WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced an amendment to a bill to address hate crimes committed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The amendment would require the Attorney General to include abortions committed because of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, or disability of an unborn baby in the crime reports required under the bill.
“Our amendment strengthens the reporting requirements in the bill to provide transparency about abortions performed due to bias. Every child in the womb is valuable regardless of their race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, or disability, including Down Syndrome.” said Lankford. “When we address hate crimes, we should honor every life, including in the womb.”
“I have and always will fight to give a voice to the voiceless, and if we are directing the Department of Justice to expedite the review of certain hate crimes, the murder of unborn babies on the basis of their race, sex, disability, and more must be included,” Inhofe said. “That’s why I am introducing this amendment alongside Sens. Lankford and Daines today.
“Any bill to fight discrimination is incomplete that leaves out lethal discrimination through abortion,” Daines said. “I’m proud to join my Oklahoma colleagues Senators Lankford and Inhofe in supporting this important amendment to shine light on the horrific practice of discriminatory abortions that target a baby simply because she is a girl, how many chromosomes she may have, or other protected characteristics.”
The bill is supported by Susan B. Anthony List, Family Research Council, March for Life Action, National Right to Life, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Lankford has continued to stand against President Biden and the Democrats’ obsession with abortion. Last week he introduced the Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act to prevent any taxpayer dollars from going to the nation’s single-largest provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood, and he recently reintroduced the bicameral Women’s Public Health and Safety Act, which gives states the authority to exclude abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. He also sponsors the Conscience Protection Act, which would provide permanent protections for healthcare providers that decline to participate in abortions. He introduced several amendments to the recent COVID reconciliation bill in an attempt to make it comply with the long-standing Hyde amendment. Although one amendment was voted on, it was not agreed to by the full Senate.