Senate Democrats have once again blocked an abortion bill that would protect babies in the womb from abortions after 20 weeks, Life News reports.

The Senate needed 60 votes to stop the Democrats’ filibuster of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks, but could only muster 53 in a largely party-line vote, with Democratic Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia voting in support of it and Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska opposing it, CNN reports.

Studies have revealed that an unborn child can feel pain in the womb as early as eight weeks, though the scientific community seems to have latched on to the 20-week marker, at which time the unborn have all of the necessary body parts to experience pain, such as pain receptors, spinal cord, nerve tracts, and thalamus.

In testimony before Congress in 2018, former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino described the brutality of late-term abortions, underscoring why he no longer supported the procedure. Levatino explained that the procedure involves using a clamp to “grasp anything you can” inside the womb and pulling off body parts. “You feel something let go and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp anything you can … and out pops an arm,” he said. Adding that the procedure is entirely blind, Levatino explained the “doctors” never really know what will come out each time they reach in and pull. “Reach in again and again with that clamp and tear out the spine, intestines, heart and lungs.”

Polls show that regardless of where Americans stand on abortion, the vast majority of voters support measures to restrict late-term abortions or procedures that cause pain for the unborn child. Yet the Democratic Party has emerged as the party of infanticide and late-term abortion in recent years.

According to Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, the “extremist Democrats beholden to the radical abortion lobby” are one major reason President Trump was elected in 2016.

“Hillary Clinton’s support for abortion up to the moment of birth is a significant reason why Donald Trump is in the Oval Office,” she asserted. “Yet, so far, the 2020 Democratic field has taken abortion extremism to a new level, supporting not only late-term abortion, but even infanticide, and demanding that all abortions are paid for by taxpayers.”

Blasting the Democrats failure to move the bill forward, Dannenfelser opined, “The science is clear: by at least five months, children in the womb can feel excruciating pain. A strong majority of Americans — including Democrats, Independents, and those who self-identify as pro-choice — agree it is past time to get our country out of the club of seven nations worldwide that allow abortion on demand more than halfway through pregnancy.”

The Left also claims abortions after 24 weeks are rare, but CDC estimates assert approximately 13,000 late-term abortions are performed in the United States every year. In fact, Life News reports 2019 revealed a “disturbing industry-wide trend” towards late-term abortions, marked by an increase in the number of abortion facilities willing to do the procedure. Life News reports,

In 2018, 46% of all surgical abortion facilities set an abortion limit of 13 weeks or under. However, in 2019, only 31% of all surgical abortion facilities restricted themselves to the first trimester of pregnancy.

There are currently 143 facilities that are willing to perform abortions at 20 weeks or more, Life News writes.

The Left has also claimed that late-term abortions are reserved for special scenarios, including the health of the mother or fetal anomalies, but late-term abortionist Martin Haskell, who sadly popularized the partial-birth abortion procedure, said in a 1993 interview with American Medical News: “I’ll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective in that 20-24 week range…. In my particular case, probably 20% are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective.”

Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, made similar statements in 1997, admitting that he intentionally lied in earlier statements by claiming late-term abortions are rare and reserved to save the lives of mothers or in instances of fetal anomalies.

A 2013 study by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute concluded that the majority of late-term abortions were elective:

Most women seeking later abortion fit at least one of five profiles: They were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous.

Jeanne Mancini, President of March for Life, harshly criticized the Democrats for blocking the bill, along with the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which also failed to meet the 60-vote threshold this week.

“It is deeply disappointing that some elected officials in the Senate have promised to block even legislation that mandates medical care for children who survive an abortion – an extremist view shared by all Democratic presidential candidates,” she said. “While any abortion is one too many, the reality is that overwhelmingly Americans want to see greater protections for the most vulnerable and these bills are a strong step in the right direction.”

Raven Clabough acquired her bachelor's and master's degrees in English at the University of Albany in upstate New York. She currently lives in Pennsylvania and has been a writer for The New American since 2010.