Following the Senate's failure today to invoke cloture for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, Heritage Foundation research associate Melanie Israel provided the following statement:

Today, a minority in the Senate blocked the government from protecting women and unborn children from gruesome late-term abortions. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion past 20 weeks, when science shows unborn babies can feel pain.

The majority of Americans want abortion restricted to—at most—the first trimester. This is not novel or controversial policy as more than a dozen states across the country have 20-week bans on abortion.

While 51 senators voted in support of legislation that President Trump has said he would sign, it is disheartening that 46 lawmakers favored extremist abortion policy over a chance to support women and their unborn children.