House to vote on 20-week abortion ban

UPDATE: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has told The Weekly Standard the House will vote on a 20-week abortion ban next week. The vote will take place on or around May 13 to coincide with the two-year anniversary of abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s murder convictions, which served as the inspiration for similar legislation that passed in 2013.

The disputed police reporting language has been removed so women who are pregnant from rape or incest will still be able to obtain late-term abortions under certain circumstances. The new language requires abortionists to make sure victims receive medical treatment or professional counseling at least 48 hours before obtaining an abortion. Pro-life groups hailed the development as a major victory.

“For months, the pro-life grassroots have rallied around our champions in Congress by generating thousands of calls to bring the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act up for a vote,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. “This process has yielded a strong bill which we expect to pass next week with enthusiastic bipartisan support.”

The bill passed in 2013 with six Democratic votes, but three of those lawmakers are no longer in Congress. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., who is leading the effort to drum up support among Democrats, told me he is still holding out hope some of his colleagues may vote for the measure. “It's very, very difficult,” he said. “The forces on the other side are very strong.”

OUR EARLIER STORY (4:40 p.m. EDT, May 7): WASHINGTON—Two dozen pro-life activists returned to House Speaker John Boehner’s office on Thursday to demand a vote on a 20-week abortion ban. They vowed to come back again with a “massive protest” if a vote isn’t scheduled in the next month.

“Dr. Martin Luther King said justice delayed is justice denied,” said Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition during a press conference outside the Longworth Office Building. “Justice is being denied to these innocent children every day that goes by without a vote being scheduled.”

Six weeks ago, Mahoney led a group of eight pro-life activists whom Capitol police arrested outside Boehner’s office while they were kneeling in prayer. Police said they were obstructing a passageway in a public building and refused to leave when told to do so.

This time, a larger group of activists from around the country came to Boehner’s office armed with signs showing aborted babies and replicas of babies at 20 weeks gestation, but they didn’t block the hallway. They prayed and took turns knocking on the office door, but no one answered. Although Mahoney said he knew Boehner was not in the office during the current House recess, he called it “shameful” that his staff wouldn’t come to the door.

“Quite frankly, there is a bit of skepticism on our part if you can pull a bill that you promised the pro-life community that you were going to vote on,” Mahoney said.

House Republicans passed the same legislation in 2013, and it appeared on the fast track to passage again in the 114th Congress. The House was scheduled to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in January, but GOP leadership pulled the bill the day before the March for Life after a group of Republican women raised concerns over a provision that would exempt rape and incest victims only if they reported the crime to authorities.

Polls show Americans, including women, favor a 20-week abortion limit by a 2-1 margin, even with the reporting language.

“At 20 weeks, babies feel tremendous pain,” said Lori Hoye, who traveled with her husband, Walter, from California for the event. “Abortion is a scourge on our country.”

If the bill passes the House, it still faces an uphill climb in the Senate. Not all Senate Republicans have backed the bill, and they only have 54 of the 60 votes needed to bring legislation to the floor for consideration.

“I’m not totally unconvinced that it won’t pass the Senate, but you have to put bills forward,” Mahoney told me. “You put forward what’s morally just and what’s in the best interest of our nation, not what’s politically expedient.”

Some pro-life advocates criticized the March protest since it targeted a sympathetic leader instead of pro-abortion lawmakers who would oppose the bill regardless of the language. Mahoney told me the group targeted Boehner because he’s in charge. “The last time I checked, Nancy Pelosi isn’t Speaker of the House,” Mahoney said. “John Boehner’s Speaker of the House. He sets the legislative agenda. ”