Alaska’s U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan will have a chance to vote on two pro-life bills this Tuesday.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (Senate Bill 3275) and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (Senate Bill 311) would increase protections for some born and unborn babies who might otherwise be aborted or killed after they are born.
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would outlaw abortions after 20 weeks, the time by which many scientific studies indicate that unborn babies can feel pain, although it may be much earlier than this. More than 12,000 babies die each year from abortions after 20 weeks.
Sen. Sullivan is one of 47 Senate Republicans to co-sponsor this bill. Sen. Murkowski is not a co-sponsor.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Senators are also scheduled to vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Sullivan is also a co-sponsor of this bill, while Murkowski is not. This legislation requires doctors to provide the same medical care for babies born alive during a failed abortion as they would any other baby born at the same gestational age.
When this bill came to a vote last year, Sen. Murkowski did not cast a vote either way, and claimed to have had a prior commitment in Alaska. In 2015 she missed another vote on a late-term abortion ban.
The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act made national headlines last year, after Virginia governor Ralph Northam stated on live radio that mothers and doctors should be allowed to deny medical care to newborns who accidentally survived an attempted abortion. Following those comments, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., reintroduced this act.
While Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. Senate, both bills require a 60-vote threshold due to the fact that pro-abortion Democrats will likely filibuster both of them. The Senate has the power, however, to suspend the filibuster rule and allow the bills to pass with a simple majority.
CONTACTS
- 522 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
- (202) 224-6665
- Contact: www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
- 302 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
- (202) 224-3004
- Contact: www.sullivan.senate.gov/contact/email
