Republican House leaders on Tuesday launched a petition to bypass Democratic leaders and force a floor vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which clarifies that doctors must provide medical care to babies that have survived abortions or else face criminal charges.

“You can’t say you’re pro-life unless you sign the discharge petition to bring this bill up for debate and for a vote on the House floor,” said Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in a press conference outside the Capitol.

You deserve to know: Where does your representative stand on stopping infanticide? I’m filing a discharge petition TODAY to bypass Pelosi & force every member to go on record & tell the American people EXACTLY where they stand on this barbaric practice. #LetUsVote #EndInfanticide pic.twitter.com/n2Zr8TYEm6 — Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) April 2, 2019

Scalise hopes to collect at least 100 signatures on Tuesday but will need 218 signatures — a simple majority — to force a vote on the floor. The names of those who have signed onto the bill will be updated and posted online every day.

“The whole country is going to be watching, and ultimately, they’ll be watching that list of signatures,” Scalise said.

Republicans and anti-abortion advocates have been pushing for a vote on the bill so they could put individual lawmakers on the spot regarding the issue of third-trimester abortion, given that polling shows public support for later abortions is low.

“They cannot hide from anyone else, they have to take a position,” said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

He added that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders refused to bring the legislation to the floor even though Republicans had asked 25 times. Democrats have said the bill is not necessary because infanticide is already illegal, and they have said that they don't want to intervene in circumstances in which babies are born with serious health conditions that would cut their lives short.

The lawmakers at the press conference appeared alongside Jill Stanek, a former nurse in the labor and delivery department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., who shared how she saw babies who survived abortions were left to die without medical care. With them were three women who survived abortions as babies: Gianna Jessen, Claire Culwell, and Melissa Ohden.

“I know that this is important and necessary because I am one of the children who deserved to be protected,” said Ohden, who survived a failed abortion performed with saline and founded the Abortion Survivors Network.

Jessen similarly survived a saline abortion, and Culwell’s mother had an abortion only to learn later that she had been pregnant with twins, and one was aborted while Culwell survived.

Lawmakers at the press conference aimed to stress that even if rare, instances of failed abortions do happen. GOP representatives said they believed constituents would call representatives to urge them to support the bill.

“I think the American people … are going to hold their members of Congress accountable,” said Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., who introduced the legislation.

GOP leaders said that bills passed to loosen restrictions on later abortions, such as in New York, necessitated the legislation at the federal level. New York added a provision to its abortion laws earlier this year allowing women to have a third-trimester abortion if their pregnancy threatens their health.

Comments by Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also featured heavily during the press conference. Northam and Virginia Del. Kathy Tran, also a Democrat, said earlier this year that they supported a state bill that appeared to allow abortion at the time of birth.

Tran later said she misspoke about when abortion would be permitted, and Northam’s office later released a statement saying that the governor’s comments were mischaracterized and had been intended to address cases in which babies wouldn’t survive birth because of deformity or another health issue.