By Dave Andrusko
For the second time in two years, pro-life Republicans in North Carolina’s Senate have approved a bill that would mandate the provision of medical treatment to abortion survivors equal to that afforded any other baby born at a similar gestational age. The vote was 28-21.
Senate Bill 405 now moves to the House where, as was the case in 2019, the bill is expected to be approved. However, as he did previously, pro-abortion Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to veto the bill.
Travis Fain, the statehouse reporter for WRAL, explained
The bill says infants born alive after an abortion should have “the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn” and that doctors 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.”
As is the case every time a “born-alive” bill is proposed, pro-abortionists insist either that there are already laws on the books that protect abortion survivors or that (as Bryan Anderson of the Associated Press wrote) “Abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, oppose the measure, as they consider it an attack on a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.”
But state Sen. Joyce Krawiec, who sponsored the bill both times, countered, “This has nothing to do with abortion access.” She added, “This has everything to do with a living human being breathing outside its mother’s body — a citizen of this state and of the United States.”
NRL State Legislative Director Ingrid Duran told NRL News Today that 18 states have introduced similar legislation this year.
“In January, Kentucky passed its ‘born-alive’ bill,’” Duran said. “Born-alive bills were also signed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.”
The Montana legislature recently passed a measure that placed its Born-Alive Infant Protection Act on the November 2022 ballot,” she explained. “This referendum will allow voters to make the final decision.”
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