US House Passes Bill Protecting Babies Born-Alive

As hundreds of thousands of pro-life people prepare to march in the March for Life, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — legislation protecting babies who survive abortions.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 4712) passed 241-183. All Republicans voted for final passage, but only six Democrats voted in favor of it.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the bill was necessary to protect babies who are born alive after botched abortions.

He said, “This bill states simply that if a baby is born after a failed abortion attempt, he or she should be given the same medical care as a baby born any other way. In line with our longstanding commitment to empower women, mothers will never be held criminally accountable. However, doctors who fail to provide medical care to newborns will be held criminally accountable. There is absolutely no ambiguity here. This is about protecting babies who are born and alive, and nobody should be against that.”

The bill would amend existing U.S. law to “prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”

Health care practitioners present when a child is born alive during an abortion procedure are required, at the risk of fines and imprisonment, to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age” and “ensure that the child born alive is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.”

H.R. 4712 contains an explicit requirement that a baby born alive during an abortion must be afforded “the same degree” of care that would apply “to any other child born alive at the same gestational age,” including transportation to a hospital. This language does not dictate bona fide medical judgments nor require futile measures, but rather, requires that babies born alive during abortions are treated in the same manner as those who are spontaneously born prematurely.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise told LifeNews:

Here in Congress we must protect those who cannot protect themselves, and the House did just that today with the passage of the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act. Our bill protects babies who survive a botched abortion attempt by imposing criminal penalties on abortionists who intentionally harm, kill, or harvest body parts of these innocent lives. It’s unconscionable that as a country we would allow the the murder or harm of babies born alive, and those who disregard human life in that way should face the most serious consequences.

“I am proud that we passed this strong pro-life legislation on a day when hundreds of thousands of Americans from across the country came to our nation’s capital and stood up for those most vulnerable among us in the annual March for Life. There is nothing more honorable than fighting for the right to life, and my full support is with those who are marching today.”

Leading pro-life groups applauded the vote.

National Right to Life President Carol Tobias commented, “The 183 House Democrats who voted against the bill will need to try to explain why they voted against making it a crime to treat a born-alive human person as medical waste, as a source for organ harvesting, or as a creature who may be subjected to lethal violence with impunity.”

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