Every Senate Democrat voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill meant to ensure that babies born alive during botched abortions receive life-saving care.  

During the Jan. 22 vote, every Republican present voted for the bill. One Republican was not present. Introduced by Senate Republicans John Thune of South Dakota and James Lankford of Oklahoma, the bill got a 52-47 affirmative vote to end debate but fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote.

The bill requires health care practitioners to provide children born alive during failed abortions the same care as babies born alive at the same gestational age. Practitioners must admit the child to a hospital immediately, and employees and health care workers present must report practitioners who do not follow these measures to authority. The measure protects mothers from criminal prosecution while allowing her to “bring a civil action against a health care practitioner or other employee for violations.”

The newest senators, Ashley Moody of Florida, who replaced Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Jon Husted of Ohio, who replaced Vice President J.D. Vance, voted for the measure.

On Jan. 11, 2023, the bill passed the House with a 220-210 vote, but due to Democrat resistance, the measure was delayed from advancing to the Senate floor.

Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, opened the Senate with a floor speech pleading for the bill’s passage.

“We are talking about a living, breathing person who comes into the world after a failed abortion,” Cassidy said before the vote. “They should not be cast aside. They deserve the care necessary to save their life. There is no difference in the value and dignity of a child regardless of if they are wanted or not … It is troubling that Democrats refuse to acknowledge that infanticide—withholding care to a baby who is born alive—is horrific and wrong.”

Lankford posted on X his response to the vote.

“I am disappointed that every Senate Democrat voted against my Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, making something that should be commonsense, completely partisan for the first time,” Lankford wrote. “This bill is straightforward and would save lives. I believe every life is valuable and that no one is disposable.”

Some Democrats even strongly advocated that removing the right to end a newborn baby’s life after a botched abortion is an extreme stance. 

Referring to the Trump-Vance administration and GOP, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York stated that “This is the first of many extreme issues they will bring up that are anti-women.”

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, criticized the effort, saying, “During the first week of Trump’s presidency, this is what Republicans are focused on?”

Thune explained why Senate Democrats consider the continuation of a newborn child’s heartbeat after a botched abortion to be unworthy of legal protection.

“They are afraid if they recognize the humanity of a living, breathing, born baby in an abortion clinic, they might end up pointing to the humanity of the unborn baby in the abortion clinic,” Thune said. “And so because there is nothing more important to Democrats than abortion, they will vote against legislation to provide appropriate medical care to babies born alive in an abortion clinic, just in case such a law ends up jeopardizing their cherished ‘right’ to an abortion.”

Photo: Alamy