In the first pro-life bill of the new GOP-led House, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act passed Wednesday in a party-line vote 220-210. Only one Democrat voted for the measure and a second voted “present,” The Hill reported. The story explained:
The bill, which House Republicans vowed to bring up even before they clinched the majority, would mandate that an infant born alive after an attempted abortion receives the same degree of care that any other child born prematurely would receive. The measure also requires that the infant is taken to a hospital. And it threatens providers who don’t comply with a fine or up to five years in prison.
During floor debate over the pro-life bill, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) made an incredible claim: The bill “endangers” infants, he said, because the infant must immediately be brought to the hospital.
The congressman, who was referring to a newborn child that had just survived an abortion, framed the legislation as if it endangers a child.
“That is the problem with this bill,” he insisted. “It-it-it um, it directs and mandates certain medical care which may not be appropriate, which may endanger the life of the infant.”
In a similar denouncement of the bill, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) angrily complained the legislation requires taking the “struggling baby” to a hospital.
“That hospital,” she said during floor debate, “could be hours away and could be detrimental to the life of that baby.”
Among other pro-abortion arguments during debate, Michigan Congresswoman Rep. Hillary Scholten raised eyebrows when she cited a well-known Bible verse, Jeremiah 1:5. That famous passage refers to God telling the Old Testament prophet, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”
Scholten, a member of a Christian Reformed Church congregation, cited that verse to suggest she is a “pro-choice Christian” who believes in the “sanctity of life," a common pro-life term. She also opposes the “federal government” being involved in abortion, she said.
During the floor debate, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said Democrats who routinely say “trust the science” are rejecting the belief that a living baby deserves the legal right to live.
“Democrats who voted against this common-sense resolution are seriously lacking in any kind of moral compass or compassion,” Anne O’Connor, of the National Institute for Family and Life, said.
