Pro-lifers arrested outside John Boehner's office

WASHINGTON—U.S. Capitol police arrested a group of pro-life leaders staging a sit-in outside House Speaker John Boehner’s office on Wednesday.

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, and pro-life blogger Jill Stanek were among the activists arrested while kneeling in prayer in front of Boehner’s office door. The group demanded action on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a 20-week abortion ban Republican leadership pulled from consideration in January. The protesters were charged with obstructing a passageway in a public building and failing to leave after being instructed by police to do so.

“While Republicans dither, babies are being tortured to death,” tweeted Stanek, a former abortion industry nurse who said she’d never before felt compelled to get arrested.

The disputed bill, HR 36, would enact a national ban on most abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy. House Republicans passed the same legislation in 2013, only to see it die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It appeared on the fast track to passage again in January, but GOP plans unraveled amid concerns over a provision that would exempt rape and incest victims.

Sources on and off Capitol Hill told me lawmakers are making progress behind the scenes, but on Wednesday pro-life activists said they are tired of waiting.

“[Republicans] have a bigger majority in the House than they’ve had since 1929-1930, and there is no excuse for this bill not to have been introduced when it was supposed to have been introduced on Jan. 22, but certainly not to have let it languish for the last two months,” Stanek told media gathered at Boehner’s office.

Mallory Quigley, communications director for the Susan B. Anthony List, a leading pro-life group, said SBA List has continued to work with both House and Senate leadership and is “confident that we will have a vote soon.” But she said the frustration is understandable.

“The grassroots believe it is time for a vote, and it is,” Quigley wrote in an email. “Over the last two months, pro-life Americans have only grown in their enthusiasm and desire to see movement on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”

Polls show Americans, including women, favor a 20-week abortion limit by a 2-to-1 margin.

House GOP leadership has vowed publicly to bring back the bill, which currently has 184 cosponsors, including three Democrats. House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., reiterated that commitment in a Wednesday statement: “As a mom of three and a longtime ally of the pro-life community, I am committed to bringing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to the floor and ensure that it passes with a strong and unified vote in the House. It is our moral imperative—as leaders and legislators—to protect the unborn and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

Even if the bill gains approval in the House, it still faces an uphill climb in the Senate. Republicans, all of whom haven’t backed the ban, have 54 seats, but they will need 60 votes to bring the legislation to the floor for consideration.