FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wants to hold a Washington, D.C. abortionist accountable for potential crimes he may have committed aborting babies in his Foggy Bottom abortion clinic.
Luna sat down with The Daily Signal on Friday for a wide-ranging interview on her first few weeks in Congress, what she wants to accomplish in the coming months, Washington Surgi-Clinic, abortionist Cesare Santangelo and D.C.’s aborted baby scandal, and more.
Luna, who recently met with members of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, held up photographs of the five preemie sized aborted babies during a hearing on Thursday, calling on her fellow lawmakers to acknowledge the babies and their deaths.
D.C. authorities have not provided clarity on whether these babies were illegally aborted. Pro-life doctors and activists have indicated that the babies may have been victims of illegal and gruesome partial birth abortion techniques.
The 33-year-old congresswoman believes that the babies were “born alive” and “left to die.”
“One of the babies was born completely encompassed in the amniotic sac and drowned in its own amniotic fluid,” she said. “Let’s say you are pro-abortion. That’s still a cruel and unusual way to die, and there’s laws and statutes that say that you cannot allow cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Even if that’s your argument, how can you still argue to allow this to happen because of the way in which it was done?” she asked, adding, “Another baby, from what I was told and from what I saw, was born completely, no issues, no markings on the body intact, and they left the baby to die.”
Luna insisted that “there needs to be an investigation done.” She also said that Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising told her they are having issues locating a pathologist who will conduct the autopsy, suggesting that local pathologists may not wish to become involved because such a move could be considered political and potentially career-ending.
“That has to be done,” she said. “These babies have still not yet been buried. And I think what’s even more sad is that I’m sure that the women that did have those abortions, Maybe they have seen the footage, but they’ll never know if that was their child or child or not.”
Showing the pictures of the babies during the hearing was “uncomfortable,” she said.
“You could hear that,” she added. “But they should be uncomfortable because as Congress we have something called homestead rule. We ultimately have final authority on and we can get involved in the laws that are passed here, and yet this is happening.
Asked if she was afraid the move would pigeon-hole her as a “crazy pro-lifer,” Luna responded, “No.”
“And even if they did,” she added, “I don’t care.”
“They had no response to it,” she added. “It was that powerful that they had no response.”
Luna wants to find a pathologist and she wants to get the babies buried with proper respect for their lives, which were ended so abruptly. She also wants to hold Santangelo to account.
“I want to ensure that that doctor’s held accountable, but that can’t be done until the autopsies are done,” she said, adding, “To my understanding, this doctor is also under investigation for killing a woman in a botched abortion. So why is he still allowed to practice?”
“This guy’s not a legitimate doctor,” she said, comparing him to Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who performed gruesome experiments in the Auschwitz death camps. “He’s a really evil person.”
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