A leading pro-life leader is criticizing House and Senate Democrats for promoting a bill that would protect kittens in research experiments from harm, days after the same Democrats opposed a bill that would protect human babies who survive abortion.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, introduced the Kittens In Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act, on March 7, which would halt experiments within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that cause pain to kittens. A USDA laboratory breeds kittens and euthanizes them when the experiment is complete. Nearly 3,000 kittens have been used in research since 1982, according to one USDA administrator.
“The KITTEN Act will protect these innocent animals from being needlessly euthanized in government testing, and make sure that they can be adopted by loving families instead,” Merkley said in a press release.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, noted that Merkley had voted days earlier against a bill that would require medical care for babies who survive abortion. It was known as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
“‘Ridiculous’ doesn’t begin to describe a party that tells America to back away from the tables of crying newborns while it rushes to the rescue of kittens instead,” Perkins said in his Wednesday Washington Update. “I suppose we should also tell firefighters when they run into burning houses to look for the pets first? After all, on the Democrats’ sliding scale of ‘wantedness,’ shouldn’t we find out how loved someone is before we decide if they’re worth saving?”
Perkins called it “one of the sickest ironies no one is talking about.”
“Maybe the DNC’s strategists are out to lunch, or maybe the Left really is this shameless, but I can’t wait to see some of these politicians standing on debate platforms next year telling the American people that when it comes to protecting living things: We chose cats over kids,” Perkins said.
Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) -- who is running for president -- is another Democrat who supported the kittens act but opposed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
The Kittens In Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act has Republican supporters, too, including GOP Rep. Brian Mast of Florida. Yet Mast is listed as a co-sponsor of the House version of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.
Photo courtesy: Kote Puerto/Unsplash
