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COLUMBUS, Ohio (LifeSiteNews) — The Ohio Senate passed legislation Wednesday that would protect babies who survive abortions.

The Born Alive Infant Protection Act would make “abortion manslaughter” a first-degree felony, meaning that abortionists and nurses that fail to attempt to provide life-saving care to a baby that survives and abortion could face prison time. It also allows the mother of the child to file a civil lawsuit for “wrongful death.”

It next has to pass the Ohio House of Representatives.

The legislation will also help the state and its citizens understand the extent of the problem of infanticide.

The state Department of Health would be required to “develop a child survival form that an attending physician must complete each time a child is born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion,” according to a legislative analysis.

Ohio Right to Life (ORTL), which has been working on this legislation for years, called the bill an “educational piece.”

“This bill has been one of the biggest things that we’re most proud of, in terms of being a bill we believe is of vital importance for our state,” ORTL Director of Communications Allie Frazier told LifeSiteNews in a phone interview Thursday. She said many people don’t realize there are not sufficient protections for babies who may survive botched abortions in our state

“This bill is incredibly important because Ohio does not currently have a reporting requirement for the reporting of babies who survive botched abortions in Ohio,” Frazier said, “so we have no way of knowing how many babies could be surviving botched abortions.”

Current law already requires life-saving care for born babies. This bill “strengthens and expands the protections for born babies that are already in Ohio law,” the ORTL spokesperson told LifeSiteNews.

“This bill actually requires that the Ohio Department of Health report every time a baby survives a botched abortion and requires that a baby receives potentially life-saving care,” Frazier said.

She said legal challenges are expected but nine states currently have similar language on the books.

“Planned Parenthood is always going to fight back against pro-life protections, but it’s critical that people need to know that this is a thing that can happen in Ohio,” the pro-life group said. ORTL believes that the reporting requirement will likely uncover instances of infanticide.

She said even pro-abortion legislators should support the bill because it is “actually an anti-infanticide bill.”

The Center for Christian Virtue also praised the Born Alive bill. “It is unconscionable that the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood would fight a law to ensure children born after a botched abortion are provided with life-saving care,” the conservative group wrote in a press release. “It proves they never truly cared about women health, only their profits. The Ohio Senate sent a strong message today that every child’s life matters.”

Similar bills are in place in nine states currently, according to Frazier. “Similar legislation has been enacted in 8 other states: AZ, FL, MI, MN, OK, TX, AK and IN,” a handout provided to LifeSiteNews said. In 2021, South Dakota passed similar language, according to Frazier.

The Family Research Council has identified 36 states with some sort of protection.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio has previously called the law proposal “offensive and dangerous” because it insinuates that abortionists commit infanticide.

“In the middle of a global pandemic, there are far more rational ways for lawmakers to spend their time in the legislative session,” the abortion organization said in April when the state senate first began consideration of the proposal.