The House of Representatives passed a bill that would force doctors to save newborns who survive abortions.
The bill passed along party lines, with only one Democrat, Henry Cuellar (Tx.), voting in favor.
The vote was largely a messaging exercise, as Republicans have little chance of passing the bill through the Senate, where it was blocked Wednesday by Democrats.
Democrats claim the bill is redundant because it is already illegal under federal law for doctors to kill or neglect newborns. The bill, however, adds new criminal penalties making it clear that doctors who fail to perform their duty could face serious consequences: up to five years of prison and fines.
"Requiring medical care for babies born alive after a failed abortion isn’t controversial, it’s common sense," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Mn.) said.
"The fact that Democrats would rather support infanticide than vote in favor of this bill shows how extreme and out-of-touch their party has become," Emmer said.
Democrats condemned the bill, warning it would intimidate doctors providing emergency care to women with dangerous or non-viable pregnancies.
Arguing against the bill, Democrats repeated familiar claims that late-term abortions are rare and performed exclusively for medical reasons.
"No one goes through pregnancy and all that comes with it…and then after eight or nine months of that is like ‘nah, I don’t want to do this,’" Rep. Sara Jacobs, (D-Ca.) said during debate on the bill. "It is because of a serious fetal abnormality or the health of the mother."
Despite this sweeping generalization, about 1% of the roughly 1 million abortions performed every year in the U.S. are in the third trimester. In other words, thousands of late-term abortions occur annually - which is hardly a "rare" or morally inconsequential figure. While it is difficult to know how many are elective, the number is certainly higher than zero.
Abortion has proven a difficult issue for Republicans politically since the Supreme Court's repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which was credited with the party's underperformance in midterm elections that year. President Trump downplayed abortion during his successful re-election bid, but he has not forgotten his pro-life supporters.
A day before the annual March For Life rally in Washington D.C., Trump pardoned over 20 individuals who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for protesting at abortion clinics.
