A bill proposed by Senate Republicans to protect babies that survived abortions was blocked by Democrats yesterday.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, authored by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), would require abortion doctors to seek medical care for babies that survived abortions and would criminalize the deliberate killing of the child after delivery.
Sasse sought “unanimous consent” for his bill, meaning just one Senator could object and stop the legislation.
Washington Senator, Democrat Patty Murray objected to the bill and prevented it from receiving unanimous consent, claiming the law was unnecessary because there are already laws protecting babies from infanticide.
“This is a gross misinterpretation of the actual language of the bill that is being asked to be considered and, therefore, I object,” she said, before immediately leaving after her objection.
Murray was the only Democrat on the Senate floor last night.
During a speech on the Senate floor last week in support of the bill, Sasse said, “Everyone in the Senate ought to be able to say unequivocally that killing that little baby is wrong. This doesn’t take any political courage. And, if you can’t say that, if there’s a member of this body that can’t say that, there may be lots of work you can do in the world but you shouldn’t be here. You should get the heck out of any calling in public life where you pretend to care about the most vulnerable among us,” he said.
The Senator continued, “There should be no politics here that are right vs. left, or Republican vs. Democrat. This is the most basic thing you could be talking about. We’re talking about a little baby born alive and we have a public official in America defending the idea ‘Well, you could have a debate about killing her.'”
Sasse’s bill came as a response to the disturbing comments made by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam in which he endorsed infanticide in certain circumstances.
Speaking to Fox News, Sasse slammed the governor for his comments and said he should “get the hell out of office.”
“The comments the governor of Virginia made were about fourth-term abortions,” Sasse said to Fox News host Dana Perino. “That’s not abortion, that’s infanticide.”
