Sen. Sullivan backs measure to prevent unborn babies from painful abortions

CatholicAnchor.org

Alaska U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan is an original sponsor for a bill to prevent unborn babies from feeling pain during an abortion.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in June. Sullivan’s support for the measure drew praise from the Susan B. Anthony List, a national pro-life organization that works to advance legislation protecting unborn babies and women.

At the press conference introducing the bill, SBA’s Vice President for Government Affairs Marjorie Dannenfelser called it “the most important piece of legislation on the abortion issue that has been debated in the senate in 40 years.”

“I am proud to tell you that your senator, Dan Sullivan, stood with unborn children and is an original co-sponsor of this historic bill,” she wrote in an email to supporters. “Your senator joined 45 of his colleagues in saying that America’s children and women deserve better than brutal late-term abortion.”

Sullivan’s colleague, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has a mixed voting record on the issue of abortion, was not among the bill’s sponsors.

The bill aims to prohibit abortions after five months, more than halfway through the pregnancy, the point at which an unborn child can feel excruciating pain.

“While the pro-abortion lobby and their allies in Congress prepare to fight this bill, we are proud to have so many courageous senators stand for life in the upper chamber,” Dannenfelser noted. “Thank Senator Sullivan for standing for Life by being an original co-sponsor of this historic legislation.”

Introduction of the bill came one month after the House passed the bill, which would ban most abortions after 20 weeks, with a bipartisan 242-184 vote.

President Barack Obama has promised a veto the bill if it gets to his desk. Still, supporters of the measure see it as an important educational tool in highlighting the humanity of unborn babies and the cruelty of late-term abortions.