Whatever a person’s position on the divisive issue of abortion, one would think and hope that at the very least, people can agree that babies who are born alive, and are completely separated from their mother’s body, should be protected by law.
Well, as it turns out, not even that protection is secure.
About 13,000 abortions a year in the United States occur at or beyond 21 weeks of pregnancy. Phone calls with legal abortion clinics that I have commissioned and that you can hear at ExposeAbortion.net show that abortions are being performed legally even at 32 weeks of pregnancy, on healthy mothers carrying healthy babies.
The further along in pregnancy an abortion occurs, the more difficult it is to tear the pieces of the body apart with the forceps. The methods used in late pregnancy, therefore, are essentially a stillbirth. The baby is killed and then delivered whole.
It’s simpler for the abortionist and avoids the risk of the skull and bone fragments tearing the mother’s birth canal.
But the downside for the abortionists is the increased risk of what they call “the dreaded complication,” which is that the baby comes out alive.
What does a person who has been paid to kill the baby — under the moral fiction that as long as the killing takes place in the womb, it is OK — do when that baby comes out of the womb alive? Does the abortionist complete the job he/she was paid to do, or suddenly shift gears and save the life he or she was just trying to end?
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy a question for them to answer as it should be.
In 2001, I helped nurse Jill Stanek tell her story of how, when working at Christ Hospital in Illinois, she held a baby for the last 45 minutes of his live after he was born alive following an abortion.
Currently, the case of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, sentenced to life in prison for murdering babies born alive in his abortion clinic, is getting renewed attention thanks to the film that was made about him. His staff testified as to how these aborted babies were crying, moving their arms, breathing, and swimming in the toilet and how Gosnell routinely cut their spinal cord with scissors. (Please see the movie!)
So clear is the evidence that this happens regularly that, both in state and federal law, “born alive infant protection” bills have been debated and passed in recent years. These bills would protect babies born alive after a failed abortion.
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Barack Obama, when an Illinois state senator, actually voted “no” on such a bill.
When such a bill was being debated in Florida, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist named Alisa LaPolt Snow testified and was asked this question: “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?” She responded, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”
Wow. Can anyone say “conscience?”
In 2002, Congress passed a federal Born Alive bill and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush. But now Congress has had to revisit and try to strengthen that law, because it lacked adequate penalties.
In the Congress now concluding, the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” (H.R. 4712) was introduced and passed by the House of Representatives. It mandates that any child born alive after a failed abortion be transported to a hospital.
Simple, right?
Well, it was passed by the House in January 2018 by a vote of 241-183. All Republicans voted for it.
But only five Democrats voted for it; all the rest voted against it.
(Those who voted for it were Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, Dan Lipinski of Illinois, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.)
The Senate did not take action on it.
As we come down the homestretch of the midterm elections of 2018, it’s worth asking a question of the Democrats: do they really oppose protecting babies who are already alive outside the womb?
Is there something about the “party line” that requires members of Congress to support infanticide?
In every House race, the Democrat candidate should be asked about his or her vote on the Born Alive Act: should a baby born alive, even after an abortion, be protected or not?
As the nation watches anew in horror the Gosnell story, it’s an excellent opportunity to challenge voters to make sure they choose public servants who know the difference between serving the public and killing the public, and to realize that if politicians can’t respect the life of a little baby, how are they supposed to respect our lives?
