Gosnell trial spurs pro-life legislation in United States

(Vatican Radio) The United States House of Representatives on Tuesday passed some of the strongest pro-life legislation in the past 40 years, which would ban almost all abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. The legislation was written after details were made public about late-term abortions in the trial and conviction for murder of Kermit Gosnell, an abortion-provider in Philadelphia.
The bill was called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and mirrors several state laws which are aimed at forcing the US Supreme Court to reconsider the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, which imposed one of the world’s most permissive abortion regimes on the country.
The legislation was supported by the Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston. In a letter written to Congress ahead of the vote, Cardinal O’Malley writes “all decent and humane people are repulsed by the callous and barbarous treatment of women and children in Gosnell’s clinic, and in other clinics that abort children after 20 weeks,” pointing out that witnesses to the events saw children born alive “crying or screaming in pain, until their lives were intentionally and deliberately ended.”
The bill is unlikely to be made into law. It would also have to be passed by the US Senate, which is unlikely. Furthermore, U.S. President Barak Obama has said he would veto the bill.
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