Dems refusing to support vote on bill that would save born-alive babies
(Life News) Every single Republican member of the House of Representatives has now signed a petition demanding that Nancy Pelosi allow a vote on a pro-life bill to stop infanticide.
Congressman Jake Ellzey was just elected in a special election in Texas and the lawmaker added his name to the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act discharge petition today. In so doing, he raised to 213 the number of House Members who have joined forces to attempt to bring this anti-infanticide measure to the House floor for a vote.
And his signature means every Republican, including the moderate Republicans who have irked conservatives on other issues, have signed. But Democrats are refusing to support a vote on a bill that would merely make sure babies who survive abortions received appropriate medical care and treatment.
As one pro-life advocate tells LifeNews, if just 5 brave Democrats would stand up and take on Pelosi, the petition would reach its goal of 218 signatures and the Born Alive bill would get a vote on the House floor.
“We commend Representative Jake Ellzey (TX-06) for swiftly adding his name to the petition demanding a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, long-overdue legislation that simply ensures vulnerable babies born alive after failed abortions receive the medical care they deserve,” said SBA List Communications Associate Prudence Robertson.
“Pro-abortion Democrats led by Speaker Pelosi refuse to support these urgently-needed protections – and in the years they’ve spent blocking the bill, dozens of babies across the handful of states that report such data have been born alive, with little or no indication of whether they received care or were left to die,” she said. ” If just five courageous Democrats would buck their party’s extremism and back a vote, it would be a significant step toward humanizing our laws and stopping infanticide in America.”
Why is the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act even needed? Pro-abortion Democrats insist the 2002 Born-Alive Infant Protection Act suffices. But it doesn’t. There is no enforcement provision, which means there is no federal law criminalizing the actions of abortionists who deny care to babies who survive abortions.
Two years ago, Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats blocked a vote on a bill to stop infanticide 77 times and she still refuses to allow a vote. A discharge petition is a petition any member of Congress can sign to allow legislation to move out of committee and to the House floor when the party controlling Congress refuses to allow a vote on it.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise said this should be the easiest bill for Congress to approve.
“This a bill that many wonder why is it even necessary that we need a law to say that if a baby is born alive outside of the womb we need to give it the full protections under law? Many people ask why is it that they aren’t already protected?” Scalise said.
“If a baby is born alive, it should have the full protections of anybody else. Yet as we see in states like New York and other states around the country they allow in those states the baby, even after it’s born alive, to be killed. To me that’s murder,” he added.
A recent report by Tessa Longbons, a research associate at Charlotte Lozier Institute, SBA List’s research arm, shows that protections for babies who survive abortions are inconsistent across the United States, with fewer than half of states maintaining sufficient protections.
The blocking of a vote on a bill to stop infanticide comes even as national polling shows Americans — including people who are “pro-choice” on abortion — oppose abortion up to birth and infanticide. And doctors indicate abortions are never needed to protect a woman’s health and women admit having abortions on healthy babies.
And a new poll finds a massive 17 percent shift in the pro-life direction after Democrats have pushed abortions up to birth and infanticide nationally.
