Penna Dexter

There’s not an American who doesn’t decry the shocking Las Vegas murders. But we, as a nation, turn our backs on the torture of unborn babies.

In recent days, the House of Representatives voted to curtail late-term abortions by passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This law makes it a crime to perform most abortions after the 20-week mark in a pregnancy. Abortionists violating this law could face five years in prison.

The House has passed Pain-Capable acts before, always under the threat of a presidential veto. The bill now awaits action in the Senate, having been introduced by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. The president is ready and willing to sign it.

Most abortions at this stage are performed by dismemberment and decapitation. The baby is torn limb from limb. The abortionist goes in blind and pulls parts out. Watch a sonogram of this and you’ll see the baby recoil, attempting to avoid the abortionist’s clamp.

There’s a wealth of medical evidence showing that 20 weeks — 5 months gestation, an unborn baby can feel pain. By 20 weeks, nerve endings have spread to all parts of the developing child’s skin. One doctor, a professor of neurobiology and pediatrics, testified in a House hearing that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain at 8 to 10 weeks gestation.

We go all out to see that 22-week-old premies survive. And yet we allow babies roughly that age to be torn apart in the womb.

Tony Perkins of Family Research Council says this Pain-Capable bill “conforms federal abortion law to modern science.”

Vulnerable Democrat senators in red states need to do some soul-searching: Will they stand with their constituents or vote with their party? Democrat votes are needed to overcome the inevitable filibuster and make up for a couple of Republicans who historically yield to the abortion lobby.

We are one of only seven nations who allow this inhumane treatment of unborn children. We must drop out of that brutal club.