Supporters of abortion have long feared that Roe v. Wade would be overturned and abortion decisions left up to state legislatures – which happened on June 24, 2022. To prepare for that day, some states have been passing sweeping new abortion laws. For example, New York’s Governor signed the Reproductive Health Act (January 2019). It expanded abortion rights and allowed abortion right up to the point of birth. Illinois soon followed with its own version of this legislation, and Virginia’s Governor expressed his belief that if babies in Virginia were born alive during an abortion, they should be left to die.

To close loopholes in federal law, pro-life Members of Congress have introduced the Born Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act. If signed into law, this legislation not only extends criminal penalties to health care providers who practice infanticide, but it requires that any baby born alive during an abortion be treated with the same standard of care given to a non-aborted baby of the same gestational age. This bill would ensure that babies will not be cast aside, ignored, or left to die.

In recent years, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to allow a vote on this legislation and pro-abortion Senators also blocked a procedural attempt to vote on the bill. In January 2023, a vote on this legislation was one of the first actions taken after Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) became the House Speaker. On January 11, 2023, the House passed H.R. 26 by a vote of 220-210. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the legislation in the Senate on February 1, 2023. That bill, S. 204, still awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.