WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK), chair of the Senate Values Action Team, went to the Senate floor to ask his colleagues to protect newborns who survive abortions by requiring they receive healthcare. Lankford’s request for unanimous consent on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was blocked by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who objected to the bill.  

Excerpts

 Lankford Affirms the Value of Every Life: Now, this is not about reducing abortion. Quite frankly, the bill that I’m bringing and I want to bring for unanimous consent today won’t reduce abortions at all in America. I would tell you, it would be my preference to be able to stand for the value of every single child in America and to say there’s not a child in America that’s disposable. That children in America are all valuable, not some disposable, some valuable—all valuable. This is not a question of are we going to legalize or not legalize abortion. This is about a fully delivered child crying on a table—if they will get medical care or if we will back up and watch them die. That’s the question before us. And what we’re going to do about that.

 Lankford Asks What America Will Do With a Fully Delivered Crying Baby: We brought this bill to the floor several times before. In fact, we’ve had some bipartisan support for this bill several times before. The bill is very, very simple. The bill says when a doctor performs an abortion but the child is born alive instead of actually born dead, that care would be provided to that child the same as any other child that is born. Now, we’re fully aware that many abortion clinics do not have a full hospital that are also attached to them. But we’re also very aware that if there’s a problem with the mom at an abortion clinic, they take her to a hospital.

 This is a simple statement to say if a child is born alive—which we know 100% this is happening, even in states like Minnesota, that this is happening—what is America going to do with a fully delivered crying baby on the table? Will they get healthcare or will they not get healthcare? That’s all this bill does. It doesn’t reduce abortions, unfortunately. It doesn’t do that. It doesn’t change abortion processes across the country. It doesn’t do that. It just says when the abortion is unsuccessful and the child is actually delivered instead, we’re going to give medical care to that child.