The discharge petition for the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will be filed by Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) during that day’s first vote series. Members of the House will be confronted with this question: Do we let babies who survive abortions lie there and die, or do we provide life-saving care to them?
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — would ensure that care is provided to infants born alive, establish reasonable protections for them and prosecute those who abdicate their responsibility to care for these helpless newborns. This is not about a woman’s choice or her body. It is about protecting someone who has clearly become the patient.
{mosads}Abortion-rights activists have long accused the pro-life community of not caring about the child after they are born. This has never been true, and over 2,000 pregnancy resource centers that have served over 2 million families around the country prove that. Yet, with an opportunity to care for a child who has survived an abortion, these activists would rather destine the child for death than provide it with reasonable medical care.
When a Virginia delegate attempted to pass a New York-style law that would allow abortions up until the day of birth, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam not only supported the bill but appeared to endorse infanticide, stating:
If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother, he said.
Since when did abortion clinics become hospices?
Northam’s appalling support for letting babies born alive die on the delivery table seems to have grown into an epidemic that has infected the entire Democratic Party.
In the past two months, Democrats have blocked the anti-infanticide bill in the House more than 20 times and twice in the Senate, and every Democratic senator running for president has voted to block the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
The bright line between right and wrong was crossed over 45 years ago when the Supreme Court created a right for the taking of innocent life in the womb. Today we see just how far that logic will take politicians who hold to it. Yet as much as these politicians are committed to death, we will be just as committed to Life.
The discharge petition strategy at work in the House — which will obtain a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act — requires at least 218 signatures to force a vote on a bill. With Republicans in the minority, 21 Democrats are needed to sign on.
For those 21 House Democrats who may feel a sense of duty to stand with their Party, I offer this word of comfort: Fear not. To vote for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will not turn you into a Republican or even a pro-lifer, just someone whose conscience has not been fully seared.
A vast majority of Americans and likely voters have already expressed that they do not support withholding medical care from babies born alive. Even 77 percent of those who identify as pro-choice think it is not okay to remove medical care from a viable child.
For some reason, Democrats still aren’t getting the message. Maybe we need to speak a little more tangibly. On the day of a baby’s birth, they should be met with a blanket and a small thermal hat with blue and pink stripes. Yet that is not the case for those babies deprived such protection by every politician voting against this bill.
Perhaps sending a small baby hat is needed to remind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) what an innocent child should be receiving on the day of her birth. You can advocate for their lives in this way through our “End Birth Day Abortion” campaign. The goal of this campaign is to send as many baby hats as we can to Speaker Pelosi as a reminder that a baby deserves warmth, not death.
We’ve got to be clear on where we stand on this as a country.
Patrina Mosley serves as the director of Life, Culture and Women’s Advocacy at the Family Research Council.