House Adds Teeth to 20-Week Abortion Ban Measure

A new bill by House Republicans would require doctors performing late-term abortions to take steps to help aborted babies deemed viable survive.

The legislation mandates that if the baby appears capable of surviving outside the womb, a second neonatal doctor must be present to provide emergency care and transport the baby to a hospital.

The provisions are part of a broader measure, called the Pain Capable Unborn-Child Protection Act, which criminalizes most abortions starting at the 20th week of pregnancy.

Doctors who violate the law could be subject to fines and up to five years in prison.

***Arina Grossu is director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council. Click play to watch her interview with CBN News Reporter Heather Sells about the bill and its significance.
   
Pro-life groups say the legislation will save thousands of unborn children every year.

House Majority Leader told CBN News that supporting the bill simply makes sense because the child inside the womb feels pain.

"There are a lot of pro-choicers, so to speak, that are concerned about this bill going too far. What is your response to that?" CBN's David Brody asked the House majority leader.

"Well, I think anybody, no matter where they are on this issue when it comes to after twenty weeks studies have shown that they feel the pain," McCarthy replied.

"Why would you do a later term? The child is viable. I think there is an opportunity here for everyone to support the bill, to be able to move forward," he said.
    
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., the bill's sponsor, said the bill will stop late-term abortions on babies who not only can feel pain, but also are capable of surviving outside the womb.

"I am so grateful to all who have worked so hard to craft language that will now unite the pro-life base in a positive and effective way," Franks said in a statement Friday.

"This proposal is substantially stronger than the original bill, and it places the focus back upon protecting mothers and their innocent little pain-capable babies, from the beginning of the sixth month until birth," he said.
   
The House will vote on the measure Wednesday, two years to the day a jury convicted Philadelphia late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell.
    
Gosnell was found guilty in 2013 of murder for killing babies born alive during an abortion.

It's not clear if the Senate will take up the measure, and President Barack Obama is expected is expected to veto it.