Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and all other Senate Democrats blocked the ‘Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act’ from advancing in the chamber on Wednesday.
The measure would require health care practitioners to seek to save the life of a baby born during an attempted abortion, and ensure that the infant is hospitalized.
‘I’ve always stood on the side of Roe and a woman’s right to make her own health care choices. It’s absurd to mandate criminalization because of those choices. Any bill that does so, including the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, is a NO from me,’ Fetterman declared in a post on X.
In a 52-47 party-line vote, 52 Republicans voted to proceed, while 45 Democrats and the two independent senators aligned with the Senate Democratic Caucus voted to block the bill from moving toward a vote.
The text of the measure stipulates that healthcare providers present when a baby is born alive amid an attempted abortion must ‘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’ and then ‘ensure that the child born alive is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.’
The measure explicitly precludes prosecution of the child’s mother.
‘The mother of a child born alive described under subsection (a) may not be prosecuted for a violation of this section, an attempt to violate this section, a conspiracy to violate this section, or an offense under section 3 or 4 of this title based on such a violation,’ the text of the legislation reads.
