Republican Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin is introducing legislation that would punish abortionists who perform gruesome partial birth abortions with five years to a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole, The Daily Wire has learned.
“Partial birth abortion is a cruel and gruesome means to ending human life,” Mullin told The Daily Wire. “As a father of six children, including three that came into our lives through the blessing of adoption, I believe wholeheartedly that every human life is precious and that life begins in the womb. We have to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”
Mullin’s Partial Birth Abortion Is Murder Act, which is unlikely to pass, carries much heavier punishments than the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003, which defines such a procedure as one in which the abortionist “deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the mother’s body, or, in the case of a breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the mother’s body” before snipping the baby’s neck.
An abortionist who performs a partial birth abortion under the 2003 law faces fines and/or imprisonment for up to two years — Mullin’s legislation would give that abortionist five years to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The move comes as pro-life activists and Republican lawmakers push for officials to investigate the abortions of five preemie-sized babies that activists say they intercepted outside a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.
D.C. officials have indicated they will not perform autopsies on the babies, prompting Republicans like Texas Rep. Chip Roy to question whether “Mayor Bowser and her radically pro-abortion cronies” are avoiding autopsies for ideological reasons.
“Those five defenseless lives inspired this bill,” Mullin told The Daily Wire, emphasizing that there must be a “complete investigation into the deaths of the five preborn babies found in our nation’s capital.”
“Despite evidence that these babies were murdered in violation of federal law, the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. has failed to seriously investigate Washington Surgi-Clinic and the local abortionist there,” the congressman said. “And tragically, we know this is not the only instance in which this crime has occurred. With this bill, we’ll preserve the sanctity of human life and ensure no abortionist can get away with this ever again.”
Days before Easter, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed similar legislation banning late-term abortions in Florida. The governor also weighed in on the preemie-sized aborted babies found in the nation’s capitol, strongly criticizing Democratic lawmakers who advocate for aborting babies up until nine months of pregnancy.
“That is just fundamentally wrong, that is infanticide,” he said, adding, “that type of mindset has led to things that really shock the conscience in our society,” referring to the “terrible scandal” in D.C.
“And yet Washington, D.C. is treating that just like we would treat the trash in our lunch or something like that,” he said. “It’s really horrifying to see that that could go on in our country, but particularly in our nation’s capitol.”