On Monday evening, Senate Democrats blocked their Republican counterparts from protecting infants born alive after botched abortion procedures. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which is sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), failed to pass the Senate with a vote of 53-44, seven votes shy of the required 60.
Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would mandate doctors attempt to save born-alive infants instead of allowing them to die.
The bill amends the criminal code 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.”
“If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States, and entitled to all the protections of such laws,” reads the legislation, adding: “Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care.”
Only three Democrats voted for the bill: Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), reported National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis.
DeSanctis noted: “All six of the Democratic senators currently running for the 2020 presidential nomination voted against the bill: Cory Booker (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), along with Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, representing Alaska, declined to vote on the bill. According to DeSanctis, Republican senators Tim Scott (SC) and Kevin Cramer (ND) did not vote on the bill due to flight delays, per their communications directors.
The bill also states that anyone who “intentionally performs or attempts to perform an overt act that kills a child born alive” is subject to criminal prosecution for murder.
“I want to ask each and every one of my colleagues whether we’re okay with infanticide,” said Sen. Sasse of the legislation. “This language is blunt. I recognize that and it’s too blunt for many people in this body. But frankly, that is what we’re talking about here today. Infanticide is what the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is actually about.”
“Are we a country that protects babies that are alive, born outside the womb after having survived a botched abortion?” he continued. “That is what this is about. Are we a country that says it’s okay to actively allow that baby to die — which is the current position of federal law? That’s the question before us, plain and simple.”
Sasse added, “Deep down, each of us knows that every member of our human family ought to be protected, and deserves to be cherished and loved. The love we see every day in the eyes of moms and dads for their newborn babies is an inescapable reminder of that fundamental truth. Love is stronger than power.”
After the bill failed, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was an original sponsor of the bill, blasted Democrats, saying it was “unconscionable” that “protecting innocent, newborn abortion survivors is now a partisan issue. Every infant that is born alive despite a botched abortion deserves the same proper medical care and treatment that doctors are required to give to other newborns.” He added that the vote “made it crystal clear” that Democrats “support the legalization of infanticide” and “openly embraced the growing extremism” in the Democratic Party.
The past few months have highlighted the Democrats’ abortion radicalism. As previously reported by The Daily Wire, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Catholic Democrat, recently signed and celebrated the passing of the euphemistically-named Reproductive Health Act, which legalizes abortion up to the moment of birth, loosens restrictions on who can perform abortions, and strips the murder of the unborn (including the murder of wanted babies) from the state’s criminal code.