Watch: 'Saddened and frustrated' Tim Scott dresses down US Senate for defeating Born-Alive act

A flight delay Monday prevented Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) from voting on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which the Senate defeated 53-44 because the necessary 60-vote majority to end debate wasn't secured.

Scott, who is pro-life, said Tuesday on the floor of the Senate that he would have voted in favor of the bill, which would have mandated medical care for infants born alive after botched abortions — but not enough Democrats or independents joined the GOP.

Among the "no" voters were Democratic presidential candidates Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Bernie Sanders (Vt.) — and nearly a dozen Catholics.

So the South Carolina senator took his few minutes on the floor to take his no-voting colleagues to task.

"But what's frustrating even more ... 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," he said. "And there would be a question of whether or not that child should be able to continue to live."

'This is common sense. This is human decency.'

Scott added:

I cannot imagine whether you are a pro-life, as I am, or pro-choice like others, that this would be even an issue of debate or discussion within the two sides. There is no side on this topic. There cannot be a side about life separated from the mother, whether or not that life should continue to live. This is common sense. This is human decency. This is not an issue of being pro-life or pro-choice. This is being pro-child, which we all should be.

Scott also said that amid his travels to other areas of the country "there was no disagreement on the issue of infanticide" regardless of political party: "There was 100 percent support that we are a nation that should always value the life of a born child."

But on the floor of the U.S. Senate? A different story.

"And so while I'm saddened and frustrated," Scott said, "I have been encouraged by my fellow Americans from Arkansas to South Carolina to Tennessee have all come to the same conclusion ... and that is a child born deserves to live."