The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act failed to advance in the Senate in a partisan vote on Wednesday afternoon, failing to gain the necessary Democrat support to pass.
The bill, which would require life-saving medical care for infants born after failed abortions, fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority threshold needed to advance, with the cloture vote on the motion receiving only 52 yeas and 47 nays.
The bill defines that any infant born alive after a failed abortion is a “legal person” and entitled to life-saving care, just the same as any other person would under federal emergency medicine statutes.
“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,” the bill reads.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who introduced the bill, said that it is an “incredibly misunderstood” issue.
“We often talk about a botched medical procedure, that if there is a botched medical procedure, somebody dies. This is literally the opposite: that there was a botched medical procedure and someone lives,” Lankford said on the Senate floor.
Lankford said that he has not spoken with any Senate colleague who has expressed affirmation for “abortion after delivery,” which Lankford says this bill essentially would prohibit.
“What is still allowed is a tiny little loophole that if an abortion is botched, everyone can just step away and watch the child die,” said Lankford. “They do not have to deliver medical care.”
Under the bill, healthcare providers present at the time of the live birth are required to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child” as they would with “any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
The bill also requires that the child “is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), an abortion rights supporter, called the measure a “sham bill from Republicans” that was “not going anywhere.”
“This is not how abortion works. Republicans know it,” Murray said. “All babies are already protected under the law, regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Doctors already have a legal obligation to provide appropriate medical care, and we know this sham bill is not going anywhere.”
Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) chided the bill as “pernicious” and “anti-choice extremism,” saying that most of the pregnancies terminated later in pregnancy are for life-limiting or fatal fetal diagnoses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 1% of all abortions in the United States occur after 21 weeks of pregnancy, approximately the age after which a fetus could be viable outside of the womb with access to proper medical treatment.
Between 2003 and 2014, the CDC estimates, approximately 143 infants died after being born alive during an abortion. States only collect abortion data and send it to the CDC on a voluntary basis, and the agency does not have data on the number of those who survive abortions.
A study published in June using data on abortions in Canada between 15 and 29 weeks of pregnancy found that more than 11% of over 13,000 abortions resulted in a live birth. The study examined later pregnancy abortions between 1989 and 2021.
“The current practice is, everyone kind of just backs away and lets the child die on the table by exposure,” said Lankford. “Because it is against American law in every single state to take the life of a child, but if everybody just steps back and watches the child die, that’s okay.”
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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), physician and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, said that infants born alive “deserve the care that they need to survive.”
“There is no difference in the value and dignity of a child, of a person, as to whether or not they were originally wanted or not,” said Cassidy.