Hospital left 'aborted' babies to die--after birth

Human Events, Apr 23, 2001 by D'Agostino, Joseph A

State and Federal Bills Would Protect Born Babies

Pro-abortion groups in Illinois are working hard to defeat a set of bills proposed in the state legislature designed to protect the lives of babies after they are born.

The three bills would require a physician other than the one inducing the abortion to have another physician assess the baby's viability if it might be or is born alive. The bills would make it a Class A misdemeanor, and open the way for civil suits, if a doctor denied "reasonable medical care" to a baby born alive, said State Rep. Tom Johnson (R.-West Chicago), who is the House sponsor of the legislation. The bills, authored by State Sen. Patrick O'Malley (R.-Palos Park), passed in the state Senate with most opponents abstaining.

"This has nothing to do with a woman's body," said Johnson, "because it applies to the baby only after it is out of the woman's body. It is no longer about a right to an abortion. Instead, it's becoming a right to a dead baby."

The Illinois National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are opposed to the legislation.

In the U.S. Congress, Rep. Steve Chabot (R.-Ohio) plans to reintroduce the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which passed the House overwhelmingly last year but was ignored by the Senate. "I don't expect a problem," said Chabot when asked about his bill's chances this year. "It's incomprehensible to me that people try to justify opposition to such a commonsense bill." The bill would simply define a person deserving of full legal protection as anyone born alive.

Mike Schwartz, vice president for government relations at Concerned Women of America, predicted easy passage in both House and Senate. "We've got all these pro-abortion members on board," he said.