• Bill Bush

Is there anything we can agree on?

Last week the U.S. Senate voted not to move forward with the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by a vote of 56-41. Three Democrats voted for the bill as did all of the Republicans. The bill needed 60 votes to move forward so is dead for now.

I understand the great divide in our nation over abortion, but I don’t understand the mentality of someone who could vote against this bill. Maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe part of our division is that we don’t understand opposing positions.

Ex-Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg recently stated on at least three occasions that he doesn’t think there should be any legal restrictions on abortion. When asked about infanticide, he responded, “Does anyone really think that?” He went on to explain his abortion stance but didn’t address infanticide.

If his question was sincere, then the answer is yes. Many on the pro-life side are concerned at what we perceive to be at best a cavalier attitude toward, and at worst, political support and cover for infanticide.

To me, Buttigieg appeared dismissive. Why didn’t he just answer the question?

But this isn’t an attack piece against the pro-abortion side. In fact, I’m writing this for those who don’t understand how anyone could worry about infanticide in the United States of America in 2020. Let me explain.

The main reason I’ve heard for the vote against the recent bill is that the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 is already law. That bill passed the Senate unanimously. Basically, this law defines anyone born alive as a person, including an induced abortion resulting in a live birth.

At first glance, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act voted on last week sounds redundant. I read through both bills and noticed two differences included in the current version. First, the bill requires doctors to provide the same medical care for an abortion survivor that any other baby would receive. Secondly, the new proposed law would enact penalties against doctors who did not provide proper care.

Nowhere in the bill is the abortion procedure addressed, only the results of the failed abortions that gave birth to life.

I’m not saying the vote proves anything. What I’m saying is that it is a red flag for me. Here are some other red flags.

The Democratic Party Platform doesn’t address issues like infanticide and partial-birth abortion, In fact, the platform lists no restrictions on abortion rights, even though 80% of Americans believe that life begins prior to the 3rd trimester of a pregnancy.

There are hundreds, if not thousands (there’s no way to know exactly), of people living today who are abortion survivors.

Melissa Ohden survived a saline abortion in 1977 and was thrown into a trash can. Two nurses heard her gasping for breath and took her to a hospital. She’s now a social worker with a master’s degree and in 2012 started the Abortion Survivors Network.

Many former abortion nurses have testified about abortion survivors being left to die. One hospital reported 10-20% of abortion babies were born alive.

Kristan Hawkins, President of Students of Life for America, recently asked a Boston College student if abortionists should be required to provide health care for a baby born alive during an abortion procedure and she answered no, because they (the doctor and parents) had already determined that it’s not a baby.

I won’t rehash Virginia Governor Northam’s comments last year about deciding whether to provide care for a baby after it was born during an abortion attempt. What he described is exactly what many have testified against—a baby being left to die after a failed abortion, if that’s what the parents decided on.

Even the media has provided a concerning mentality that scares me. CNN last week described the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act as requiring “abortion providers to work to ‘preserve the life and health’ of a fetus that was born following an attempted abortion as they would for a newborn baby.” They called the baby born from an abortion a fetus and not a baby. They later amended the statement.

There have been a number of the born-alive bills in various states, and I’m not aware of any that were supported by prominent democrats.

I’m not saying that the Democrat Party is promoting infanticide. I am saying that the rejection of the bill last week raises further concern for pro-lifers that democrats are comfortable with pushing the legality of ending human life as far as they can.

When is the last time a prominent national democrat defined the moment when a person becomes a person with all of the legal and constitutional protections of his/her life that each of us receives? Sadly, I cannot recall one.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act gave democrats the opportunity to do just that, and only three of them signed on. If we can’t agree on a bill that effectively bans infanticide, how do we find any common ground on the abortion issue?

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