Critics say the plight of five babies who died in suspected partial-birth abortion procedures has been overlooked by legacy media, but Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) brought it to the front burner earlier this month.
They are calling for local authorities to preserve the remains of the five fully formed babies.
Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003, and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The prohibition was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007. Congress had passed the ban twice previously, but it was vetoed each time by President Bill Clinton.
"The baby is put into a breech position then delivered partially so that literally the baby's feet, legs, and torso are hanging out of the birth canal," Priests for Life founder Frank Pavone, a longtime priest who was laicized in 2022 for his pro-life activism, told American Family Radio Monday. "The baby's still alive, and the abortionist is able to reach up and kill the baby with scissors at the back of the neck. Then the brains are suctioned out."
As AFN has reported, the evidence suggests the five babies died in such a procedure. Pavone hopes his accurate and graphic description of what happened to them – and the fact that the procedure appears to still be performed by some clinics in defiance of the law – will make it clear exactly what abortion with no restrictions can look like.
He also hopes it will make Americans confront the brutality of the partial-birth procedure and shape the discussion on possible national restrictions.
"People are going to say, 'This sounds like a fictional horror film. This can't possibly be happening,'" Pavone posed. "I invite them to go back to congressional records when this debate over partial-birth abortion actually started in the mid-1990s. I was involved in it right from the beginning because I spoke to the abortionist whose medical paper got the whole debate going. He was teaching other abortionists in Ohio how to do this particular procedure."
The Department of Justice has reportedly advised the Washington, D.C. medical examiner to dispose of the babies' remains, which were retrieved from outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic in March of 2022, according to a news release from Rep. Roy's media team.
"If a one-month-old child was discarded and tossed aside, imagine the horror, imagine the news stories you'd see on Fox, CNN, and local news," Roy said. "It's been almost two years, and the five unborn children who appeared to be aborted illegally in our nation's capital have still not received justice."
Roy said the delay indicates a cover-up from an administration that works hard to implement pro-abortion policies.
Tuberville's battle
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) spent most of 2023 taking the Department of Defense to task for new policy in the post-Roe era that paid for abortion-related expenses for military personnel and their dependents.
For 11 months, Tuberville placed "holds" on military promotions, which meant that colonels could not become generals in one massive up or down vote. The promotions could have still taken place, had Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) dedicated floor time to address them individually, but he refused to make that commitment for most of the candidates.
Tuberville's holds ended in December after the Senate Rules Committee passed a resolution to allow Schumer to call for a single up or down vote on the backlog of more than 400 hopeful candidates' promotions.
Let's have a real debate
"These are human beings — fellow Americans — and this testimony indicates that Joe Biden's Department of Justice is trying to sweep the horrifying reality of the case, and of abortion in general, under the rug," Roy said of the five D.C. babies.
He called this a matter of "critical" importance.
"All life is precious, and any violator of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act must be held accountable," Rep. Biggs declared. "The MPD and DOJ's investigation was insufficient and inadequate. The DOJ's effort to dispose of these bodies without conducting an investigation is malpractice. These bodies must be preserved. Americans deserve to know what happened to these five innocent children, and the rogue actors involved must be brought to justice. I remain hopeful that the mayor and chief reconsider their decision to dispose of the remains of these children."
Pavone says the Left has muddled the conversation on abortion.
"Some people debate abortion as if it's some abstract argument about beliefs," he noted. "We're skipping over the starting point. Let's define our terms. Let's make sure we're talking about the same things, that we're not talking past each other. When they say the words, they're talking about freedom, women's health, and bodily autonomy. We believe in those things, too."
As polls show that most Americans prefer abortion restrictions at some level, Pavone encourages abortion supporters to check out LookAtAbortion.org, a website that offers links to images of aborted babies, fetal development stages, various abortion procedures, and more.
"I challenge folks to look at the website, then challenge their candidates," he said on the radio program. "The Democrats want to bring abortion front-and-center as an issue in this election. Be my guest, but look at it, and let's have an honest debate, not just a pretend debate."
