Pro-life senators pledge vote for 20-week abortion ban

WASHINGTON—Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Senate sponsor of a bill to ban late-term abortions, guaranteed on Thursday that the upper chamber will consider the legislation. “I am 100 percent confident that this issue will come to the floor of the Senate because Mitch McConnell and the leaders all are behind this bill,” he said. The House passed its version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on Tuesday, and Graham introduced it in the Senate on Thursday. If passed, the bill would outlaw abortions after babies spend about five months in the womb, the point at which studies show they can feel pain. Proponents claim the bill could save as many as 10,000 babies from abortion each year. The Senate considered the bill in 2015, but it failed to garner the 60 votes needed to end debate and bring it to a floor vote. “We got three votes from our Democratic friends last time,” Graham said. “The more you educate, the more you vote, the larger the number gets.” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told me he’s very confident Senate leaders will schedule time for the pro-life legislation. The Senate has a long to-do list to complete before the end of the year—making Lankford hesitant to guarantee a vote before then. “But I’m very optimistic in the next five months we’ll have a vote,” he said. The bill most likely faces the same outcome in the Senate as it did in 2015, thanks in part to opposition from pro-abortion Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.