North Carolina legislators have been considering a pro-life bill this week that would provide legal protections for babies born alive from botched abortions.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act aims to not only protect babies who survive abortions, but would punish any medical care professional who knowingly fails to perform life-saving procedures. The bill states:
(1) If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of North Carolina and entitled to all the protections of such laws.
(2) Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care.
It also states that the mother of the born-alive child would not be held criminally liable in the event the baby dies as a result of deliberate inaction on the part of the medical care professional(s).
As expected, pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL oppose this proposed legislation because they view it as a back door way to restrict a woman’s right to choose.
Senator @joycekrawiec is trying to convince folks that SB 359 is not about abortion. Don't let her fool you.
The ONLY purpose of this bill is to further regulate and restrict abortion. Nothing more, nothing less. #StopTheBans #ncpol
— PP South Atlantic NC (@PPSATNC) April 11, 2019
Of note: Sen. Terry Van Duyn, a Democrat running for Lt. Governor, made it clear that she stridently opposes this bill.
One prominent abortion advocate, NARAL NC board member Calla Hales, expressed her opposition to the bill yesterday and suggested that because babies couldn’t be added to wills until 30 days after birth that they shouldn’t be considered legal persons in the event they survived an abortion attempt.
The tweet was deleted but National Review‘s Alexandra DeSanctis grabbed a screen shot of it:
Well she has now protected her account after claiming newborn infants can’t be legal persons. So that’s that, I guess. But screenshots are forever, of course. pic.twitter.com/7dhXh8dKjn
— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) April 12, 2019
Twitter users were quick to respond:
Apparently, @NARALNC board member @heyitscalla thinks that no infant is entitled to the same rights of other human beings until he or she is at least 30 days old. The pro-infanticide crowd keeps telling on itself. #NCGA #NCPOL https://t.co/hGs6HLKHOw
— Brent Woodcox (@BrentWoodcox) April 11, 2019
Using your definition, @heyitscalla, women and minorities weren't "people" in America because they couldn't own property. That was shameful, and so is your advocating for infanticide.
— Really, Asa? (@reallyasa) April 11, 2019
What propaganda?? Some propaganda I heard was that "no doc would let a helpless baby lie there and die." I could probably name a few docs that hold a license in this state that would be ok with that.
— Andy Perrigo (@faperrigo) April 11, 2019
Hales locked her Twitter account down after others started responding to her, but The Blaze caught another tweet of hers in which she tried to justify her comments:
She went on to call the contrast “incredibly hypocritical,” before claiming that she was merely “pointing out a legal inconsistency.”
Hales is also the director of four abortion clinics in North Carolina and Georgia.
The North Carolina General Assembly is controlled by Republicans, so passage of the bill is likely. But Governor Roy Cooper is a Democrat who is beholden to pro-abortion special interest groups, so expect him to veto it if it lands on his desk. Republicans no longer have a veto-proof majority, so they would not be able to override a Cooper veto.
That said, the optics on a veto would be interesting in light of the backlash Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam received over his comments on infant abortion survivors.
Stay tuned.
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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–
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