[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1127-S1128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, today we will vote on two pro-life bills: 
the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable 
Unborn Child Protection Act.
  These bills should be completely uncontroversial. Every one of us in 
this Chamber ought to be able to agree that infants who are born alive 
during an abortion procedure should receive the same care that a baby 
born alive in a hospital would receive.
  Every one of us ought to agree that, at the very least, we should not 
be aborting babies after the point that they can feel pain, but 
unfortunately the abortion extremism in the Democratic Party is such 
that it is unlikely that these two bills will even get a chance to be 
debated.
  We shouldn't even need the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection 
Act. It should be obvious that any baby born alive, wherever he or she 
is born, ought to receive care, but with more than one leading Democrat 
over the past year refusing to rule out infanticide, it has become 
clear that we need to underscore that being born alive in an abortion 
clinic instead of a hospital doesn't eliminate a baby's right to 
medical care.
  Like the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, the Pain-
Capable Unborn Child Protection Act should be a no-brainer. This 
legislation would ban abortions beginning in the sixth month of 
pregnancy, a point at which science has clearly demonstrated that the 
unborn child is able to feel pain--and not only able to feel pain. By 
this point in a pregnancy, approximately 20 weeks, babies are almost 
able to survive outside of their mothers. Babies have survived after 
being born at 25 weeks, at 24 weeks, at 23 weeks, and, like Ellie 
Schneider, who attended the State of the Union Address with her mom, at 
21 weeks.

[[Page S1128]]

  It is unthinkable that we are killing babies who are so far advanced 
that it is possible for them to survive outside of their mothers, but 
we are. In 2016, somewhere around 11,000 babies were aborted at or 
after the 21-week mark in pregnancy--11,000 in one year.
  Democrats like to point to European countries to support their push 
for government-run healthcare and other socialist policies, but they 
never mention--they never mention--that almost every European country 
has more limits on abortion than we have here in the United States. In 
fact, the United States is one of just seven countries in the entire 
world that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Among 
the other countries are China and North Korea--not exactly the kind of 
company we want to be in when it comes to keeping and protecting human 
rights because--make no mistake--that is what we are talking about with 
abortion: human rights.
  Abortion denies unique, individual human beings, with their own 
fingerprints and their own DNA, the most basic of human rights: the 
right to life. It is happening on a massive scale. Every year, in the 
United States alone, hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable human 
beings are killed by abortion. That is not some number that the pro-
life movement has cooked up. That is straight. That is straight from 
the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, formerly affiliated with Planned 
Parenthood, which reports, ``Approximately 862,320 abortions were 
performed in 2017''--862,320. Most of us can't even fathom a number 
that big.
  To put it in perspective, 862,000 is roughly equivalent to the 
population of the entire State of South Dakota, my home State. That is 
right. Think about that. In 2017 alone, the number of babies killed by 
abortion was roughly equivalent to the population of the entire State 
of South Dakota.
  We can do better. Americans are better than this. Our country was 
founded to safeguard human rights, not to take them away. While we 
haven't always lived up to that promise, we have never stopped trying. 
It is time for us, as a country, to stand up and to start protecting 
the rights of unborn human beings. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors 
Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will 
not stop all, or even most, abortions, but they are an important step, 
a chance for us, as Americans, to draw a line in the sand and to start 
standing up for the rights of babies who are able or nearly able to 
survive outside of their mothers. It is time for us to join the vast 
majority of the global community in prohibiting elective abortions past 
20 weeks. It is time for us to make it clear that, no matter what some 
extreme Democrats may say, Americans believe that all children, whether 
born alive in a hospital or in an abortion clinic, deserve protection 
and basic medical care.
  I hope my colleagues across the aisle will take a stand for human 
rights and for human decency and allow debate to move forward on these 
two important pro-life bills.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.