Colorado Senators Reject ‘Born Alive’ Abortion Bill

An pro-life activist holds a model of an unborn baby in a file photo. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Colorado senators on Feb. 11 rejected a bill that would penalize abortion providers who don’t give “appropriate medical treatment” for babies that survive an abortion.

The legislation, House Bill 1068—known as the Born Alive Child Physician Relationship Act—required abortion providers 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 physician would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”

The legislation, which was rejected along party lines by Colorado Democrats, also made it mandatory for a child who survives abortion to be immediately transported to a hospital. If physicians failed to comply, they would be hit with a $100,000 penalty, constituting “a class 3 felony that could come to bear as ‘unprofessional conduct’ on a medical license,” reported Colorado Politics.

“Colorado’s legislative hearings on late-term abortion show just how extreme and entrenched the pro-abortion lobby has become,” Katie Glenn, an attorney with Americans United for Life, told Fox News.

The bill’s co-sponsor, State Rep. Shane Sandridge (R-Colo.), described the legislation as “a murder bill.”

“We must look at ourselves and decide what kind of a society we are,” he said in a statement, according to The Washington Times.

Lizzy Hinkley, ACLU of Colorado reproductive rights policy counsel, said bills such as House Bill 1068 are “political props to further stigmatize abortion.”

“Fact check: Bills like #HB1068 (the so-called born alive bill) aren’t necessary. If such a thing was happening in CO—and it isn’t—our criminal laws have it covered. This is another attempt to demean and demonize abortion providers,” she wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, said that babies who survive an abortion are “helpless children in need of medical care.”

“We’re refusing to mandate that care,” he said, noting that 270 born-alive babies after abortions have been documented on the the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.

“I’ve had people comment on this who are pro-choice, that this should be a no-brainer,” said  Hunt. “The child is outside the womb. If you listen to pro-choice advocates, they don’t believe life begins until the child has breath in its lungs. Well, here are children with breath in their lungs.”

A separate pro-life bill, House Bill 1098, which would outlaw abortions past 22-weeks gestation, was also defeated along party lines by votes of 6-3 in the House State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

“Both of these bills had support from Coloradans across all political spectrums and neither received a fair hearing in the ‘Kill’ Committee,” said Colorado House Republicans. “We will always stand in defense of life. It is our duty to defend those who can’t defend themselves,” the group wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Women and Children is collecting voter signatures for a proposed ballot in November to ban abortions at 22 weeks in the state. The proposal on what proponents call late-term abortions would make it illegal for anyone to perform an abortion when a fetus is at 22 weeks of gestation or after.

It would allow abortions after that time if a pregnant woman’s physical health is endangered.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.