The White House announced today President Obama would veto the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act if it came to his desk.
The bill, which is scheduled for a vote in the House Thursday, would ban elective abortions after 20 weeks—or five months of pregnancy.
That’s a policy that has huge public support.
According to a November Quinnipiac poll, 60 percent of Americans back banning abortion, except in cases of rape or incest reported to the authorities, after 20 weeks. There’s virtually no gender divide: 59 percent of women support the ban. Furthermore, the age breakdown shows widespread support for the ban by:
- 57 percent of 18-29 year olds
- 61 percent of 30-49 year olds
- 63 percent of 50-64 year olds
- 58 percent of 65+ American voters
In this divided age, there’s little that unites Americans in such large numbers as this ban does.
Most of the world already has such a ban. Only six other countries besides the United States allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, including China and North Korea.
By the time a pregnancy is 20 weeks along, the unborn child is hearing, has fingernails and toenails, and a beating heart.
The child is also close to being potentially able to survive outside the womb. In 2011, 21-one-week-old Frieda Mangold was born in Germany.
She made it.
Little Frieda faced huge obstacles: she weighed just over a pound when born. Sadly, her twin brother didn’t survive. But Frieda’s birth shows how incredibly developed these 20-week-old babies are, even at this early stage.
The White House said the bill “would unacceptably restrict women’s health and reproductive rights and is an assault on a woman’s right to choose.” But this policy wouldn’t affect a woman’s choice in the first five months of her pregnancy.
Most countries have this ban. Most Americans, including most women, support this ban.
Why doesn’t President Obama?
