Senate Democrats block legislation to save lives of babies who survive botched abortions

Every Senate Democrat voted Wednesday afternoon against invoking cloture on legislation requiring that babies who survive botched abortions receive medical care.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, introduced by Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, requires that healthcare practitioners provide the “same degree of professional skill, care and diligence” for a child surviving a botched abortion as they would for a child during routine childbirth. With the Senate voting 52-47, the anti-infanticide legislation failed to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

“Yesterday my [Democratic] colleagues spent an hour on the floor saying that that child [who survives a botched abortion] should die,” Lankford said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “I disagree.”

“This is not just an academic issue. It’s real,” Lankford added. “It [infanticide] is already illegal … but what is still allowed is a tiny, little loophole that if an abortion is botched, everyone can just back away and watch the child die. They do not have to give that child medical care.”

It shouldn’t be controversial to say that if a child is born alive after a botched abortion, that they should receive health care. Today in the Senate we debated this very topic. pic.twitter.com/EmRf4qKoAr

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 22, 2025

Senate Majority Leader John Thune predicted Senate Democrats would vote against the legislation prior to the cloture vote Wednesday.

“They will vote against protection for a living, breathing newborn baby because that child has been born alive after an attempted abortion,” Thune said. “They are afraid if they recognize the humanity of a living, breathing born baby in an abortion clinic they might end up pointing to the humanity of the unborn baby in the abortion clinic.”

Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, labeled Lankford’s “born-alive” bill as “pernicious as they come” during floor remarks Wednesday.

“It attacks women’s health care using false narratives and outright fear-mongering and adds more legal risk for doctors on something that’s already illegal,” Schumer said.

The House is slated to vote on similar legislation, introduced by Republican Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner, later this week.

Wagner’s “born-alive” bill passed the House last Congress in January 2023 with just one Democratic lawmaker voting in favor of the anti-infanticide legislation. The bill died in the Senate due to opposition from Democratic lawmakers and Schumer declining to formally take up the bill.

Pro-life activists will march in Washington D.C. this Friday during the annual March for Life.

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