The White House formally endorsed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Monday evening, which the House will vote on late Tuesday. The bill would ban abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, the point at which science increasingly shows that unborn babies feel pain.
The Office of Management and Budget released a statement emphasizing that the administration “strongly supports H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and applauds the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections.”
The statement says the bill “would promote a science-based approach to unborn life, as recent advancements have revealed that the physical structures necessary to experience pain are developed within 20 weeks of fertilization.”
“The United States is currently out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only 7 out of 198 nations allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy,” they add. “America’s children deserve the stronger protections that H.R. 36 would advance.”
“If H.R. 36 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law,” the Office of Management and Budget concludes.
President Trump has already committed to signing the bill into law in a letter he sent to pro-life leaders on the campaign trail.
The vote on the bill was announced last Tuesday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who was joined by Micah Pickering, a five-year-old boy who was born prematurely at 22 weeks gestational age (20 weeks).
“Looking at him I don’t think anybody would be able to tell,” Rep. McCarthy said. “He’s a perfectly healthy boy and I know everybody here is happy to have you here, Micah. This legislation is for children like Micah, it’s about drawing a line when babies have grown for 20 weeks, when they can feel pain, when they can see their noses, their ears, when we can hear the heartbeats, and we can feel their kicks and at the very least that’s when we can all agree that they should be protected.”