Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that it’s time for the United States to join most of the other countries in the world that ban late-term abortions.
“We are one of the seven countries in the world that allow that procedure. I want to get out of that club,” Graham, who ran unsuccessfully for president, said during a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Hearing on late-term abortion.
Graham is one of the sponsors of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The bill would ban abortions on demand in the fifth month of pregnancy, and Graham said there are exceptions to save the life of the mother and there are procedures for pregnancies as a result of rape or incest.
Graham and other supporters of the bill say it’s needed because at 20 weeks, the fetus can feel pain, and doctors provide anesthesia to the unborn child due to the excrutiating pain caused by the procedure. He said that the bill creates “a new way to protect the unborn.”
But while the bill passed the House last year, it has failed to advance in the Senate, and it’s clear Democrats would work again to block it in the Senate this year if Republicans tried to move it again. Graham was silent at the hearing on whether the GOP would make another effort.
Democrats balked at the hearing at the idea of bringing up the bill again after it failed last year. The Senate failed to get a 60-vote majority to advance the bill past procedural hurdles in the chamber.
“Why are we having this hearing?” asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. “I view it as a sustained political effort to make it as hard as possible for women to access healthcare that should be safe and legal.”
