Sen. Tim Scott Says He 'Strongly Supports' the Abortion Survivors Act After Flight Delays Kept Him From the Vote

Brittany M. Hughes | February 26, 2019
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Sen. Tim Scott, who was delayed on a D.C.-bound flight and arrived four minutes late to a vote on Sen. Ben Sasse’s Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act held Monday night, said on the Senate floor Tuesday that he would have voted “yes” to the bill to protect babies born alive following botched abortion attempts.
 


Scott, a strong pro-life supporter and one of three Republican senators who weren’t present for Monday night’s vote, said it was “irritating and infuriating” that he didn’t make it in time to support such a “common piece of legislation” protecting children.

“As I sat awaiting my plane to leave Charleston, South Carolina, to come to the nation’s capital – a trip that typically takes about 63 minutes – three hours later, I had not yet arrived in Washington, D.C., for a vote that, to me, should not be a vote at all,” Scott explained. “This should be common sense, but it certainly wasn’t not common sense. So we had to have a vote on an issue that is very near and dear to my heart.”

“I will say, without any question, Mr. President, that the frustration that I felt being late to that vote was one that was incredibly irritating and infuriating, that I had planned to be on the floor of the Senate voting ‘yes’ on a common sense piece of legislation: the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

“But what’s frustrating even more than that,” he continued, “is that in a nation of good conscience, that we would be debating having a conversation about a child who is born, sitting there alive, separated from her mother, and that there would be a question about whether or not that child should be able to continue to live.”

The measure failed to pass the Senate after 44 senators, all Democrats or Independents, voted “no” to the legislation. Three Democrats, including Sens. Bob Casey (Pa.), Doug Jones (Ala.), and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), joined with 50 Republicans in voting “yes.”

Aside from Scott, two other Republican senators - Kevin Cramer (ND) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) - didn't cast a vote.

Watch the rest of Sen. Scott’s remarks below:
 

 

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