Senate rejects bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks

Anti-abortion and abortion-rights demonstrators hold signs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 45th Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on January 19. On Monday, the Senate voted to block an anti-abortion bill. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI

Jan. 30 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate on Monday blocked a bill that would have banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and backed by President Donald Trump, would have imposed a penalty of up to five years in prison for those who attempted to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The woman getting the abortion would not be punished.

The bill failed 51-46 mostly along party lines. It fell short of the 60 votes Republicans needed to prevent a Democratic filibuster.

“It is disappointing that despite support from a bipartisan majority of U.S. senators, this bill was blocked from further consideration,” Trump said in a statement. “Scientific studies have demonstrated that babies in the womb feel pain at 20 weeks. The vote by the Senate rejects scientific fact and puts the United States out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only seven out of 198 nations, including China and North Korea, allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.”

The bill was expected to get voted down, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky brought the bill to a vote to get Democrats “on record on this issue.”

Three Democrats up for re-election this year — Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — voted for it. Two Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted against the bill.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, said Democrats up for re-election “ought to vote in line with their constituents and support this compassionate bill.”

“Voting to keep the brutality of late-term abortion legal isn’t just morally abhorrent, it defies national consensus and is a major political liability,” Dannenfelser said, according to USA Today.

Before the vote, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., tweeted her opposition to the bill.

“Women have the constitutional right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health,” she wrote. “It shouldn’t be infringed upon.”

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