On Tuesday, the United States Senate failed 57-41 to pass S.311, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) introduced the legislation. This bill would require healthcare practitioners to provide treatment for babies who survive failed or attempted abortions. Most Democrats voted against the bill, although Bob Casey (D-PA), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined the Republicans in supporting it.
Not surprisingly, Democrats are misrepresenting this bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed that the current bill is “a play to the hard-right base”. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that the bill was misleading, as infanticide is already illegal. Kaine mentioned that he supported the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and that the current bill was unnecessary. While it is in fact illegal to murder born-alive infants, federal law does not prohibit denying medical care to them. Schumer is incorrect in saying ‘the hard-right’ supports this type of legislation. When asked about removing healthcare for a viable child after it is born, 64.3% of Americans strongly oppose it and 18.3% somewhat oppose it. Schumer and the Democrats are in fact playing to their ‘hard left’ base by taking a radical stance on the Born-Alive Act. Senator Ben Sasse refuted Democratic mischaracterizations of the bill:
“There’s nothing in the bill that’s about abortion. Nothing. It’s about infanticide. That’s the actual legislation … We’re talking about killing babies that are born. That’s the actual legislation we’re voting on today in the Senate. That’s what the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is. Is it okay in the eyes of the United States Senate for us to say, ‘Well, you can’t actively kill the little baby? You can’t take a pillow and put it over her face and smother her to death, but you can back away and kill her that way.'”
Media outlets are also misrepresenting the bill. Vice News published an article last week inaccurately portraying the bill. The writer claimed that babies almost never survive after failed abortion attempts. However, states do not report all abortion data to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so there are likely cases we do not know about. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said: “This is life or death information, yet most states don’t collect it. Our bill would require states to report accurate and complete data about abortion, including instances where babies are born alive during abortions.” The website Insider characterized the Born-Alive Bill as an anti-abortion law based on junk science. It claimed there was “zero chance of survival” for an aborted fetus before 20 weeks. It also made the bill seem like it was meant to restrict and punish abortion doctors. However, this law does not restrict abortion but is only meant to protect infants after they are outside of the mother. Leftists cannot use the “my body, my choice” argument here.
