The Senate is poised to hold a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, following South Dakota Republican John Thune’s completion of the Rule 14 process which enables the legislation to bypass committee and proceed directly to the Senate floor for consideration.
According to Sen. John Cornyn, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has “talked about some pro-life legislation he’ll be filing for cloture on at the end of next week,” meaning the bill to ban abortions at 20 weeks could receive a vote early next week.
The legislation passed the House 242-184 in May, but while the Senate has a pro-life majority, it is unlikely to reach the sixty votes necessary to end a Democrat filibuster, even though a number of polls have shown that between 55 and 59 percent of the country supports a 20-week abortion ban.
Pro-lifers such as Sen. Rand Paul have indicated more support could be garnered by a public debate asking Democrats if they’re “OK with killing a 7-pound baby that is not born yet” and “when it’s okay to protect life.”
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized the Republicans for considering abortion at all: “We should move on to something else. It should be the budget. It shouldn’t be abortion.”
