California state lawmakers ignored a medical expert’s warnings Tuesday when they voted to advance pro-abortion legislation that could decriminalize infanticide.
Dr. Vansen Huang, an OB-GYN for more than 30 years, told lawmakers in the California Assembly Health Committee that Assembly Bill 2223 would allow the infanticide of babies up to 28 days old, El American journalist Anthony Cabassa reported on Twitter.
“A close inspection of this bill does allow for the legalization of killing of innocent newborn children up to the age of 28 days,” Huang told the committee. “A yes vote is an unequivocal and complete approval of a legalized killing of a newborn baby, and with all of my heart I oppose AB2223 and urge you to vote no.”
Huang and hundreds of other Californians showed up at the state Capitol on Tuesday to urged lawmakers to reject the radical anti-life bill. However, the Democrat-controlled committee passed the bill anyway in an 11-3 vote.
Sponsored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, the legislation is meant to prevent people from being prosecuted for abortions, but pro-life leaders warn that it could stop people from being punished for killing newborns as well.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the California Assembly to urge opposition to the bill.
Susan Arnall, vice president of legal affairs for the Right to Life League, told the committee the bill would allow people who abuse and kill newborns to get away with their crimes.
“A mother, her boyfriend or, for that matter, the babysitter, can starve or beat or shake a three-week-old baby to death and no one can investigate because under (the bill) it is a ‘perinatal death,’” Arnall said.
Wicks’ legislation, which has the support of Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups, would prohibit authorities from charging a mother for “actions or omissions” related to her pregnancy, “including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.” Anyone who “aids or assists a pregnant person” also would be exempt from prosecution. Additionally, the bill would allow the woman to sue police and other authorities who arrest or charge her in such cases.
The problem is the “perinatal death” language in the bill. According to the California Family Council and others, this would exempt mothers who kill their newborn babies from prosecution. The definitions of “perinatal” vary, but they all include newborn babies within the first week and potentially up to the first month of life outside the womb.
Even an Assembly Judiciary Committee analysis of the bill warned that the vagueness of “perinatal death” language could be misinterpreted to allow infanticide.
“As currently in print, it may not be sufficiently clear that ‘perinatal death’ is intended to be the consequence of a pregnancy complication,” the legislative analysis states. “Thus, the bill could be interpreted to immunize a pregnant person from all criminal penalties for all pregnancy outcomes, including the death of a newborn for any reason during the ‘perinatal’ period after birth, including a cause of death which is not attributable to pregnancy complications …”
The analysis states that legalizing infanticide is “clearly not the author’s intent,” and Wicks did amend her bill in response to the outrage. However, her amendment still may not be sufficient to protect newborns from infanticide.
Her amendment added the phrase “due to a pregnancy-related cause” (rather than a “pregnancy complication”) after “perinatal death,” and it is possible that an abortion could be considered a pregnancy-related cause. So, if a viable, late-term baby is born alive in an abortion and left to die, the bill potentially could exempt the mother and anyone who assists her from prosecution, thus allowing infanticide.
Democrats control the California Legislature by a strong majority, and AB 2223 is one of eight bills that the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California identified as a legislative priority this year.
The California Future of Abortion Council, a coalition that Gov. Gavin Newsom established last year, also supports the bill.
In an email, the Capitol Resource Institute encouraged pro-life Californians to contact lawmakers and urge them to vote against the bill.
“This is quite literally a matter of life and death,” the pro-life organization wrote. “This egregious bill would legalize the murder of newborn babies, so it is imperative that we use this opportunity to unite with one voice and to demand that this bill be rejected.”
ACTION ALERT: Contact the California Assembly to urge opposition to the bill.
