2018 March for Life: Grassley Urges Colleagues to Embrace the Sanctity of Innocent Human Life

 

Mr. President, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the Iowans who have traveled to the Capitol today to be with us for the March for Life.

I commend them and the many other Americans who have traveled here from every corner of the country to embrace the sanctity of life. Their participation in this March symbolizes their compassion and concern for the most innocent and vulnerable among us.

 

I also want to call on my colleagues to join us in supporting the immediate passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.‎ This common sense measure, which I’ve cosponsored, recognizes that the government has an interest in protecting the unborn from the excruciating pain they're capable of experiencing during a late-term abortion. 

 

 

Some people call this measure "Micah's Law," in honor of an Iowa boy, Micah Pickering, who was born at 20 weeks post-fertilization. I've met Micah and his parents. Micah didn't just survive. He's a beautiful little boy who's thriving. 

Research suggests that, after the fifth month of pregnancy, the nervous system of the unborn child has developed to the point where that child is capable of detecting and responding to painful stimuli. This also is around the time when the unborn baby is soothed by the mother’s voice. ‎We're hearing that babies may learn within the womb, absorbing language sooner than we previously thought. So it should surprise no one that these same unborn babies can experience intense pain during a late term abortion, when their limbs are being torn apart in their mother's wombs. 

 

Currently, the United States is one of only about seven countries in the world that permit elective abortions past five months. Among the very few that embrace late term abortions are Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea.  Passing this bill, which imposes restrictions only on elective abortions and only after the fifth month of pregnancy, would bring the United States in line with the vast majority of countries around the globe. Lawmakers in these other countries have grasped the concept that late term abortions are essentially barbaric and often unnecessary.

 

Many of my colleagues actively supported the Americans with Disability Act. How could you support a measure like that and not also seek to protect the unborn babies whose parents might choose to end their lives late in pregnancy merely due to a disability like Down's Syndrome? I believe that the lives of unborn babies with this condition have the same value as those of other unborn babies.

 

And if you do not support restrictions on abortions after the fifth month of pregnancy, when infants at the same stage of development are being born prematurely and, like Micah Pickering, surviving long-term, then what, exactly, is your limit--if any--on abortion?  

 

I remind my colleagues that the American people overwhelmingly support restrictions on late-term abortions.  Numerous states, including Iowa, already have passed similar legislation to protect the unborn baby who is capable of experiencing pain.

 

In 2016, I convened a congressional hearing at which two doctors testified in support of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. We learned that about a quarter of the babies born prematurely, around five months, will survive long term if given proper medical assistance.

 

One of the doctors who testified, Colleen Malloy, is an Associate Professor in the Pediatrics Department at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine. According to Dr. Malloy, by 20 weeks of development, the unborn baby's pain receptors are present and linked. As further explained by Dr. Malloy, at 20 weeks’ fetal age, premature babies are “kicking, moving, reacting, and developing right before our eyes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We can easily witness their humanity, as well as their experiences with pain.”

 

Dr. Anthony Levatino, a practicing gynecologist with decades of experience, testified similarly at a House hearing several years ago. Dr. Levatino estimates that he performed over 1,000 abortions in private practice, until his adopted daughter died in a car crash. His child's death was a life-changing event that led him to stop performing abortions. Performing an abortion on a 24-week-old unborn child is undoubtedly painful for that baby, Dr. Levatino testified.  ‎And scientific studies confirm that the unborn can experience pain after the fifth month. 

 

The Judiciary Committee in 2016 also heard testimony from Dr. Kathi Aultman, a former abortion provider. She told us: an “abortionist knows exactly what he or she is doing because they must count the body parts after each procedure” to make sure they’ve cut the whole baby out of the mother.”

 

Dr. Aultman also questioned why an unborn baby who can live outside the womb should be given no consideration, no protection, and no rights, just because the child is unwanted. ‎And she is right. Why shouldn't we have compassion for babies whose nervous systems are developed enough for them to experience pain? Why shouldn't we protect them from dismemberment with steel tools?

This is a measure that the majority of Americans—including a majority of women—broadly support. Once again, I urge my colleagues to embrace the sanctity of innocent human life and vote for this landmark legislation. I yield the floor.

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