Trump Most Pro-Life President Ever
For years, leaders in the pro-life movement, like Eagle Forum, actively sought passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Its need stems from a 2002 law, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which states that “every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any state of development” is a “person” for all purposes under the law. However, this law failed to provide clarity on the response babies born alive from botched abortions receive.
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act fixes this. The legislation requires medical personnel to perform the same life-saving measures on an infant born-alive, after a failed abortion attempt, that they would provide to any other baby born at the same gestational age. In addition, healthcare practitioners must also immediately transport and admit the infant to a hospital where they can continue to receive care.
While House Republicans continue to fight for the bill’s consideration on the House Floor, the Senate did vote on it this past February. Sadly, the passage failed by a 53-44 vote.
In response to these disappointments, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) this last week called, “Protecting Vulnerable Newborn and Infant Children.” This EO essentially codifies the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act into law for healthcare entities that receive federal funding. Specifically, the order tasks the Department of Health and Human Services with ensuring hospitals comply with “obligations under federal law to provide appropriate screening and medical treatment or transfer for infants, especially those born prematurely and/or with disabilities, and otherwise promote efforts to improve the survival of such infants.” President Trump has legal authority to do so through a few laws. The first, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) an individual’s right to “an appropriate medical screening examination and to either stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer” in hospitals with an emergency department. Second, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits programs receiving federal funding from discriminating individuals with disabilities. And lastly, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act or the 2002 Born-Alive bill, ensures that all infants born alive are individuals for purposes under the law and as such given the same legal protections as all others.
As President Trump said in his announcement of the EO:
“Together, these laws help protect infants born alive from discrimination in the provision of medical treatment, including infants who require emergency medical treatment, who are premature, or who are born with disabilities. Such infants are entitled to meaningful and non-discriminatory access to medical examination and services, with the consent of a parent or guardian, when they present at hospitals receiving Federal funds.”
The President continues:
“Despite these laws, some hospitals refuse the required medical screening examination and stabilizing treatment or otherwise do not provide potentially lifesaving medical treatment to extremely premature or disabled infants, even when parents plead for such treatment. Hospitals might refuse to provide treatment to extremely premature infants — born alive before 24 weeks of gestation — because they believe these infants may not survive, may have to live with long-term disabilities, or may have a quality-of-life deemed to be inadequate. Active treatment of extremely premature infants has, however, been shown to improve their survival rates. And the denial of such treatment, or discouragement of parents from seeking such treatment for their children, devalues the lives of these children and may violate Federal law.”
One of President Trump’s greatest accomplishments has been his zeal for protecting the preborn. We are thankful for his leadership and for appointing judges who are adamantly opposed to expanding abortion rights. President Trump is correct when he stated:
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize the human dignity and inherent worth of every newborn or other infant child, regardless of prematurity or disability, and to ensure for each child due to protection under the law.”
The text of the Executive Order on “Protecting Vulnerable Newborn and Infant Children” can be found here.