Women who survived attempted abortions blasted Senate Democrats for blocking a bill that would protect children born alive under similar circumstances.
Melissa Ohden, founder of the Abortion Survivors Network, said the fact that Democrats continue to block the bill sends a clear message: “We are not treated as human beings. We are simply treated as pawns in their game of political chess.”
Priscilla Hurley, another abortion survivor who once worked in the abortion industry, expressed disappointment but not surprise at the Democratic vote. “Under the ‘Born-Alive’ bill, doctors that perform these late-term abortions can’t get away with it anymore if the baby is born alive,” Hurley said. “They have to provide care, and the people around them have to report it if they don’t. There’s that accountability factor that the abortion industry in general does not have. So it’s not surprising that those who are in bed with the abortion industry vote the way they do.”
The “Born-Alive” bill would require healthcare practitioners to seek to save the life of a baby born during an attempted abortion, and ensure that the infant is hospitalized. Abortion survivors call it “commonsense legislation” that ensures babies who survive an abortion are afforded the same level of medical care as any other baby born at that gestation.
Ohden, who survived after an attempted saline infusion abortion in 1977, has supported the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act as it has been proposed by Republicans over the past decade. She is frustrated by the lack of awareness about the existence of abortion survivors and believes the actual number of abortion survivors is much higher than the number reported.
The measure was blocked by Senate Democrats on Wednesday, with opposition to the bill coming from both parties. However, House Republicans passed their own version of the bill, with all but one Democrat voting against it.
