Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear rejected a bill Friday to protect newborn babies from infanticide in his state.
A pro-abortion Democrat, Beshear said in his veto statement that the legislation is not necessary because newborns already are protected under the law, Jurist reports.
“… existing Kentucky law already fully protects children from being denied life-saving medical care and treatment when they are born,” the governor said. “During this worldwide health pandemic, it is simply not the time for a divisive set of lawsuits that reduce our unity and our focus on defeating the novel coronavirus and restarting our economy.”
State Senate Bill 9 would have required “reasonable life-saving and life-sustaining” medical care to be provided to infants who are born alive after failed abortions. Medical professionals who violated the measure could have faced criminal penalties and had their licenses revoked.
The legislation also would have given pro-life Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron the power to temporarily halt elective abortions during the coronavirus health crisis.
Cameron said Beshear’s veto is what is truly “divisive” because he rejected a bill that “protects our most vulnerable,” Forward Kentucky reports.
House Speaker David Osborne also slammed the pro-abortion governor for using his veto power “to defend the indefensible.”
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU thanked the governor for vetoing the measure, according to the AP.
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The state legislature cannot override Beshear’s veto because the bill passed on the last day of its session.
State lawmakers are trying to save lives through the legislation, both born and unborn. Recently, medical groups representing more than 30,000 doctors in America emphasized that abortions are not “essential” or “urgent,” and abortion facilities that continue to operate during the pandemic are being “medically irresponsible.”
Though abortion activists claim additional protections against infanticide are unnecessary, evidence suggests otherwise. Government health data indicates that at least 40 babies were born alive in abortions in just three states between 2016 and 2018. Researchers estimate that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of babies have survived abortions over the past several decades, but many states do not keep track of abortion survivors.
Reports by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also 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).
Senate Bill 9 is similar to federal legislation that pro-abortion Democrats blocked in the U.S. House. Demonstrating their loyalty to the billion-dollar abortion industry, Democrats blocked the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act 80 times last year. The bill requires abortionists to provide the same basic medical care to an infant born alive after a failed abortion that a doctor would to any other infant born at that stage of pregnancy.
ACTION ALERT: Contact Governor Andy Beshear with your complaints.
