SURVIVORS DESERVE LIFE

Survivors of Botched Abortions Deserve Life

Washington, DC -- The Family Research Council Thursday indicated its support for the pro-life Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

"This bill takes a necessary step to protect the growing number of babies who die, after birth, at the hands of the doctors who delivered them, "Family Research Council Vice President of Government Affairs Connie Mackey said Thursday.  "If a child born alive after a botched abortion does not receive the protection of the law, what is to prevent an abortionist from simply delivering a child and then killing it?"

During a press conference Thursday, Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Reps. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Melissa Hart (R-PA), and Sue Myrick (R-NC) introduced the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.  This bill would give full legal protection to all babies who are fully developed and outside their mother's womb. Forty-one states already have similar laws in place.

"Many of the babies this legislation would protect are ones who have survived abortions," Mrs. Mackey said.  "Because they were intended for death inside the womb, the horrific 'logical' conclusion seems to be that they deserve death once outside the womb as well.  It is time for Congress to make the statement that our nation will not tolerate the killing of already-born babies, just because they were once intended for death.

"The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), an aggressive pro-abortion lobbying group, has called this bill an 'anti-choice assault.' Additionally, NARAL says that 'anti-choice lawmakers are seeking to ascribe rights to fetuses ... (to) interfere with the sound practice of medicine by spurring physicians to take extraordinary steps in situations where their efforts may be futile.'

The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act addresses born-alive infants, already completely outside the womb.  These are not 'fetuses,' but babies.  By speaking against this bill, NARAL has effectively endorsed infanticide.

"Congress must be on record opposing this slippery, anti-life slope toward infanticide," Mrs. Mackey said.