Washington, D.C. – Today the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4712, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by a vote of 241-183. This bill requires any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and to ensure that such child is immediately admitted to a hospital.
Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, issued the following statement:
“The House has passed commonsense reform that protects infants who are born alive after an attempted abortion. The bill requires appropriate medical care for any child who survives an attempted abortion, as well as establishes criminal penalties for health-care practitioners who violate this requirement. However, the mother of the child born alive may rightly not be prosecuted.
“This is not a restriction on abortion or a way to prosecute women who have abortions. This guarantees that if a child is born alive, he or she will receive the medical care that would otherwise occur if the child was born at that gestation under normal circumstances. This bill places sole responsibility on the medical provider to not simply let the child starve, suffocate, or die of other means, but to fulfill their oath of doing no harm.
“After the horrific Gosnell case and the Center for Medical Progress videos that show Planned Parenthood staff admitting that they perform abortions in specific ways that cause these children to be born alive for tissue procurement preferences, this reform is necessary.”