Scalise at Born-Alive Hearing: This Transcends the Abortion Debate
September 11, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined over 40 of his House colleagues earlier today as part of hearing on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. While Democrats dismiss and disparage the dangers faced by abortion survivors, House Republicans brought in expert witnesses on abortion procedures and abortion statistics to uncover the facts.
After hours of testimony, it is clear that legal and medical protections are sorely needed for babies born alive during an abortion. Rep. Ann Wagner's bill, the Born-Alive Act, would grant those protections and must be brought up on the House floor for a vote immediately.
Whip Scalise is deeply thankful to the witnesses for their time and participation.
Click here or on the image above to view his opening remarks.
Opening remarks:
"So, for people who are watching all across the country — I think it'd be a very fair question to ask your member of Congress, not only if they support this bill, but if you support this bill and you want to be someone who says they're pro-life, the best way to do it is by signing the discharge petition. Ask them if they've signed the discharge petition, and if not, why don't they want it to come up to a vote on the House floor?
"We've seen from some people on the other side, they claim this isn't necessary. Yet we know there are people who have survived abortions. We have some witnesses that are going to talk about some of those experiences and I want to thank our witnesses for participating.
"But we also know that there are states right now that are fighting to pass laws or have already put laws in place, like the state of New York where they celebrated a law they ushered in that allows a baby to be killed after it's born alive.
"To so many of us, we have a hard time understanding why that's not already considered murder. It is murder. There should not be a question in this country over that. That transcends the abortion debate. For those of us who are pro-life, we already know that shouldn't be allowed. But even people who are pro-choice say, 'wait a minute, if a baby is born alive outside of the womb, that's not longer an abortion debate — it's murder.' And that baby should be protected. And that's what Rep. Ann Wagner's bill, the Born-Alive Act, does.
"We have so many great champions here, Rep. Chris Smith, who heads the pro-life caucus, I'm going to call on after our lead sponsor and ultimately the person I'm going to ask to chair this hearing (Rep. Wagner).
"With that — again, I thank everybody who is participating in this hearing, I thank our witnesses for what's going to be an important testimony. Everybody who knows, with this hearing we are putting an extra emphasis on the fact that if you say you're pro-life, the only way to stand up for these babies who are born alive outside the womb is to ask your member of Congress to sign the discharge petition so we can pass the Born-Alive Act and get it signed into law by President Trump. With that, I want to turn it over to our lead champion, the lead author of the Born-Alive Act, Ms. Ann Wagner."
Issues:Family Values