologists love to talk about a "lump of cells" but an unborn baby at 20 weeks - halfway through the average pregnancy - is anything but.
As I pointed out in August, we are dealing with a fully-formed (if not fully developed) baby. There is no question when you look at pictures of a baby at 20 weeks gestation what you are looking at.
There is strong scientific evidence that unborn babies feel pain at 20 weeks, and being killed by dismemberment is an incredibly cruel and painful method of execution. We would never consider allowing even the worst criminals to be killed by being drawn and quartered, yet this is a method of terminating a pregnancy that is allowed across the nation. We have moved beyond that kind of barbaric cruelty in punishing the guilty, but not for killing the innocent.
The Fourteenth Amendment forbids states from denying to any person the equal protection of the laws. Banning abortion at 20 weeks would be an important step in reinforcing this basic protection. While the law is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it should at least come up for a vote so that all one hundred Senators are on record as to where they stand on protecting innocent human life from painful killings.
