AULA’s General Counsel Ovide Lamontagne joins U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and other pro-life leaders at 9:45 a.m. eastern news conference at the Capitol Visitors Center, room SVC 215 in advance of the Senate vote on The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. (09-22-15) — In advance of a vote later today on S. 1553, the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Americans United for Life Action General Counsel Ovide Lamontagne joined the senator along with other national pro-life leaders calling for passage of the bill because of the “health risks of abortions after 5 months to mothers and the horrific deaths suffered by infants able to feel the pain of abortion. Limiting abortion at 5 months of pregnancy is the bare minimum a humane society can provide infants facing a torturous death, and perhaps also facing dismemberment so that their bodies can be sold for parts, while protecting women from the harms of late term abortion.”

“Most people don’t know that as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, abortion policy in the United States is among the most extreme in the world,” noted Lamontagne. “The United States is one of four nations in the world standing with North Korea, China and Canada allowing for abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy, for any reason, even sex selection, and sometimes with taxpayer subsidies. Americans United for Life Action calls on members of the U.S. Senate to protect women’s lives and health from the dangers of late-term abortions, as well as ending a cruel death for infants in the womb, some able to live outside the womb, who face an excruciating death. This is a vote with bi-partisan appeal. An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose late-term abortions. Recent polls reveal that 63% of all Americans—including 70% of women—support a limitation on abortion at 5 months of pregnancy.”

In a score letter to Capitol Hill urging a yes vote, AULA President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest noted that “medical studies demonstrate that abortion poses significant physical and psychological health risks to women—and that the risk of these complications increases dramatically later in pregnancy. These risks include uterine perforation, uterine scarring, cervical perforation, infection, bleeding, hemorrhage, blood clots, incomplete abortion, pelvic inflammatory disease, metabolic disorder, free fluid in the abdomen, organ damage, psychological or emotional complications such as depression and anxiety, sleeping disorders, an increased risk of breast cancer, and even death.”