(Liberty Counsel) A day after the U.S. Senate failed to advance its own “Born-Alive” bill, the 119th U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill today which mandates life-saving measures for babies that are born alive after an attempted abortion.
H.R. 21, the pro-life measure known as the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” (Born-Alive Act), was sponsored by Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO) and passed largely along party lines by a vote of 217-204. The bill is nearly identical to another bill (H.R. 26) of the same title passed by the 118th Congress in January 2023, which had failed to advance in the previous Democrat-controlled Senate. Then yesterday, the new Republican-controlled Senate failed to advance its own “Born-Alive” bill, S. 6, by falling short of a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes, which were needed to end debate and get the bill to a floor vote. The cloture vote failed 52-47 with all Democrat senators voting against it. For now, the Senate’s bill is stalled but remains on the calendar and can be brought up again for another cloture vote in the future if the Republican majority believes they can secure enough votes for it to pass. S. 6 would need to pass in the Senate before President Donald Trump can sign these born alive protections into law.
The timing of these votes this week coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the now overturned Roe v Wade abortion decision, the National Sanctity of Human Life Day on January 22, and the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.
As for H.R 21, the legislation would require an infant born alive after an attempted abortion be considered “a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States” and that medical professionals treat any baby born under these circumstances with the same degree of care as any newborn, including transport to a hospital.
The bill states, “Any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age; and following the exercise of skill, care, and diligence required under subparagraph, ensure that the child born alive is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.”
READ: Pro-abortion senators block bill to give health care for to babies who survive abortions
H.R. 21 also adds penalties for those who fail to provide the proper degree of care to abortion-surviving babies, such as fines and/or imprisonment for up to five years.
Currently, it is up to the states to protect born-alive infants, but as it stands now at least 15 statesdo not have codified protections for abortion-surviving infants or do not actively prevent babies from dying after an abortion attempt. While a 2002 federal law states that infants who are born alive after a failed abortion are “full persons” under the law, it does not require health care practitioners to give those babies medical care. The laws in some states allow unregulated abortion throughout pregnancy, and in others, laws either indirectly permit abortions after birth or the authorities just passively allow it. For instance, Minnesota’s Department of Health reports that there were at least six abortions in the ninth month and that 19 babies were born alive and left to die between 2015 and 2021. According to a September 2024 report from the Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, the 277 known cases of babies being born alive during an abortion since 2006 involved states which are required by law to report such cases.
The born-alive protection map from the Family Research Council shows that Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont all have conditions where infanticide could be passively permitted.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The U.S House has once again taken the right step to protect these precious lives. Now that the Born-Alive Act passed in the House, we must continue to press for the passage of this bill in the U.S. Senate to end infanticide. Those who vote against the Born-Alive Act must defend their position to allow infanticide. Anyone who supports infanticide has no business being in office. We cannot ignore the fact that babies are being born alive and are being left to die. If this protection is not implemented, in many states an abortion provider can simply back away from the table and leave the baby to suffer and die. We must continue to fight for the preborn and newborn and restore a culture of life in this nation. We must make the womb a safe place once again in America.”
Editor’s Note: This press release was published at Liberty Counsel and is reprinted here with permission.
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:
Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
