U.S. Representative Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) has filed a discharge petition that would force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the floor for a vote.
Life News reports that a discharge petition allows members of Congress to move legislation from committee to the House floor for a vote when the majority party is refusing to allow a vote on the bill. The petition requires 218 signatures from House members, which means five Democrats would have to join the 213 Republicans currently holding House seats, all of whom are expected to sign the petition.
“The right to life is the most sacred, inalienable human right afforded to us in the United States,” Cammack said. “I urge my colleagues to stand up for what is right in putting an end to the dangerous, immoral abortion practices that take place daily in our country, and I look forward to working with Republicans in Congress and everyone who stands for life in moving this bill forward toward a floor vote this Congress.”
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would require doctors to provide babies born after failed abortions with life-sustaining medical care and punishes doctors who fail to do that. Republicans have tried passing the bill for years, but Democrats have blocked a vote on the legislation approximately 80 times, in spite of overwhelming support from Americans, according to national polling.
The Family Research Council noted that at least 36 states currently have some form of protection for babies born alive from botched abortions, but only 18 have the strong protections found in the federal Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
“I will not stop working until this legislation becomes law, so newborns have a chance at life when they are at their most vulnerable,” said U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who introduced the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. “For too long, Nancy Pelosi has blocked my commonsense legislation that protects the innocent lives of children born alive. We must take a stand and tell her the American people want the Born-Alive Act passed and signed into law.”
Democrats and pro-abortion advocates opposed to the bill claim it is unnecessary. “It really is an inflammatory misrepresentation of medical care,” said Laura Goodhue, the executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.
“There’s already laws and also ethical standards of medical providers who provide standards of care and so it’s already illegal,” said Goodhue. “And it’s really not an accurate representation that is provided to people who are often in really difficult situations.”
But both statistics and personal testimonies prove otherwise.
Though Congress did pass the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002, that law served merely to change the definition of infants who survive abortions so that they are classified as full persons under the law. The law has not been used to prosecute abortionists responsible for the deaths of infants who survived abortions but were left to die.
During a February 2020 congressional hearing entitled “The Infant Patient: Ensuring Appropriate Medical Care for Children Born Alive,” for example, Family Research Council staffer Patricia Mosley told the Senate that existing law is failing to protect babies born alive during botched abortions. “There have been no cases involving prosecutions under the [2002] Born-Alive Infants Protection Act that we know of. Why? Because there is currently no federal criminal statute specifically prohibiting taking the lives of born-alive infants,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate at least 143 babies were born after failed abortions between 2003 and 2014, and admits the numbers could be significantly higher, particularly since most states do not require this data to be maintained.
Family Research Council’s Arina Grossu believes those numbers are significantly understated, noting “[Kermit] Gosnell is only one abortionist who was responsible for ‘hundreds of snippings’ of born-alive babies, yet he did not report even one.” She added, “His numbers alone exceed the ‘definitive’ numbers of the CDC.”
Sadly, Gosnell is not the only abortionist guilty of committing atrocities against infants born alive after failed abortions. Houston-area abortionist Douglas Karpen’s actions were just as gruesome, according to statements from his former employees.
The American Center for Law and Justice believes the number could be as high as 362 babies born alive between 2001 and 2010.
Family Research Council claims it tracked down at least 203 cases of infants surviving abortions from the nine states that require reporting on abortion survivors.
