Protecting Infants Born Alive is Basic Human Decency

I was among the first to sign the discharge petition for the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act, and now I call upon my colleagues to join me in upholding the sanctity of life and defending our most innocent. Protecting infants who are born alive after an abortion procedure is about basic human decency. It saddens me that we even need legislation for something that is so common sense. I support the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act because infants who survive an abortion deserve the right to the same medical care any other newborn receives.

Additionally, 80 Members of the House of Representatives and I introduced the Conscience Protection Act this week, which would prevent government at the local, state, or federal level from discriminatory practices and penalization of health care providers that do not participate in highly controversial abortion services.

Background:

The Born Alive Survivors Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Anne Wagner (R-MO), proposes important measures that would protect the life of any child born alive after an abortion. These measures include requiring health-care practitioners to employ all skills and health care available to a born-alive baby that would be otherwise afforded to a newborn, and requiring healthcare practitioners to report violations of this to law enforcement. Furthermore, this act would penalize the intentional killing of a born-alive child while providing the mother of the child civil cause of action and protection from prosecution.

In the 116^th Congress, I supported multiple pieces of pro-life legislation, including;

•  The Second Chance at Life Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Conway (TX-02), which requires doctors to inform women seeking a chemical abortion that the abortion can potentially be stopped and reversed in order to save the baby, if she changes her mind after taking the first dose.
•  The Life at Conception Act, sponsored by Rep. Alex Mooney (WV-02), which provides equal protection for the lives of born and preborn persons.
• The Defund Planned Parenthood Act, sponsored by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (MO-04), which prohibits funding Planned Parenthood for one year, reallocating the savings to community health centers.
• The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), which prohibits performing an abortion on an unborn baby who is 20 week or older.
• The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner (MO-02), which prohibits sex-selected abortions, aborting a child on the basis of the child’s gender.
• The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Johnson (LA-04), which makes it a crime to knowingly transport a minor across a state line, circumventing parental consent and state notification requirements, in order to obtain an abortion.

I also signed onto two appropriations letters which would prevent foreign aid dollars and resources to be used for abortion services or the promotion of abortion services overseas, and requested pro-life riders to be included in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.