Huffington Post reports on the latest House atrocity:
House Republicans are set to vote on a pair of abortion bills this week, just a few months after their disappointing performance in the 2022 midterm elections that even some top Republicans like former President Donald Trump attributed to extreme abortion policies.
[…]
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would require physicians to provide life-sustaining care to infants born after an attempted abortion and threatens doctors with criminal penalties if they don’t comply. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) reintroduced the legislation earlier this week, along with original Republican co-sponsors Reps. Steve Scalise (La.) and Kat Cammack (Fla.).
“All children should have the right to receive life saving care, especially those who survive an abortion,” Wagner said in a Monday statement.
“The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will provide common sense protections for innocent children and their mothers and will ensure all babies receive the essential care they need at an incredibly vulnerable moment. It pains me that this fight has to be fought at all, but medical care for babies should not be a partisan issue.”
But similar to other anti-choice legislation, the bill is chock-full of misinformation and creates more barriers to care. Reproductive rights advocates and physicians critical of the bill argue that it’s nearly impossible for infants to be born alive during abortions later in pregnancy. Bills like this are also redundant: Murder is already illegal in the U.S. If that’s not enough, the rights of an infant or newborn are already protected by a 2002 law that codified that infants have the same rights as any other human.
These bills promote inaccurate ideas about why people get abortions later in pregnancy. The majority of abortions performed later in pregnancy are medically necessary to save the life of the pregnant person or necessary because of a fatal fetal abnormality; they’re not elective.
This legislation could take away a pregnant person’s power to decide what medical interventions they want to receive during an already-emotional time, possibly forcing physicians to prolong an infant’s life for a short period of time before it dies. In certain cases, this could take away parents’ opportunities to hold their infants.
Anti-choice advocates and lawmakers have attempted to pass “born alive” bills on the state and federal levels for years. Most recently, a “born alive” ballot initiative failed in Montana during the midterm elections in November. If Wagner’s bill becomes law, it would be more restrictive than other anti-choice bills on the books in 32 states, according to the Family Research Council, an anti-abortion group that supports the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
The right just loves this ghoulish stuff where hey get to pontificate about “baby parts” and saving baby “survivors.” It thrills the anti abortion zealots and makes everyone else just cringe so it’s a potent political weapon.
It was a big liability for them in the last election but I guess they figure everyone will get used to abortion being illegal for millions of women by the next election so there’s no harm in giving their wingnuts what they want right now. I wonder. This issue feels like a new third rail.
Update: They did it.
The GOP-led House voted on Wednesday to pass a bill that would require health care providers to try to preserve the life of an infant in the rare case that a baby is born alive during or after an attempted abortion. The bill is not expected to be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but passage in the House serves as a messaging opportunity for the new Republican majority. The vote was 220 to 210.
Under the bill, health providers who fail to comply with the requirements for care could face fines or up to five years in prison.