In a vote of 52-48 along party lines, members of the House of Delegates yesterday voted to pass HB 304, introduced by Del. Nick Freitas (R-30).
This is a sensible and compassionate bill that recognizes that babies alive after a failed abortion have a right to be treated the same way any other baby of the same age and condition would be. The few comments of those in opposition showed a type of tone deafness that is only to be heard from radical abortion advocates and promoters who refuse to see the human life central to every abortion.
Currently thirty-five states have passed these rational laws that are considered reasonable by Americans on all sides of the abortion issue. Abortions performed after babies can be born and survive mean that those babies should be treated the same way as babies born prematurely.
While the Commonwealth of Virginia does not currently report live births after abortions, the national Abortion Survivors Network reports having identified nearly 400 individuals since 2012 in the USA who have survived an abortion.
Although the raw data on abortion survivors is challenging to obtain, particularly in the U.S., a handful of state reports give us a little insight. Several countries report the incidence of abortion survival. A government report in Canada from 2012 reported that 491 children survived abortions from 2000-2009. They also reported 766 children survived abortions from 2013-2018. Additionally, there are similar government reports from the U.K. and states in Australia.
In 2019 after a shocking video emerged out of the House of Delegates that indicated that pro-abortion advocates were attempting to remove all remaining prohibitions on abortions up to birth at nine months, Virginians came to see how radical the agenda was.
Days later former Governor Ralph Northam suggested on a radio interview that if a baby did survive a late term abortion it would be okay to deny treatment to the child. The comments shocked all of Virginia and the rest of the country after it went viral.
The next step for this bill, HB 304, is to go to the Virginia Senate. The hurdles in the Senate are clear since currently the committees there are controlled by the pro-abortion majority in charge.
Now the question for those members of the Senate is this: “Do newborn human beings, gasping for breath, and struggling to survive after the gruesome realities of the abortion techniques they have just survived, worthy of the same care we would give any other helpless newborn?”
ACTION ALERT: Contact members of the Virginia Senate to urge support for this bill.
