Washington – Senate US Democrats blocked the rules on Wednesday, which would establish punishments for healthcare professionals who did not provide medical care of infants born after an abortion attempt, arguing that the act would stop parents from making decisions regarding the care of newborns supplied early after a lethal fetal diagnosis.
Republicans stated that this issue should give a common plane between two political parties, citing a “gap” in federal law, which could potentially allow the service providers to death an infant instead of using medical interventions.
. 52-47 Procedural voting He needed the support of at least 60 senators to advance in accordance with the legislative rules of the Chamber, but no Democrats voted for moving the law towards the final transition. Republican senator Tennessee Bill Hagerta did not vote.
The voting meant for the first time this year Republicans, who now control both the Chamber and the Senate, brought a debate bill. Voting took place on the anniversary of the ROE decision against Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973, but was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2022.
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford, who sponsored eight -page billHe said that the debate on the regulations was “not only an academic issue”, but with real implications.
“This is sporadic, but the question is: what do we do in such situations? How do we follow it? How do we get involved? – he said.
When abortion causes a living child, Lankford said: “The current practice is that everyone is withdrawing and allows the child to die at the table by risking. But if everyone just goes back and watch the child dies, it’s okay. “
Lankford quoted the story of Melissa Ohden, a woman who, she claims, lived after an abortion attempt, because the intensive care unit of newborns or ICU, the nurse noticed her crying and breathing in a pile of medical waste, and then threw her at the rescue medical care department. Ohden is the founder and general director of the Aborter Survivors Network network.
“Many years later she learned that her adopted mother adopted her because her born mother literally did not know that she still exists. Her born mother was never said that abortion, quoting Unsquote, did not act, “he said.
“Killing a child is illegal in every state”
The democratic senator in Washington Patty Murray said on Tuesday in a speech that the act was “apparent” and “disgrace” before he noticed that “killing a child is illegal in every country.”
“In fact, we adopted a law in 2002, which was crystal. I would know because I was here. It has passed unanimously, said Murray. “Doctors already have a legal obligation to provide adequate medical care to every baby born in this country.”
She said that the legislation would create a “new government mandate that would replace the best mourning judgment that learns that their fetus has a terrible state.”
“And this would create a new, medically unnecessary barriers for doctors and patients, when doctors already have their hands tied up when it comes to ensuring basic reproductive health care,” said Murray.
Democratic Senator New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen said during a press conference on Wednesday before voting sensitive inclined to re -election in 2026
“I ran now in seven state races in New Hampshire and in each of these breeds I was attacked by Republicans for my support to enable women to make their own decisions,” said Shaheen.
“This is not a decision that I should make as a senator who should make a court that men should take in the Senate,” she added. “This is a decision for women and their families. And for those people who do not understand this, they are on the wrong side of morality on this. “
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Michigan Senator Gary Peters are the two most exposed democrats to the election in 2026, both representing the President of the States Donald Trump won in the presidential election in November.
Details of the Senate legislation
The draft Lankford Act would require medical suppliers to “preserve the child’s life and health as a reasonably conscientious and conscientious health care doctor who would make any other child born alive at the same pregnancy age.”
The Act adds that everyone who “intentionally performs or tries to perform an open act that kills a child” will be accused of “deliberate killing or attempting to kill a man.”
For killing children or adults, it is already illegal in accordance with federal law as well as status law.
House voted 217-204 confirm its own version of the bill, sponsored by the Republican Republicans of Missouri Ann Wagner i Coopened by 159 GOP legislatorson Thursday. But without democratic support in the Senate, the law will not reach Trump’s desk.
Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar was the only democrat to vote for the law, while Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, voted “present”.
Wagner’s home act seemed extremely similar to the Senate version, although both were not marked as “related bills” on Wednesday at the Congress Database.
House approved the bill version two years ago Mostly a party line 220-210 VotingAlong with voting for Bill and Gonzalez ‘present’.
The act did not appear in the voting in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats.
Congress approved a similarly named, Act on the protection of born babies from 2002.Over two decades ago, with widely supported support.
Groups weigh
Dr. Stella M. Dantas, president of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, wrote in a statement sent to the newsroom that “offensive legislation does not reflect the reality of abortion in later pregnancy, harms families who receive destructive diagnosis and limits their ability to choose a medical care path, which is suitable for them. “
“This legislation is not based on evidence,” said Dantas. “His influence fall with crushing on families who try to access reproductive care in destructive circumstances and limiting how clinicians can provide care.”
American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists writes on Website About the differences between abortion and perinatal palliative care that the “idea of” abortion “performed after the delivery of the fetus is” disinformation and that “there is no such procedure.”
ACOG explains that the perinatal palliative care “includes a coordinated care strategy, which focuses on maximizing the quality of life and comfort for newborns, which have conditions limiting life in the early infancy period.”
“By ensuring perinatal palliative care, the main goal of the obstetricians -Gyneologists is to alleviate the suffering of a newborn and honor the values of involved patients – namely the parent or parents of the newborn,” says the website. “Ultimately, a parent or parents, in consultation with a doctor, decide which course of perinatal palliative care should be implemented.”
Eighteen Medical Organizations-W ACOG, Society for MOPAL-PETAL MEDICINE, American Academy of Nursing and American Academy of Pediatrics letter To Congress on Wednesday, calling for legislators not to adopt the law.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life President America Marjorie Dannenfelser published a written statement that the election in 2024 showed that the Americans “clearly rejected the extreme proaboring program.”
“We can’t still turn the eye on this child fighting for his life, whether in a hospital or in the center of abortion, regardless of whether this toddler is considered” wanted “or not” – wrote Dannenfelser. “These children must not be rejected like rubbish. With the new administration in Washington and the new majority in the Senate and the Chamber, there was never a better or more urgent time to protect the life of every newborn baby. “
AND SBA website On legislation, he notes that although the law of 2002 was a “step in the right direction”, it did not contain any “enforcement mechanisms”.
“Federal law and 31 states do not properly protect the life of babies born after unsuccessful abortions (state and federal law are not necessarily unnecessary),” says the website.
Anna Bernstein, the main advisor to federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, wrote in a statement for the states of Newsroom that the Act “misleads the reality of care in a later pregnancy and strives for criminalization and intimidation medical provided that. “
“By maintaining disinformation and stigma, the Act undermines reproductive autonomy and paves the path of political interference in deeply personal and painful decisions, especially in the case of families in which tragic situations stand, such as fatal fetal diagnoses,” wrote Bernstein.
Guttmacher Institute, she wrote: “He definitely opposes this act because he disregards the complexity of people’s lives, tries to criminalize suppliers and consolidates disinformation on abortion care.”
Last updated 17:54, January 23, 2025
