Protections for unborn babies in America continue to be passed into law – but not by elected officials on Capitol Hill.

Getting Congress to move pro-life legislation to the president's desk has been a struggle because of the lack of sufficient votes in the Senate to pass the bills. Ingrid Durin, director of the National Right to Life Committee's Department of State Legislation, tells OneNewsNow the success in getting laws passed has been in state legislatures.

"Now we have 16 states that have passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act," she shares. "This is a law that would protect unborn children from abortion who are capable of feeling pain – and it's only been enjoined in one state, which is Idaho."

States have also been successful in passing fetal homicide laws, which say that if a pregnant woman is attacked and the child is also injured the alleged criminal will face two charges.

South Carolina became the tenth state to pass laws banning abortions in which the baby is dismembered in utero, and seven other states are considering the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act.

"It really reveals the atrocity of what happens during an abortion," Durin explains, "and it humanizes the unborn child because we learn all of the milestones that the baby has – a beating heart, that electronic brain waves can be measured at six weeks, that she has all of her little organs in place, and that by 20 weeks she's able to feel the pain of being ripped apart."

While these victories have been in the states, experts advise not to give up on Congress. Advocates for life point out that a lot of that will depend on how many pro-life legislators are voted into Congress this November – and how many currently in office are retained.