Florida Governor Ron DeSantis thanked The Daily Wire and reporter Mary Margaret Olohan for reporting centering on the remains of five preemie-sized babies killed through abortions in Washington, D.C.
DeSantis credited The Daily Wire and Olohan by name on Thursday during a signing ceremony for a bill banning abortions in Florida past the 15-week mark in a pregnancy.
“They are now taking the position that babies can be aborted up to the ninth month,” DeSantis said. “That is just fundamentally wrong. That is infanticide.”
“And you see how that type of mindset has led to things that really shock the conscience in our society. We just saw this terrible scandal in Washington, D.C.,” he continued before pointing to Olohan and crediting her reporting on abortionist Dr. Cesare Santangelo and the Washington Surgi-Clinic.
“They found all these remains of babies, and they found five who were basically infants, premature, but they would have been able to survive outside the womb,” DeSantis said. “Yet Washington, D.C., is treating that just like we would treat the trash from our lunch or something like that. It’s really horrifying to see that that could go on in our country, but particularly in our nation’s capital.
“That is callous, that is wrong, and I want to thank [Olohan] and Daily Wire for exposing it,” the governor said.
Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis for highlighting @realDailyWire’s reporting on the aborted babies uncovered in DC! pic.twitter.com/UzVTPiH7fg
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 14, 2022
Santangelo and the Washington Surgi-Clinic came under fire from pro-life voices early this month over what some said appeared to be the remains of illegally aborted babies. Santangelo received scrutiny after the pro-life group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) said it turned over the remains of five aborted babies to the D.C. police. The police so far have not launched any probe of Santangelo’s practice.
Santangelo suggested in 2012 that during an abortion on a late-term pregnancy, he would allow a baby born alive to die rather than rendering life-saving treatment. Undercover activists with the pro-life nonprofit Live Action caught Santangelo on camera explaining how he would handle a situation in which a baby to be aborted was born alive during the procedure. As The Daily Wire reported:
Santangelo nodded, saying, “You know, there are things you do. Obviously, you’re here for a certain procedure, and if your pregnancy were — let’s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination of the procedure here, you know.”
“Then we would do things, we would not help it. We wouldn’t intubate, let’s say,” he explained, noting that he “wouldn’t do any extra,” comparing letting the baby die to letting a terminal person die. “Like a ‘do not resuscitate’ order,” he added.
Santangelo noted that if the mother were in a hospital in Virginia and went into labor and medical professionals saw her deliver her baby, they would do everything to help her baby survive.
“But you won’t?” the mother questioned.
“We wouldn’t here,” he answered.
PAAU also alleged that the remains of aborted babies from Washington Surgi-Clinic were being shipped to a Baltimore waste facility, Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services, for incineration. The waste facility denied the allegation, saying that such an act would violate its company policy. The facility said in a statement that it does provide clients with “medical waste bags and boxes to use in a manner that complies with applicable law.”
Related: I Went To The Clinic Of The D.C. Abortionist Accused Of Gruesome Crimes. Here’s What I Saw.
Related: Under-Fire Abortionist In 2012: ‘We Would Not Help’ Baby Born Alive
Related: D.C.-Area Waste Facility Swears It Doesn’t Incinerate Fetal Remains Amid Discovery Of Aborted Babies