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Fighting for Babies Who Survive Abortions: House Democratic Leadership Won't Let Born-Alive Protection Act Come to a Vote

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CAPITOL HILL--Withholding medical care for a baby who survived a botched abortion – 77 percent of Americans oppose that. 70 percent of Democrats oppose it.    And yet the Democrats who head up the US House of Representatives have refused 80 times to let a Born-Alive Protection Act come to a vote.

Several members of Congress held a hearing Tuesday to highlight the need to protect these abortion survivors.  A number of witnesses decried this modern-day infanticide and the House leadership’s unwillingness to stop it.

‘All Babies are Still People’

Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life stated, “Babies are born alive after some abortions.   And if we can’t protect even the babies who are born alive, then we know that the so-called right to choose for abortion has gone completely out of control.  Now it’s talking about outside the womb, not just inside the womb.”

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said, “There are babies who’ve survived abortions.   Many different cases.  We’ve had witnesses talk about it.  So to have medical professionals testifying that it's happening.   That there are states, including New York, that ushered in a law that allowed the baby to be killed after it’s born alive because you don’t have federal protection.”

Neonatologist Dr. Robin Pierucci told CBN News before the hearing, “All babies –  whether they are wanted, whether they are premature, whether they have a congenital anomaly  --  are still people.  And all of them need to be treated with the same standard of care.”

The Object is to Have a Dead Baby

Former abortionist Kathi Aultman, now a pro-life advocate, explained the mindset of those who let these abortion-survivors die.

"Because the object of the abortion was to have a dead baby, not really to end the pregnancy," Aultman explained.  "They can be sued.  That baby can sue them later because of defects from the procedure. They may not do well because they're premature and are going to have problems."  

"The parents could sue," she continued. "They have every reason to get rid of the baby rather than allow that baby to live."

Former nurse Jill Stanek found out first-hand at her hospital abortion-workers were taking babies from botched abortions off to die.

"One night a nursing co-worker was taking a little abortion survivor to the soiled utility room," she recalled. "And when she told me what she was doing, I couldn't bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone. So I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived."

'Lost the Moral Conscience of Our Society’

Stanek then said, "That 45 minutes just instantly transformed me into a pro-life observer, into a pro-life activist for sure."

And Father Pavone said of this fight in the US House, "This is so important because if we don't get this right, then obviously we have lost the moral conscience of our society."

In one 11-year period, the Centers for Disease Control reported 143 babies surviving abortion attempts, and the number is likely far higher because so few of these incidents are reported. If a Born-Alive Protection Act should pass, an abortionist who deliberately kills one of these babies could face a murder charge.

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About The Author

Paul
Strand

As a freelance reporter for CBN's Jerusalem bureau and during 27 years as senior correspondent in CBN's Washington bureau, Paul Strand has covered a variety of political and social issues, with an emphasis on defense, justice, government, and God’s providential involvement in our world. Strand began his tenure at CBN News in 1985 as an evening assignment editor in Washington, D.C. After a year, he worked with CBN Radio News for three years, returning to the television newsroom to accept a position as a senior editor in 1990. Strand moved back to the nation's capital in 1995 and then to