Senate fails to pass bill requiring medical care for infants following abortion attempts News
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Senate fails to pass bill requiring medical care for infants following abortion attempts

The US Senate on Monday blocked a bill that would have required health care to be provided to infants born alive following failed abortion attempts.

The procedural vote required 60 votes to proceed but received only 53, with the Senate split mainly along party lines. Democrat opposition to the bill emphasized the need for reduced Congressional meddling in abortion related decision-making, with Senator Tina Smith saying that “patients and doctors should make [these decisions] together without political interference.” Republicans chose to narrow their argument to the immediate care of infants following failed late-term abortions and framed their argument around infanticide.

The bill, which is sponsored by Senator Ben Sasse, is a follow-up to the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which defined the term “born alive infant” as a human who:

after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

The proposed bill would have imposed specific requirements on health care providers to provide “reasonably diligent and conscientious care” to infants born alive, including immediate transport and admittance to a hospital. The bill also would have introduced penalties for the health care providers, including fines, imprisonment and potential murder charges in the case of infant deaths.

The imposition of these punishments on health care providers would likely dissuade providers from offering safe abortion services, despite the rarity of born alive infants in late term abortions.

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