Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
The one-sided fact-checking that took place in last week’s presidential debate left many missed opportunities to properly inform the public about issues pertaining to the military, the crime rate, and energy policy, but the saddest omission of all was neglecting to recognize the hundreds of babies born every year who are left to die after failed abortion attempts up to the ninth month of pregnancy.
During the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris told the American public that “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not happening. It’s insulting to the women of America.”
This is demonstrably false. According to statistics that are readily available to anyone, especially trained journalists such as David Muir and Linsey Davis who moderated the debate and repeatedly “fact-checked” former President Donald J. Trump, abortion in the ninth month is legal in 21 states. Another 15 states don’t actively prevent infanticide up to the point of birth.
“While federal law states infants who are born alive after a failed abortion are ‘full persons’ under the law, it does not require health care practitioners to give those babies medical care,” writes Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal organization. “Currently, it is up to the states to regulate late-term abortions as well as the legal protections for born-alive infants. In some states, the law allows unregulated abortion throughout pregnancy, and in others the law either indirectly permits abortions after birth or the authorities just passively allow it.”
For example, in the case of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Minnesota Department of Health reports that there were at least six abortions in the ninth month and that 19 babies were born alive and left to die between 2015 and 2021.
“According to data from the state’s 2021 report, five babies were born alive where in all five instances no life-preserving measures were taken and in only two instances were ‘comfort care measures’ taken,” the Counsel reports. “However, these are just the reported cases.”
They point out that this may soon change because Governor Walz repealed the state’s “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” in 2023 and no longer requires health care providers to report the number of infants born alive, let alone whether or not they were provided with life-saving efforts. Walz followed this by signing the “Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act” which sets no limits on abortion.
For the record, 21 states allow abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy and up to the moment of birth. These states allow unrestricted abortion throughout pregnancy or allow late-term abortion through a “health” exception: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Vermont, and Virginia.
Three states – California, Michigan and Vermont have state constitutional amendments protecting a woman’s “right” to an abortion at any point in pregnancy. Colorado, Maryland, New York, and Nevada all have ballot measures in 2024 attempting to amend their state constitution to enshrine abortion protections at any stage of pregnancy.
In addition, despite claims that infanticide is illegal in the U.S., there are actually 15 states that either offer no protections for infants born alive during an abortion or have recently removed such protections. These states include: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont. All have conditions where infanticide could be passively permitted because:
• They lack any requirement that health care practitioners must exercise the same skill, care, and diligence for infants who survive abortion that would be rendered to any child born at the same gestational age.
• They have no hospitalization requirement to transport the surviving infant to a hospital.
• They do not have any legal penalties for letting an infant die after a failed abortion.
• They lack any reporting requirements.
“Under these conditions, there is nothing to stop an abortion after birth if the mother and physician want it to happen,” the Counsel points out.
In other words, the statement made by the Vice President in front of an estimated 67 million viewers, and the neglect of the moderators to fact-check her, is completely false. And because this data is so readily available, for Harris to misstate this issue, and the debate moderators neglect to correct it, is nothing short of an egregious manipulation of both women, and the public trust.
But worst of all, it’s dooming an untold number of children to being aborted long after they are capable of feeling pain, then leaving them to die all alone, with no one to care or even know that they existed.
As Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver states, “The deliberate strategy to cover up this horrible fact is shameful. Late term abortion up to birth and infanticide cannot be ignored and must be stopped.”
Let us pray: “Lord, take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh that they might see the error of their ways and repent of these abomiations before it’s too late.”
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