Uncommon Commentary #479: UC #477 Follow-Up

HR 3504, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, survived the US House of Representatives; there were 248 yea votes, 177 nays, and one “present”, and so 41.8% of available congressmen effectively voted for infanticide. The site Govtrack.us gives this bill only a 15 percent likelihood of being enacted, and the chance given for the Senate’s version, S. 2066, is a pathetic two percent. Compare this situation with that in 2002 (at which time there were far fewer Republicans in the US Congress than there are now), when its predecessor the Born Alive Infants Protection Act passed the Senate unanimously (see UC #336) and “with the support of all but 15 members of the House”. I don’t know whether this quote means that all 15 voted against it or that some actively opposed it and the others abstained, and I know not why there are unequal prognoses regarding the enactment of the House and Senate bills if identical versions must be passed so that a single piece of legislation can be sent to the President’s desk, but I do know one thing: the astonishing increase in acceptance of infanticide that evidently has occurred over a span of just 13 years demonstrates how quickly our civilization is descending into savagery.