Report: 19 states don’t protect babies that accidentally survive abortions

According to Americans United for Life (AUL), 31 states have some form of legal protection for babies born alive in abortions. Four of those states (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wyoming) only require care for born-alive infants if the child is past the age of viability. 19 states do not require abortionists to provide any care to babies born alive in attempted abortions.

United States Representative Ann Wagner (R-Missouri) recently introduced the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in Congress. House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who originally co-sponsored the bill, will introduce a resolution allowing for floor consideration of Wagner’s bill.

In a press release, Scalise said, “Innocent life must be defended and protected at every stage, and that includes babies born alive during an abortion.” He added, “We must immediately extend legal protections to these vulnerable newborns and prosecute any doctor who would leave them to die.”

Scalise criticized the pro-abortion politicians who have refused to support protections for born-alive infants. He said, “The silence from Congressional Democrats is deafening and shameful.” He explained, “Every Member of Congress, regardless of party, needs to go on record against infanticide, and we must immediately take action to stop it. The American people deserve to know where their representatives stand on this critical issue.”

READ: These women survived late-term abortions, and we should listen to them

Wagner said, “To my colleagues, this is the simplest vote you will ever take: either you support babies being killed after they are born or you don’t. It is time to go on the record and make clear if you think babies born alive deserve medical care, or if you think they should be left to die.”

The bill introduced by Wagner would expand the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act of 2002, which passed with a unanimous in the Senate and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The 2002 law defines every baby who has been born, even in a botched abortion, as a “person,” a “human being,” a “child,” and an “individual” in federal law.

These protections in federal law have not been enforceable. As Mark Hodge of LifeSite News explains, “However, since the original Born-Alive Bill became law, undercover investigations have revealed how abortionists violate it by letting babies “expire” or by not giving them legally-mandated life-saving care when they survive a late-term abortion.”

Data shows that babies are still being born alive in attempted abortions. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that at least 143 babies died in the United States after abortions between 2003 and 2014 — and that figure, they say, is possibly even higher. While working as a labor and delivery nurse in Illinois, Jill Stanek witnessed babies born alive in abortions and left to die, sometimes lingering for hours.

HT: Alexandra DeSanctis at National Review for AUL document

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