Republicans Renew Efforts to Protect Babies Born After Failed Abortions

A pro-life activist holds a model fetus during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, 2020. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Republican lawmakers are reviving efforts to establish federal standards of care for babies born alive after failed abortions.

For years, Republicans have tried to pass legislation requiring medical professionals to provide equal care to abortion survivors as that required for other newborns.

While existing law establishes the legal personhood of all born-alive infants, there are no federal requirements concerning their care after birth. Democrats have blocked attempts to change that. Now, with control of Congress and the White House soon to follow, Republicans might have a chance at success.

“No child should be denied medical care simply because they are ‘unwanted,’” Sen. John Lankford (R-Okla.) said in announcing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on Jan. 16.

“Today, if an abortion procedure fails and a child is born alive, doctors can just ignore the crying baby on the table and watch them slowly die of neglect. That’s not an abortion, that’s infanticide.”

If passed, Lankford’s bill would ban the intentional killing of a newborn abortion survivor. Any health care practitioner present at the child’s birth would be required to provide it with the same level of life-preserving care as they would for any other infant of the same gestational age.

The bill also mandates the immediate transportation of a newborn abortion survivor to a hospital for medical care. Medical professionals or employees who violate or fail to report violations of the law would be subject to fines and a maximum of five years in prison. The baby’s mother would be barred from prosecution.

The measure is co-sponsored by 43 Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who described it as “a basic standard of decency” for which there is “no reason why it shouldn’t receive overwhelming bipartisan support.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a staunch advocate for abortion access, blocked the passage of a previous version of the bill in 2019, saying that federal law already prohibits infanticide.

Years later, in 2023, a similar bill was opposed by 210 House Democrats—all but Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who voted for the measure, and Rep. Vincente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who voted present.

The Republican majority nonetheless passed the bill, prompting Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to criticize the move “to push their extreme anti-choice agenda.”

“Democrats believe everyone deserves the freedom to access reproductive health services – without fear of violence, intimidation or harassment,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter, which is now X.

The pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also criticized the bill—which never received a vote in the Senate—as a “cruel and misguided attempt to interfere” in patients’ medical decisions.

“This reckless bill would impede families from making significant quality-of-life decisions, such as being able to provide comfort or spiritual care in tragic and painful situations,” Dr. Iffath Abbasi Hoskins, then the organization’s president, said at the time.

Pro-life groups, on the other hand, have praised efforts to protect the survivors of botched abortions.

“It is simply common sense and a basic humanitarian practice to allow a baby who survives an abortion and is born alive to be protected and receive medical care,” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Action, said in a Jan. 16 statement.

“We call on Congress to align our country’s law with the views of the large majority of Americans, who do not want to see living babies left to die untreated.”

The bill is expected to be voted on this month.