The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act failed to pass the Senate last night by a vote of 53-44. Sixty votes were needed for the bill to proceed. Only three Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans in favor of the legislation: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, and Doug Jones of Alabama. At least Jones is being consistent. During his Senate runoff campaign in 2017, he famously said on MSNBC that as soon as that baby's out of the womb, he'd be there for the child. How generous.
If you're keeping score – and you should be – three Republicans did not vote: Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Tim Scott of South Carolina. According to their teams, they both missed the vote due to a flight delay. Alaska's Lisa Murkowski also failed to vote. No surprise there.
The bill would have required that, when an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, health care practitioners must exercise the same degree of professional skill and care to protect the newborn as would be offered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age. It also would've required that the living child, after appropriate care has been given, be immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.
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If a healthcare provider failed to comply with those requirements they would face fines and up to five years imprisonment, or potentially murder charges if their actions lead to the born alive infant's death. The mother of the child that is born alive couldn't face prosecution under this legislation. She could, however, file a civil lawsuit against the healthcare provider for punitive damages.
Last month, New York repealed its protections for infants that survive abortions. But 33 other states still offer some level of protection for these babies.
Earlier this month Senator Sasse asked for unanimous consent to pass the legislation, but that request was blocked by Senator Patty Murray (Democrat-Washington). She claimed the legislation is unnecessary because infanticide is already illegal. Murray was the only Democratic senator to come to the Senate floor to object. After she blocked Senator Sasse's request for unanimous consent she tweeted:
Republicans scheduled a show vote on another bill attacking women's rights & health – which leading medical groups have said should never become law. Democrats will stand with women, doctors, nurses, & everyone who truly cares about women's health & rights & make sure it doesn't.
Who are these "leading medical groups" Senator Murray was talking about? Seventeen of them banded together to send a letter to U.S. senators. They included the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (which happens to be a campaign donor to Senator Murray), the American Public Health Association, Planned Parenthood, and the National Abortion Federation. Their letter called the bill:
…a dangerous government intrusion into private health care decisions… another restriction on women's access to reproductive health care… [this bill] injects politicians into the patient-provider relationship, disregarding providers' training and clinical judgment and undermining their ability to determine the best course of action with their patients… Every woman needs to be able to make the decision that is best for her and her family.
As Senator Sasse, and several other Republicans emphasized during the Senate floor debate yesterday, this bill couldn't be more straightforward. It is simply an attempt to save babies who survive abortions. It does not limit abortion rights in any way, nor does it punish doctors for performing abortions. These "medical" groups that Senator Murray referred to are implying things nowhere to be found in this bill. They're lying to spook senators into toeing the party line on abortion. The bill is simply saying, if you screw up your hit on a baby, and the baby survives, you better do everything in your power to save that life – just like you would for any other human. What's so controversial about that?
During the Senate debate yesterday, Chuck Schumer blatantly lied about the bill, saying it's "carefully crafted to target, intimidate, and shut down reproductive health care providers." Schumer added that the bill "would impose requirements on what type of care doctors must provide in certain circumstances." No, it really doesn't – it just requires a doctor to act like an actual doctor and do something to help a baby gasping for life on a tray. You wouldn't think a law would be necessary to show basic human decency. I guess Democrats think the Hippocratic Oath is optional when the circumstance involves abortion.
In a real sense, the bill would have simply forced abortion doctors to make sure they're good at abortions. You would think Democrats would be all about ensuring high-quality abortions.
Democrats and abortion-rights groups say this vote was just an effort by Republicans to score political points. They say it's just an anti-abortion effort in disguise. They say the scenario of a baby surviving an abortion almost never happens anyway. It's true that the scenario is rare, but it does happen – 588 times between 2003 and 2014 according to a CDC report.
So, what's going on here? Why are Democrats so enslaved to abortion rights activists?
Alexandra DeSanctis covers the abortion industry for National Review. This is from one of her recent reports:
Intact, deceased fetuses that are at the age of viability are so much more useful in medical research, that biotech firms offer much higher profits to abortion clinics for them, compared with what they pay for less-developed fetal parts. Most valuable to researchers – and thus most profitable to abortion clinics and biotech firms – are completely intact, late-gestation fetuses, followed closely by intact organs or tissue from these fetuses…
In the undercover videos that prompted the congressional investigation, Planned Parenthood medical directors admitted to not injecting fetuses with the fatal drug digoxin prior to abortion procedures because tissue untainted by feticidal agents is much more helpful to researchers and therefore worth more money.
As it turns out, one of the top campaign donors to dozens of Democratic women in Congress, is a political action committee called EMILY's List. This is a charming group that has been around for 34 years and exists solely to elect pro-abortion female Democrats. "EMILY" is an acronym that stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast", meaning that it makes the dough rise. The idea is that candidates receiving lots of donations early in a race helps them attract even more donors. During last year's congressional race, EMILY's List gave over $5 million to female Democrat candidates.
During the Born-Alive bill debate on the Senate floor yesterday, four Democratic women made speeches against the bill: Tina Smith (Minnesota), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), and Tammy Duckworth (Illinois). EMILY's List is the number one campaign donor to each of those women. Apparently you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
A vital line was drawn in the sand yesterday over a simple question – are we going to be a nation that values and defends innocent life?
A vital line was drawn in the sand yesterday over a simple question – are we going to be a nation that values and defends innocent life? Democrats leapt over that line, as a group, and in a cowardly fashion. They didn't even have the guts to admit what they were doing, instead blaming the bill for a phantom disregard for women's health. It's ludicrous. Mind-numbing. Pathetic. It's the Progressive philosophy coming home to roost.
Senator Ben Sasse closed his remarks yesterday saying, "love is stronger than power."
Democrats chose power.
