RE: The
District of Columbia Pain-Capable
Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803)
Dear Member of
Congress:
The National Right
to Life Committee (NRLC), the nationwide federation
of state right-to-life organizations, urges you to
cosponsor the District of Columbia Pain-Capable
Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803).
This vital
legislation was introduced on January 23 by
Congressman Trent Franks, and was referred to both
the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform. The chairmen of
both of those committees are original cosponsors of
H.R. 3803, as are the chairmen of the two
subcommittees of jurisdiction.
H.R. 3803 contains
legislative findings and operative language very
similar to bills already enacted in five states
during 2010 and 2011: Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho,
Oklahoma, and Alabama. None of these laws have
faced any serious legal challenge to date.
Like those state
laws, H.R. 3803 contains findings of fact regarding
the medical evidence that unborn children experience
pain at least by 20 weeks after fertilization (which
is 22 weeks in the “LMP” system, or about the start
of the sixth month), and prohibits abortion after
that point, except when an acute physical condition
endangers the life of the mother.
Additional state
legislatures will be taking up similar legislation
during the months ahead. However, there is one
substantial jurisdiction over which the U.S.
Constitution places legislative responsibility
solely on the shoulders of the Congress: The
District of Columbia. Article I, Section 8 of the
Constitution dictates unequivocally that Congress
shall “exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
whatsoever, over such District . . .”
Currently, in our
nation’s capital, unborn children may legally be
killed at any point up to birth, for any reason.
Abortions are advertised, and performed, in the
sixth month and later. This means that unborn
children who are capable of experiencing
excruciating pain are killed every day – most often,
by a method in which arms and legs are twisted off
by brute manual force, as the abortionist guides his
forceps using an ultrasound image. A medical
illustration of this common method (“D&E”) is posted
here.
Another advertised
method, in the seventh month and later, involves
thrusting a needle into the unborn child’s heart,
and injecting a lethal substance.
Under the
Constitution, only the Congress – and, if he would,
the President – have the responsibility for putting
an end to these brutal practices. The National
Right to Life Committee urges you to join the
campaign to protect pain-capable unborn children in
the nation’s capital, by adding your name as a
cosponsor of H.R. 3803, and by working for its
expeditious enactment.
