U.S. House passes Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 4712, also known as the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, by a vote of 241-183. 235 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, along with six Democrats (Cartwright, Cuellar, Langevin, Lipinski, Peterson, and Walz). According to Congress.gov, this bill had 131 co-sponsors and “amends the federal criminal code to require any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to: (1) exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and (2) ensure that such child is immediately admitted to a hospital.”

Democrats in opposition to the bill, such as Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) — both of whom have received campaign funding from the abortion industry and who immediately demanded an end to the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which eventually resulted in several criminal referrals against various members of the abortion industry — rose and claimed that the bill was not necessary, and that the 2002 Born Alive Infants Protection Act already prohibits the killing of abortion survivors. But in the reading of the text of that Act (BAIPA), it lists few penalties, or “teeth,” so to speak, should an abortionist violate the Act.

Detractors also claimed that H.R. 4712 is a back-door attempt to somehow restrict ‘abortion rights.’ However, the text of the resolution does not restrict abortion. It reads:

The term “born alive” means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut.

Also, a health care practitioner or other employee who has knowledge of a failure to comply with these requirements must immediately report such failure to an appropriate law enforcement agency.

An individual who violates the provisions of this bill is subject to a criminal fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

An individual who commits an overt act that kills a child born alive is subject to criminal prosecution for murder.

The bill bars the criminal prosecution of a mother of a child born alive for conspiracy to violate these provisions, for being an accessory after the fact, or for concealment of felony.

A woman who undergoes an abortion or attempted abortion may file a civil action for damages against an individual who violates this bill.

Live Action’s 2013 InHuman investigation revealed that the abortion industry does not help abortion survivors, despite the Born Alive Infants Protection Act having been in place for over a decade. In the following video, Washington, D.C. abortionist Cesare Santangelo tells an undercover investigator that if her baby was accidentally born alive, he would not offer assistance to the child to help him or her survive:

Inhuman: Undercover in America's Late-Term Abortion Industry - Washington, D.C.

Clearly, a law that has few ‘teeth’ is an ineffective law, and the abortion industry’s friends in Congress and the media consistently shield the industry from accountability. The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act should now advance to the Senate for a vote.