- President Donald Trump highlighted the birth of a baby born at 21 weeks and called on Congress to ban late-term abortion Tuesday night at the State of the Union.
- Leaders of pro-life organizations applauded POTUS’s remarks and praised him for highlighting the baby’s premature birth.
- “The heartless policies of today’s Democratic Party would deny that babies like Ellie have any right to live,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
Pro-life leaders applauded President Donald Trump’s remarks at the State of the Union on Tuesday night when he called on Congress to ban late-term abortions and highlighted the birth of a premature baby at 21 weeks.
The president discussed the birth of Ellie Schneider, a premature baby born at 21 weeks and six days. Her birth took place during the third trimester, a period when many states will still perform late-term abortions.
“In 2017, doctors at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City [Missouri] delivered one of the earliest premature babies ever to survive — born at just 21 weeks and six days and weighing less than a pound,” Trump said Tuesday night. “Ellie Schneider was a born fighter. Through the skill of her doctors and the prayers of her parents, little Ellie kept on winning the battle of life.”
The president said the premature baby “reminds us that every child is a miracle of life” and that his administration’s goal is to ensure that every baby “has the best chance to thrive and grow just like Ellie.” (RELATED: Trump Highlights Baby Born At 21 Weeks, Calls On Congress To Ban Late-Term Abortion)
“That is why I’m asking Congress to provide an additional $50 million to fund neonatal research for America’s youngest patients,” the president said. “That is why I’m also calling upon members of Congress here tonight to pass legislation finally banning the late-term abortion of babies.”
Leaders of pro-life groups praised POTUS for his remarks following Tuesday night’s SOTU.
Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, who serves as national co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump, said in a statement that Trump continually “uses his platform to lift up abortion survivors, who put a human face on the staggering toll of Roe v. Wade, and to expose the abortion extremism of his opponents.”
Dannenfelser noted that “precious children like Ellie” are aborted ever day in the United States, babies who are old enough to “feel excruciating pain.”
“A strong majority of Americans back legislation protecting unborn babies from late-term abortion after five months of pregnancy, yet Democratic contenders for president cannot identify a single limit on abortion they support — they won’t even condemn infanticide,” Dannenfelser said.
“The heartless policies of today’s Democratic Party would deny that babies like Ellie have any right to live,” she said, adding that the SBA List is “on a mission” to help reelect Trump — “the most pro-life president in history.”
Live Action founder and President Lila Rose said that it is “tragic that babies like Ellie have no legal protection against losing their lives to abortion in certain places across our nation,” calling on Trump to fulfill his promise to “make history” and defund Planned Parenthood.
“No group that commits abortions should receive any taxpayer money, and Planned Parenthood kills 345, 672 Americans per year through abortion and received $616.9 million tax dollars in 2018,” Rose said. “It’s time for our country to treat all human life, born and preborn, as equal in worth and dignity.”
March for Life president Jeanne Mancini also spoke out in a statement following the president’s remarks.
“Every human life, born and unborn, is equal in worth and dignity,” Mancini said. “This truth is especially clear in the later stages of pregnancy when a baby can feel pain.”
Mancini noted that Schneider’s birth at 21 weeks is a reminder that protecting babies after they can feel pain should be “common sense.”
“Protecting babies from abortion after they can feel pain, about 20 weeks into pregnancy, is a common sense and compassionate, not to mention popular, measure that everyone should be able to easily agree upon,” she said. “If anyone doubts this, all they have to do is look at Ellie Schneider who was born at 21 weeks and today, at two years old, is a light to her family and the world.”
Americans United for Life President and CEO Catherine Glenn Foster praised Trump’s welcome of the premature baby and her mother, calling the moment “remarkable and encouraging.”
“Ellie is a living witness to the need for law and policy that protects all human beings from needless violence and harm and especially from the sort of medical indifference to vulnerable young life that Roe encourages and that politicians like Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam seek to codify,” Foster said in a statement.
Baby Ellie is “alive and thriving,” but Foster pointed out that this is “no thanks to American law.”
“We must do better for Ellie, and for the vulnerable young girls and boys like her who deserve our love and care,” she said.
Students for Life Action and Students for Life of America leader Kristan Hawkins said “Ellie’s beautiful face should be a reminder to all of us that with more than 12,000 babies aborted at Ellie’s age and even later that we have a moral crisis taking place today in our nation.”
“The value of a human life should not depend on where a child is born,” Hawkins said in a statement. “Legislators must all be called to account for whether they support the Born Alive Abortion Survivors’ Protection Act, which protects babies born at Ellie’s age from infanticide.”
The Catholic Association senior fellow Maureen Ferguson noted that Schneider “compels us to recognize the humanity of a child at this stage of development.”
“A new groundbreaking study led by a pro-choice researcher suggests that an unborn child can experience pain as early as 13 weeks, and concludes that women considering abortion should be so informed,” Ferguson said. “We ask Congress to ban the inhumane practice of late-term abortion.”
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