Kerby Anderson

Credit goes to Senator Ben Sasse who has tried to get the US Senate to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act. This time, it was filibustered by 41 Democratic senators. Let me remind you that the bill would merely require doctors to provide medical care to infants who survive an attempted abortion.

You might think that would be standard medical procedure. But you would be wrong. Some who oppose the bill counter that the legislation is unnecessary or that it is redundant. Decades ago, I was speaking at a pro-life event when I met a young woman who survived an abortion attempt. Now in her 40s, she and many more abortion survivors have testified in Congress and in various state legislatures.

You might wonder why members of Congress and members of state legislatures oppose legislation to protect a child born alive. It isn’t because Americans agree with their opposition. Alexandra DeSanctis documents one survey that found nearly three-quarters of Americans believe doctors should be required to care for infants who survive abortion. Another survey found that more than eight in ten oppose removing medical care from viable infants.

I believe that pro-choice politicians who oppose such a bill fear that making even an exception for what is essentially infanticide would weaken their arguments for abortion. And I have tried to document in previous commentaries that the Democratic party has become much more extreme on the subject of abortion than they were just a decade ago.

Pro-choice politicians also know they don’t have to pay any political price for their opposition to this bill because the mainstream media covers for them. Alexandra DeSanctis, in a recent column, provides extensive documentation for how the press (CBS, CNN, New York Times, Newsweek, Politico) inaccurately covered the legislation. That’s a sad commentary on both the Congress and the media today in America.