Only a single House Democrat voted to protect the lives of babies born alive after failed abortion
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That’s Melissa Ohden, and here’s a link to the video from which that screenshot was taken. More on her below.
What happens if an abortion goes wrong, and the baby (or if you prefer, “fetus”) that was intended to be aborted is accidentally born alive. That is, the tiny human being exists independently of its mother’s body. Common sense, and basic human decency, indicates that doctors should try to care for the child, which is now a legal person by any reasonable definition.
Unless you’re a House Democrat (with the honorable exception of Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas). If the mother wanted that baby dead, then not even partial birth abortion is enough. Post-birth abortion is what’s called for. You know, actual murder. News today:
The House also passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in a 220-210 vote, which is aimed at compelling doctors to provide care to infants who survive an attempted abortion, a situation that is rare. Some experts say there were already protections for infants included in a 2002 law and even before that established infants have the rights of a full person. The legislation adds new penalties, including fines or imprisonment of up to five years for health-care providers who do not comply
I can imagine that some House Democrats might have thought this bill was nothing but GOP showboating, given that it can be argued that babies accidentally born alive in an abortion procedure have the rights of a person. But why not vote for this legislation if it’s something you already agree with? Even if, for the sake of argument, it’s superfluous, so what?
But it’s not superfluous. As Russell Moore wrote in National Review three years ago, when similar legislation was before the Senate:
Sadly, federal law currently lacks sufficient legal protections for children who survive abortions.
Survivors like Melissa Ohden in Kansas City, Mo., know how critical these medical provisions are. At Meslissa’s seventh month of gestation, her mother elected to have an abortion. Miraculously, Melissa survived. She was delivered alive, set aside, and ignored, to be discarded.
But this was not the end of her story. Melissa is with us today because a few nurses did just what we all would hope — they saw a vulnerable life and intervened to save her.
In 2017, after Melissa wrote about her experience in a book, she heard from a woman who told her she’d been following her pro-life and adoption advocacy for years. “I wondered if you were the baby I remembered from St. Luke’s hospital,” she said. “After reading your book, I know it’s you.” The day of Melissa’s birth, the woman was working in the neonatal intensive-care unit. “I’ll never forget it,” she recounted years later. “This tall blonde nurse had you in her arms and came through the door shouting ‘That darn doctor messed up! She just kept gasping for breath. She just kept gasping so I couldn’t just leave her there to die.’”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that, from 2003 to 2014, at least 143 babies died after surviving abortions. In 2017 alone, at least 25 babies across five states were born alive after attempted abortion. The CDC numbers are likely an underestimate because, in the absence of the Born Alive Act, reporting is voluntary.
Beyond the numbers, consider the testimony of those who’ve witnessed failed abortions. Jill Stanek, a registered nurse who now works with the pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List, testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her experience in the labor-and-delivery department at Christ Hospital in Illinois. In her testimony, she recounted how, to her utter and complete shock, she discovered that babies who survived abortions were left to die inside a hospital utility closet. In an obvious conscience-soothing act, the hospital eventually created a “comfort room” where these children were taken to die, causing Stanek to ask herself, “How far will doctors go to comfort themselves by letting abortion survivors die?”
While it’s true that infanticide is illegal in the United States, this does not save infants who find their way into the world after surviving an abortion. Rather, these children are doubly vulnerable, because federal law protects abortion from the standards of medical care applicable to any other procedure, in order to avoid placing an “undue burden” on those who seek the so-called right.
Megan Basham is right:
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