April 22, 2005

The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act

Every once in a while, human beings attempt to place at least some value on human life.   

The Bush administration told doctors and hospitals on Friday that they must make every effort to save the lives of premature babies born after failed abortions.

The administration's directive said such efforts were required by a 2002 law known as the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said the federal government would "aggressively enforce" the law.

Under the law, the administration said, a fetus that survives an abortion procedure is no longer a fetus, but a person entitled to emergency medical care and protection against child abuse and neglect.

I'm very appreciative that this step is being taken.  While this type of situation doesn't happen frequently, I cannot fathom a decision being made to allow an infant who survives such a situation to die without an attempt at life saving measures. 

In signing the bill in August 2002, President Bush said, "This important legislation ensures that every infant born alive - including an infant who survives an abortion procedure - is considered a person under federal law."

At hearings of the House Judiciary Committee in 2000 and 2001, a few hospital employees testified that infant "abortion survivors" had been allowed to die, the committee said.

Mr. Smith (Dennis G. Smith, director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations) cited the Congressional testimony as a reason for the administration's concern. After one attempted abortion, he said, "the child was breathing, the heart was beating and the child continued to live for several hours."

But Richard H. Wade, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association, said Friday: "These occurrences are extremely rare. The only evidence is anecdotal."

That's okay, Richard H. Wade, if only ONE infant is saved from death following an abortion procedure, I'll take your "anecdotal" evidence and raise you a human life.

By its terms, the law protects "every infant member of the species Homo sapiens" who "breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles" after expulsion or extraction from the womb as a result of normal childbirth, a Caesarean section or an induced abortion.

So now there is a law in place that protects babies following explusion or extraction from the womb.  It's too bad these whackos and these whack jobs can't see that for a baby to be alive once it is "extracted" from the womb, it had to be alive INSIDE the womb as well.  Murder is what we call killing a live human being - their "surroundings" shouldn't matter.  Instead, these extremists use words such as "potential human being" or "parasite" to describe the miracle of a baby in the womb. 

I think stronger enforcement of this law is one step in the right direction.  You can read the full article here.  Also stop at Raven's place to read more about how the whack jobs try to justify the murdering of babies in the womb.