Planned Parenthood Has Opposed Anti-Infanticide Legislation Before

National   |   Jill Stanek   |   Apr 9, 2013   |   10:23AM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood’s recent opposition to Florida legislation seeking to protect abortion survivors sent shock waves around the country.

But this wasn’t the first time Planned Parenthood had opposed such legislation.

Planned Parenthood also actively fought Illinois’ Born Alive Infants Protection Act in the early 2000s, along with then state Senator Barack Obama. This legislation was introduced to protect known abortion survivors.

In fact, Planned Parenthood and Obama worked together as a team. From ABC News, July 17, 2007:

When Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, voted “present,” rather than “yes” or “no” on a handful of controversial abortion votes in the Illinois state senate, he did so with the explicit support of the president and CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.

“We at Planned Parenthood view those as leadership votes,” Pam Sutherland, the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, told ABC News. “We worked with him specifically on his strategy. The Republicans were in control of the Illinois Senate at the time. They loved to hold votes on ‘partial birth’ and ‘born alive’. They put these bills out all the time… because they wanted to pigeonhole Democrats.”…

Sutherland said Obama approached her in the late 1990s and worked with her and others in crafting the strategy of voting “present.” She remembers meeting with Obama outside of the Illinois Senate chambers on the Democratic side of the aisle. She and Obama finished their conversation in his office.

“He came to me and said: ‘My members are being attacked. We need to figure out a way to protect members and to protect women,’” said Sutherland in recounting her conversation with Obama. “A ‘present’ vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted.”

Obama indeed voted “present” on the Senate floor in 2001 for the Born Alive Act, SB1095, and two companion bills, SB1093 and SB1094. (Obama voted “no” on the Born Alive Act in committee that year, in committee and on the Senate floor in 2002, and in committee in 2003 – a total of four times.)

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Planned Parenthood and Obama still opposed the Born Alive Act in 2003 – when it was worded identically to federal Born Alive legislation that had passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate, overwhelmingly in the U.S. House, and for which even NARAL went neutral. Click to enlarge…

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LifeNews.com noted on April 5 that in testimony on the aforementioned Florida Born Alive legislation, bill sponsor, Dr. Cary Pigman, cited perinatal infant mortality data indicating that in 2010 there were 1,270 infants reported born alive pursuant to botched abortions, “and I emphasize reported,” testified Dr. Pigman. So post-abortion infanticide is obviously much more prevalent than abortion supporters would have us believe.

LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop “live birth abortions” after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. That led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.