Lawmakers in North Carolina are hoping to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the “Born Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act” in a June 5 vote scheduled in the state’s House.
Under the legislation, which was passed in April, healthcare practitioners would be required to provide life-saving care for newborns born alive during botched abortions. Those who fail to do so could face a felony and prison time, along with fines and civil damages, the Washington Times reports.
But while pro-life leaders view the bill as an invaluable protection for the unborn, Governor Cooper (D) contends the legislation is unnecessary. “Laws already protect newborn babies and this bill is an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients,” Cooper wrote in his veto message. “This needless legislation would criminalize doctors and other health care providers for a practice that simply does not exist.”
Cooper’s assertion is simply untrue, according to the North Carolina Values Coalition, however. Five states reported at least 25 children were born alive during attempted abortions in 2017, and while North Carolina does not maintain those sort of statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 140 infant deaths nationwide involved induced terminations from 2003 to 2014, the Times writes.
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This phenomenon occurs outside of the United States as well, Life News observes:
In 2018, for example, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reported 766 late-term, live-birth abortions over a five-year period. In Western Australia, at least 27 babies survived abortions between 1999 and 2016, according to the state’s health minister.
There is also video evidence that contradicts claims that “born-alive” legislation is needless. Live Action president Lila Rose issued a statement outlining this evidence:
Live Action has documented on camera how abortionists in our country’s notorious late-term abortion facilities talk about survivors of abortion. Washington, D.C. abortionist Cesare Santangelo told our undercover investigators that he would make sure babies “do not survive” if they were born alive at his facility. A New York abortion worker told our Live Action investigator to “flush” the baby down the toilet or “put it in a bag” if she’s born alive. In Arizona, an abortion worker told us there “may be movement” after the baby is outside of the mother and that they would refuse to provide help and instead let her die. Dr. DeShawn Taylor, former medical director for Planned Parenthood, told a Center for Medical Progress investigator that identifying “signs of life” after a baby survives an abortion is contingent upon “who’s in the room.”
North Carolina lawmakers even heard testimony from one of its own — state Representative Pat McElraft (R) — on the need for the Born Alive legislation during the House debate.
A phlebotomist, Representative McElraft recounted her own experiences of seeing newborns who survived abortions being left to die in the hospital. “I was on a break and went in to visit with the pathologist in the pathology lab and I asked him, I said, ‘What are all these little pigs doing in these buckets?’ He told me, ‘Pat, look again,’ and I did. They were perfectly formed little human babies in those buckets,” she said. McElraft also reported that she knew of a doctor at the hospital who drowned newborns who survived abortions, North Carolina Health News reported.
McElraft has released a statement encouraging her peers to support the veto override. “North Carolina’s leaders must take a stand together and say that we aren’t New York, we aren’t Virginia, we won’t allow or try to let a living, breathing child that is born alive be left to die on their own without any care in our state,” she said.
Life News reports that in order for the North Carolina House to override Cooper’s veto, the vote needs to have a three-fifths majority vote, which can only be achieved if some Democrats vote with Republicans since the Republican majority is just 65-55, or if some Democrats are simply absent when the vote is taken. It’s unclear whether there are enough votes in the House to override the veto, though Moore reportedly wrote in an e-mail that the bill’s sponsors believe they “secured the votes for their best case scenario.”
North Carolina’s Senate has already voted to override Governor Cooper’s veto on April 30 in a 30-20 vote.
Research by Americans United for Life found 19 states do not currently have laws requiring medical care for babies born alive after failed abortions. While some states never had laws prohibiting infanticide of babies who survive abortions, New York recently repealed its law requiring basic medical care for abortion survivors.
Photo: Melissa pisani / iStock / Getty Images Plus
