“Despite the fact that the 54 to 42 vote today in the U.S. Senate looks like a victory, tragically without a veto proof margin, women and their unborn children will continue to face the dangers of late-term abortions at the hands of an abortion industry that clearly puts profit over people,” said Americans United for Life President CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest. “This vote is a win and a loss as militant abortion extremists in the minority blocked protections for women and their unborn children whose more developed bodies can be sold for more money.”
She continued: “While we won the vote, women who will suffer the dangers of late-term abortion and infants who experience an excruciating death still lose as the minority of our elected officials failed to enact a commonsense limit on abortion at 5 months of pregnancy. Most people don’t know that as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, abortion policy in the United States is among the most extreme in the world. 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.
“The extremists on this issue are Big Abortion and its political allies who are pushing abortion through all nine months, fighting health and safety standards that protect women’s lives and threatening a government shutdown (which they will blame on Republicans) to force funding to the scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood.”
Earlier in the day, Americans United for Life General Counsel Ovide Lamontagne joined U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and other pro-life leaders at in advance of the Senate vote. He observed: “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.”
Americans United for Life Action also sent a 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.”
