On Thursday, speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NB) threw down the gauntlet to his 99 fellow senators, informing them, “On Monday, I’m going to ask all 100 senators to come to the floor and be against infanticide. This shouldn’t be complicated.”
As Alexandra DeSanctis reports at National Review, Sasse “announced that he is starting a dual-track process for the Senate to consider his legislation, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, in light of Virginia governor Ralph Northam’s recent comments about late-term abortion legislation in his state. Sasse is using the Rule 14 process to expedite consideration of the bill, as well as calling for a vote to pass the bill under unanimous consent on the Senate floor next week.”
Sasse quoted the incendiary comments made this week by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who intimated that even if a baby is born alive, a mother in his state could still opt to let the baby die. Sasse pointed out that Northam, despite huge outrage precipitated by his remarks, doubled down on Thursday.
As The Daily Wire reported, when Northam was asked whether he regretted what he had said or the way he said it, Northam answered, “No, I don’t. And you know, um, Allen I appreciate the question, I’m a physician, uh, I’m also the governor. Um, but when I’m asked questions a lot of times it is put into context of being a physician. Uh, again, realizing, you know, how we, uh, approach, how we manage patients, we offer advice and counseling. So no, I don’t have any regrets.”
Northam added, “But I, I do find uh, you know that how, uh, my comments, uh, I, I did answer that question. I, I regret that those comments mischaracterized. Uh, the personal uh, insults toward me I really find disgusting. So I, I again as I said in my comments earlier, you know we can agree to disagree, Allen. But let’s be civil about it.”
Sasse stated:
We’re talking about killing a baby that’s been born. We’re not talking about some euphemism, we’re not talking about a clump of cells. We’re talking about a little baby girl who’s been born and is on a table in a hospital or a medical facility and then a decision or a debate would be had about whether or not you could kill that little baby. We’re talking about the most vulnerable among us, and we have a public official in America out there again and again defending a practice. This is infanticide that we’re talking about.
DeSanctis notes that Sasse’s legislation would penalize physicians who wouldn’t offer care to infants born alive in botched abortions. She adds, “It is likely to face Democratic opposition. The House voted on a nearly identical bill in January 2018, and all but five Democratic representatives opposed the legislation.”
After Northam made his initial comments, Sasse blistered him, snapping, “This is morally repugnant. In just a few years, pro-abortion zealots went from ‘safe, legal, and rare’ to ‘keep the newborns comfortable while the doctor debates infanticide.’ I don’t care what party you’re from — if you can’t say that it’s wrong to leave babies to die after birth, get the hell out of public office.”