By Dave Andrusko, NRL News
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus
Last month and again last week we wrote about the upcoming anniversary of the conviction of abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of babies that were aborted alive and then had their spinal cords slit.
Although sparsely covered by the media, the news leading up to Gosnell's trial and the trial itself helped provide impetus for state legislation regulating abortion clinics and for passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, NRLC's #1 legislative priority.
Last Friday, in a show of solidarity, the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution that stated that "the Republican National Committee strongly supports federal, state, and local pain-capable unborn child legislation that bans abortions at 20 weeks of gestation and beyond."
Currently the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is law in ten states. Furthermore, it has passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a vote of 228-196 last June.
In a statement issued Friday resolution sponsor RNC Committeewoman Ellen Barrosse of Delaware said, "The Republican Party is proudly pro-life and this resolution shows our support for this straightforward, simple pro-life initiative." She added, "Children capable of feeling intense pain, as well as their mothers, should be protected from abortion at such a very late stage of gestation."
Thirty-three Senators have signed a letter urging Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.) to bring up legislation sponsored by South Carolina Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham. (See nrlc.cc/1mOZCmb and nrlc.cc/1mPd7Co.)
"It is time that Congress acts to bring the United States out of the fringe when it comes to late term abortions," New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who circulated the Dear Colleague letter, said in a statement at the time. "I urge Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would bring us closer to international norms and the views of the American people."
