North Carolina senators passed a bill Monday to protect newborns from infanticide by requiring that medical care be provided to babies who survive abortions.
The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, state Senate Bill 359, passed 28-19 with two Democrats joining Republicans in support of the measure, WBTV 3 reports.
The bill would require abortion workers to provide the same level of medical care to an infant born alive from a botched abortion that they would any other infant born at the same gestational age. It also would require that the infant be transferred to a hospital for further care. Abortion workers who violate the measure could face felony charges.
“I find it hard to believe that there’s disagreement over whether a living human being, fully extracted from his or her mother, has the same rights as every other living human being, but it turns out some people don’t agree with that notion,” said state Sen. Kathy Harrington when many Democrats objected to the bill, according to the local news.
Some Democrats claimed the legislation is not necessary, while others argued that the bill is just a political stunt to vilify abortionists.
WRAL reports state Sen. Terry Van Duyn objected to the bill, saying the decision to provide medical care should be left up to the mother and abortionist.
“There is no need for the legislature to criminalize these complex medical decisions that are best left up to patients and their doctors,” Van Duyn said. “It is not grounded in medical science. It is not grounded in fact.”
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made very similar comments in January that were widely condemned for supporting infanticide.
State Sen. Joyce Krawiec, the lead sponsor of the legislation, refuted Democrats’ claims and emphasized the importance of protecting newborns, the local news reports.
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“In committee, this was described as performing a political stunt,” she said. “This is about protecting newborn babies that are born alive … little, tiny, helpless babies.
“It’s clear allowing a living, breathing child to die without any attempt to provide lifesaving care is infanticide, plain and simple,” Krawiec continued. “No, we do not have laws in place protecting babies who are born alive as the result of an abortion.”
The bill now moves to the state House for consideration.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat endorsed by the largest abortion chain in America, Planned Parenthood, opposes the measure and may veto it.
Currently, 19 states do not have laws requiring medical care for babies born alive after botched abortions, according to research by Americans United for Life. However, Kentucky and Texas lawmakers are considering similar legislation this spring.
All three state bills are similar to federal legislation that pro-abortion Democrats are blocking in the U.S. House and Senate. The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires abortionists to provide the same level of medical care to an infant who survives an abortion as a doctor would to any other baby at the same stage of life.
Some states never have passed laws to protect abortion survivors, while at least one other, New York, recently repealed its law requiring medical care for infants who survive abortions.
Reports by the Centers for Disease Control indicate that there are infants born alive after botched abortions in the U.S. According to Congressional testimony:
Data that the CDC collects also confirms babies are born alive after attempted abortions. Between the years 2003 and 2014 there were somewhere between 376 and 588 infant deaths under the medical code P96.4 which keeps track of babies born alive after a “termination of pregnancy.”
The CDC concluded that of the 588 babies, 143 were “definitively” born alive after an attempted abortion and they lived from minutes to one or more days, with 48% of the babies living between one to four hours. It also admitted that it’s possible the number is an underestimate (B).
Data from other countries suggest the same. In 2018, for example, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reported 766 late-term, live-birth abortions over a five-year period. In Western Australia, at least 27 babies survived abortions between 1999 and 2016, according to the state’s health minister.
Several known abortion survivors, including Melissa Ohden, Josiah Presley, Giana Jessen and Claire Culwell have been giving their testimonies in government hearings across the country this year. Some of them recently appeared on Fox News to urge Congress to pass a law requiring abortionists to provide basic medical care to babies who are born alive in botched abortions.
ACTION: Contact the North Carolina House to urge support for the bill.
