Pro-life senator loses bid to examine country's abortion policies

Twelve senators want abortion policies across the nation examined to prevent the disturbing practices detailed during Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial from happening again. On Monday, Utah Sen. Mike Lee introduced a resolution that asks the Senate to examine the policies that led to Gosnell’s “house of horrors.”

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), David Vitter (R-La.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.) all co-signed the resolution. Lee said the Senate needs to “recognize that this is a problem in our country and we have a responsibility to investigate the causes.”

For five weeks, prosecutors argued Gosnell is guilty of killing four babies whose spinal cords he “snipped” after they were born alive. He is also charged with killing a patient with too much anesthesia. The jury began deliberating Gosnell’s fate last week.

Lee tried to speed the resolution’s passage on Monday night to try to quicken the response to it, but one unknown senator thwarted a unanimous vote. Lee said he did not understand why someone would object to his non-binding resolution asking Congress to examine what allows Gosnell-like clinics to operate with little scrutiny.

“With numerous reports of similar instances surfacing around the country, the need for greater regulatory oversight of these so-called clinics is so plainly obvious,” Lee said. “It strains the limits of disbelief to think all members of the Senate would not agree.”