February 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A woman who survived being aborted by her mother called it “unfathomable” that Senate Democrats blocked legislation this week that would ensure newborn abortion survivors receive the medical care they need to live.
Claire Culwell, in a Facebook post on Monday after 44 of 47 Democratic U.S. Senators voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, said that she wants to see those Senators that voted against saving abortion survivors like her in person, so they can see her face and say her name.
In her post, Culwell included a number of hashtags related to the issue, one of them was “#WeHaveNames.”
“This is what it looks like to survive an abortion,” she said
“My hips were dislocated, I had club feet and I was in [a] body casts to correct what the abortion had done,” Culwell said. “But I STILL deserved to LIVE.”
The Senate had voted Monday 53-44 in favor of the bill that would have required medical care for babies born alive during a failed abortion. The Act needed 60 votes to pass.
The legislation said that any health care practitioner present when the child is born alive must “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
It included fines and jail time for violations by health care practitioners, but it exempted the birth mother from penalty.
The Act was a response to recent radical abortion-expanding legislation proposed and passed in recent months in various states, a push by pro-abortion supporters to protect abortion at the state level in the event Roe v. Wade were to be repealed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bill protecting infant abortion survivors was also an answer to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s controversial comments last month defending leaving a newborn child to die after a failed abortion, should parents and doctors opt for such.
Pro-life speaker and advocate Culwell called for action in response to Senate Democrats stopping the legislation, and for those senators to face her.
“The Democratic Party of the US Senate voted against a bill that would protect babies like me who survive abortions,” she said. “Instead, they will leave babies like me to die.”
“It is unfathomable that this is where we are in our country,” stated Culwell. “We MUST do better.”
“Call your Senator and ask him/her to vote differently,” she continued. “We are not giving up!”
Culwell added, “Start the conversation in your home and in your community. We must be educating our children and speaking up.”
“Ask your pastors, medical professionals and people of influence to speak up,” she said. “If WE don’t speak up now on behalf of unborn babies and women, who will?”
“I deserved better than abortion and being left to die,” Culwell conclude. “Give me 5 minutes with these Senators. I want them to see my face and speak my name.”