The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would penalize doctors who do not provide life-saving care to infants born alive after an abortion attempt.
All but one Democrat voted against the bill, which passed 217 to 204, with all Republicans in favor. One Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, voted ‘present.’
The bill directs health care practitioners to operate with the ‘same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence’ for a baby born with a heartbeat after an abortion as during a normal birth. Doctors who run afoul of the rule would be fined or given up to five years behind bars.
House GOP leaders lauded the bill, with Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., telling Fox News Digital, ‘Requiring medical care for babies born alive after a failed abortion isn’t controversial, it’s common sense.’
‘The fact that Democrats would rather support infanticide than vote in favor of this bill shows how extreme and out-of-touch their party has become,’ Emmer said.
Democrats have argued that the bill is redundant, given existing laws against infanticide and murder, and could imperil the lives of women seeking late-term abortions due to medical emergencies while unfairly penalizing doctors.
‘No one goes through pregnancy and all that comes with it…and then after eight or nine months of that is like ‘nah, I don’t want to do this,’’ Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said during debate on the bill, adding that late-term operations made up about 1% of abortions. ‘It is because of a serious fetal abnormality or the health of the mother.’
She said the bill was ‘not based on science or reality.’
Several Democrats who spoke out against the bill themselves went through emergency abortion procedures with a nonviable pregnancy.
Among them was Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., who said the bill would allow women to ‘die on the operating table because doctors are scared of going to jail.’
Republicans, meanwhile, argued the bill would stop babies from being ‘left to die in a closet, alone and discarded like medical waste,’ as Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., said during debate.
‘These precious babies, fellow Americans, deserve protection because they are alive,’ said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
The vote comes after Democrats tanked the bill in the Senate earlier this week. The legislation failed to pass a procedural hurdle that needed 60 votes to allow for debate on its final passage.