The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, approved by voice vote late Tuesday, would amend the legal definition of «person,» «human being,» «child» and «individual» to include abortion survivors outside the womb who have a heartbeat or are breathing on their own.
The legislation is aimed at «partial-birth» abortions in which an unborn baby is partially delivered before being killed.
«It´s long overdue that this become law,» said Representative Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican, who wrote the legislation. «It just seems like common sense that when a baby is born, no matter what the circumstances of the birth may have been, even if it was a botched abortion, that the child be treated with basic human dignity.»
The bill does not try to undercut the U.S. Supreme Court´s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, said pro-abortion Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat. An identical bill is pending in the Senate.
