Pro-Lifers Push for Law Protecting Infants Surviving Failed Abortions
by Ed Thomas
February 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - Pro-life leaders in Illinois are making a strong bid to advance legislation for the state that would mirror a federal law passed in 2002. The Born Alive Infants Protection Act would ensure babies born during a failed abortion would have to be given proper medical care to save their lives.For the last three years, Illinois House legislators have not allowed the state's version of the measure, House Bill 984, to get out of committee. This year, however, pro-lifers are urging constituents to contact their representatives and House speaker, Michael Madigan, a self-professed pro-life Democrat, to move the legislation forward.
David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) says Jill Stanek, a nurse working in Chicago's Christ Hospital, was the initial proponent of the federal law, pushing for the legislation to be enacted after she observed the fate of babies in failed abortions there. Smith says some babies who were being aborted actually survived the abortion process but then, "were being set aside to die on their own -- sometimes within minutes, sometimes within hours."
Sadly, the IFI spokesman notes, under Illinois law there is no criminal prosecution for this sort of lethal neglect taking place in non-government funded facilities. "The federal law only deals with federal institutions," he explains. That is why HB 984 is necessary.
"Throughout the state, most of our criminal laws are based on state laws," Smith continues, "so we need to get [a born alive infant protection measure] in Illinois on the books for criminal law so we can protect children, because Christ Hospital continues, to this day, to allow this procedure to continue in their hospital."
IFI and other pro-family groups are urging Illinois legislators to stop stalling on a measure whose principle has already received approval, even from national abortion advocate groups and pro-choice U.S. senators such as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. Supporters of HB 984 are asking Illinois residents to contact their representatives and ask them to make sure the state's Born Alive Infants Protection Act is not trapped in committee for a fourth straight legislative session.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a news reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
