ABORTION BILL DIES IN SENATE

Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate again has rejected legislation to require health care for a child born alive during an abortion, leaving most Democratic members vulnerable to charges of supporting infanticide.

In a roll call Monday (Feb. 25), senators voted 53-44 to bring the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the floor for a vote on final passage. But the effort failed to reach the 60 votes needed to succeed in the procedural move known as invoking cloture. All but three of the chamber’s 47 Democrats voted in opposition.

The vote came three weeks after a Democratic senator blocked an effort by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., to gain unanimous consent from the Senate for his bill.

The Senate’s Feb. 25 action came the same day a new public opinion poll was released that showed a dramatic shift in just a month’s time for Democrats and others toward the pro-life position. The survey by The Marist Poll also found strong opposition to late-term abortions across political identifications.

The reported change in public opinion came in the wake of enactment of a New York law that legalizes abortion until birth and, according to pro-life analysis, removes protections for babies who survive abortion. It also followed comments by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam that expressed support for allowing abortion-surviving infants to die.