North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would have mandated care for babies who survive abortions.
Cooper said he thought the bill was unnecessary.
“Laws already protect newborn babies, and this bill is an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients,” Cooper said in a statement on April 18. “This needless legislation would criminalize doctors and other healthcare providers for a practice that simply does not exist.”
The legislation, dubbed the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” would have required doctors to give the same care to babies who survive abortion that they do to babies born regularly.
If doctors failed to do so, they would have faced criminal penalties under the bill, including fines of up to $250,000.
“If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of North Carolina and entitled to all the protections of such laws,” the bill stated. “Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care.”
Any doctors or nurses present when an abortion fails to terminate an unborn baby would have to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
North Carolina Republicans, who pushed the legislation through, noted that the bill was separate from limiting abortions even though opponents tried to term the bill “anti-abortion.”
Thrilled to say that #SB359 has passed the House. But remember those names in red, North Carolina, because they voted against protecting babies born alive after a botched abortion and requiring reporting of such atrocities. #Ncpol pic.twitter.com/lIw58cKTBC
— Caroline Craig (@CeeJayCraig) April 16, 2019
“This has nothing to do with limiting abortion in any way,” state Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Republican and the bill’s sponsor, said in floor debate on April 15 before the bill passed the Senate. “This bill changes nothing except how that born-alive infant is treated.”
Two state Democrats joined Republicans in the vote, with the final tally 28-19.
House lawmakers passed the bill 65-46 the next day, sending it to Cooper.
Efforts to pass similar legislation at a federal level have been repeatedly stymied by Democrats, who like Cooper argue that such a law is unnecessary.
Today the state House of Representatives approved legislation banning post-birth abortions of living, breathing children who are born alive in North Carolina with a bipartisan 65-46 vote. https://t.co/xiXXD3h4YX
— Speaker Tim Moore (@NCHouseSpeaker) April 16, 2019
The Born Alive Survivors Protection Act was voted down in the U.S. Senate in February by a vote of 53-44, with all Democratic presidential candidates who are also senators, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) voting against it.
In March, House Democrats nixed the born alive bill for the 20th time after Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) called for unanimous consent from the body.
According to The Epoch Times, Republicans last-ditch effort to save the bill failed in early April after a discharge petition, a rarely used measure, garnered only 198 signatures, 20 short of the number needed.
Only three House Democrats signed on—Reps. Ben McAdams (D-Utah), Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.).
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who was among the bill’s three Democratic co-sponsors, didn’t sign.
“I co-sponsored the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act because I believe that every life is worth fighting for,” Cuellar said in an emailed statement. “I support and will continue supporting legislation that takes steps to actively keep our children safe and healthy.”
