KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Abortion Survivors Network extends it's gratitude to Senator Ben Sasse for his continued commitment to the Born Alive Infant Survivors Protection Act, alongside Representatives Steve Scalise and Ann Wagner. Hearings like the one held yesterday in the Senate must continue, until survivors are protected.
Data released by the CDC, reports in the eight states that collect data on the incidence of survivors, (in addition to the countries that report this data), and the experiences of survivors and medical professionals like Jill Stanek, reflect that survivors have been, and continue to be, a common occurrence.
Yet, our stories continue to be denied by members of Congress who somehow see our lives as part of a Republican-made agenda, created to attack Roe vs. Wade. As if that wasn't enough, they continue to overlook data that clearly reflects that abortions fail and children survive.
It's important to note that there is no existing federal law that requires doctors to provide medical care for infants who survive an abortion procedure. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (BAIPA) of 2002 established that the terms "person," "human being," "child," and "individual" in federal law include every infant born alive, even after an abortion, however, it instituted no penalties for physicians who neglect to care for such infants.
Contrary to the arguments made by a number of Democrats, children do survive abortions on a regular basis, and we deserve to be protected in an environment that sees our lives as a "failure" and our existences as "the dreaded complication of abortion."
Receiving timely medical care should never be left for a "discussion" between anyone, as Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia remarked in 2019. Certainly, this very statement alone should alert our culture to the reality that medical care is subjectively offered depending upon these "discussions."
How many survivors will it take for Democrats to admit that we exist and that we're a vulnerable population that deserve common sense legislation to ensure we have a chance to live, no matter how we were born into this world?