President Trump recently signed an executive order mandating that doctors attend to babies born alive, “no matter what the circumstances.” What prompted his order was the practice of denying medical care to babies born alive as a result of a botched abortion.
The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to late-term abortions. What Trump did goes beyond partial-birth abortion: His executive order is targeted at prohibiting infanticide. Astonishingly, he was criticized in some quarters for doing so. Some maintain that infanticide is not a problem.
Dr. Kristyn Brandi is a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health. She opposed a legislative effort earlier this year that would provide sanctions for doctors who refused to provide medical care for babies born alive following a botched abortion. “The bill maligns and vilifies providers and patients to push a false narrative about abortion later in pregnancy.”
“States can and do punish people for killing children who are born alive,” opined Florida State University law professor Mary Ziegler. Journalist Danielle Campoamor said it is a “lie” to say babies born alive after a failed abortion need protection, saying such a scenario is “incredibly unlikely.” Yet the Associated Press, which quoted critics of Trump’s proposed order, said there were “143 deaths between 2003 and 2014 involving infants born alive during attempted abortions.”
Lying about infanticide is the natural progression of a mindset that justifies partial-birth abortion. In the 1990s Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted on national TV that he “lied through [his] teeth” when he “just went out there and spouted the party line” about how rare partial-birth abortion is.
All the health professionals, journalists, activists, and politicians who deny the reality of babies being born alive after a failed abortion need to tell that to Gianna Jessen. She survived an abortion. And so have many others. They should look at her in the face and say she has no business being alive.
