February 9, 2021

Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act Voted Down

In a roll call vote in the Senate last Thursday, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act failed to meet the 60 votes required to be passed as an amendment to the 2021 Budget Resolution.

All 50 Senate Republicans supported the amendment, along with Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA). All other Senate Democrats voted against the amendment. This meant that the final vote was 52-48, but a simple majority is not enough to pass legislation in the Senate.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires health care professionals to give the same degree of care to a child born during a failed abortion as they would to any other child born at the same gestational age. It further requires them to immediately transport the baby to a hospital.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), when arguing against the bill, referenced the infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell. He said that because Gosnell was convicted of three counts of murder in 2013 for killing newborn babies, current federal laws already address the issue of babies being killed after they survived abortions.

National Right to Life President Carol Tobias disagrees. “Senator Durbin’s comments regarding convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell were disingenuous,” she said. “Kermit Gosnell was discovered not because he was killing babies born alive but because law enforcement was conducting a raid on Gosnell who was suspected of selling prescriptions for narcotics.”

“This vote shows just how extreme the majority of Senate Democrats are,” said Tobias. “This bill is not about abortion but pro-abortion groups and their allies in the Senate have tried to make it about abortion.”

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