President Donald Trump announced Wednesday during the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast he will be signing an executive order that ensures all babies born alive, including those surviving abortion, receive the medical care they need.
National Catholic Prayer Breakfast / YouTubeThe president stated:
Today I am announcing that I will be signing the Born-Alive executive order to ensure that all precious babies born alive, no matter their circumstances, receive the medical care that they deserve. This is our sacrosanct moral duty.
We are also increasing federal funding for the neonatal research to ensure that every child has the very best chance to thrive and to grow.
“I will always protect the vital role of religion and prayer in American society,” Trump said during his remarks at the prayer breakfast. “And I will always defend the sacred right to life.”
BREAKING!! President @realDonaldTrump announced at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast that will be signing an executive order protecting babies born alive after a failed abortion. God bless our great President.
— Cath O’Neill (@cathponeill) September 23, 2020
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) celebrated Trump’s announcement.
The association said in a statement:
Prematurely-born infants are some of our most vulnerable patients. As a professional medical association dedicated to caring for both patients in question during a pregnancy — the woman and her unborn child — AAPLOG applauds this commonsense order.
Susan B. Anthony List (SBA-List) President Marjorie Dannenfelser reacted to the president’s announcement:
President Trump’s order will bring nationwide practices into line with modern science and protect some of the nation’s most vulnerable children. A growing body of research shows extremely premature babies, once written off as hopeless, can indeed survive and thrive with active care. Yet too often, local protocols still allow for infants on the cusp of viability to be denied lifesaving intervention – even over the desperate pleas of their parents. Whether a child receives medical care should never be dictated by an arbitrary timeline, zip code, or which doctor happens to be on duty.
In February, House Democrats joined together to block a Republican amendment to a bill that would have required the same medical care to infants who survive abortion as that given to newborns of the same age who are born prematurely.
Several days earlier, the Senate also failed to garner the 60 votes needed to pass both the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion in the United States past the 20th week of pregnancy.
The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy. The other nations are: Canada, China, Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, and Viet Nam.
“President Trump has promised to overcome Democrats’ obstruction and put a stop to infanticide,” Dannenfelser said. “The contrast is stark and the choice clear. It is time for all Americans concerned about protecting innocent life to come together to stop the Biden-Harris agenda and support President Trump.”
In January 2019, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) created a firestorm when he said during a radio interview that a bill introduced in the state’s House of Delegates that would allow a woman to have an “abortion,” even during childbirth itself, would permit an “infant” to be “delivered” and “resuscitated, if that’s what the mother and the family desired,” until the physicians and mother discuss what to do.
SBA-List sponsored a poll in February 2019 that found 77 percent of Americans support legislation that would ensure babies who survive abortion would be administered the same medical treatment as would any infant born prematurely at the same age.
That outcome included 75 percent of independent voters and 70 percent of Democrats.
“The fact that Democrats in the House and Senate have blocked efforts to provide legal protections for babies born during botched abortions should horrify all Americans,” said Students for Life of America Action President Kristan Hawkins. “The President’s commitment to act on behalf of abortion survivors is a humane response to a struggling infant gasping for air.”
Hawkins said “infanticide” is “one of the sleeper issues of this election cycle,” and one that “is allowed under our current laws.”
“Not only is late-term abortion horrifically painful for the baby and dangerous for mothers, it also can lead to the birth of a child who then faces the deadly neglect of an abortionist,” she explained.
“Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential pick Sen. Kamala Harris voted just last year against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would punish doctors who fail to provide medical care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion,” Hawkins added.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, called the president’s announcement “groundbreaking,” and also said the executive order will do “what Democrats refused to do.” He explained:
President Trump has taken action within the boundaries of his authority to protect children born alive after abortion. Throughout his term, President Trump has urged Congress to send him a bill protecting babies born alive after failed abortions. But House and Senate Democrats have consistently blocked it.
“This is baffling and reprehensible,” Pavone added.
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