Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a resolution Monday that calls upon the Senate to review public policies that led to the alleged illegal practices of abortionist Kermit Gosnell and others like him.
The resolution has 10 original cosponsors and resolves:
Congress and States should gather information about and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices and the interstate referral of women and girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or illegal second- and third-trimester procedures.
The jury in the case of abortionist Kermit Gosnell is still deliberating. Gosnell is charged in the murder of babies who were born alive during abortion procedures and of one patient.
Lee’s resolution, which cites the grand jury report in the Gosnell case, states:
Congress has the responsibility to investigate and conduct hearings on abortions performed near, at, or after viability in the United States, public policies regarding such, and evaluate the extent to which such abortions involve violations of the natural right to life of infants who are born alive or are capable of being born alive, and therefore are entitled to equal protection under the law.
On his website, Lee writes, “The facts of the Gosnell case are disturbing and heartbreaking. It should be a wake-up call to all Americans. The lack of oversight at abortion facilities puts women’s lives at risk and leads to the kind of unconscionable practices we have seen recently.”
“The Senate should formally recognize that this is a problem in our country and we have a responsibility to investigate the causes,” Lee asserts. He states that the Senate should “review the effects of certain public policies, and determine what we can do to prevent any woman from being subjected to these reprehensible practices again.”
Lee’s resolution also recognizes that significant evidence exists that an unborn child at 20 weeks or earlier is capable of experiencing pain. It resolves that “there is a compelling governmental interest in protecting the lives of unborn children beginning at least from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.”
Additionally, the resolution states, “No woman should ever be abandoned, by policy or practice, to the depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, or uninspected clinic operating outside of the law with no regard for the others or children ostensibly under its care.”
The resolution addresses the fact, as well, that reports of other reprehensible practices have been discovered in other abortion facilities, including Planned Parenthood clinics in Delaware.
The cosponsors of the resolution are Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tim Scott (SC), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Richard Burr (R-NC), David Vitter (R-LA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), and John Boozman (R-AR).
Lee is also the author of the “District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” a bill that would prohibit abortions in Washington DC after the 20th week of pregnancy.
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