WASHINGTON, July 19, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday evening gave final congressional approval to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (H.R. 2175). The bill would guarantee that live-born infants are afforded full legal rights under federal law, regardless of their stage of development or whether their live births occurred during an abortion.
After an earlier version of the bill was killed in the Senate in late 2000, the legislation was reintroduced in the current Congress by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). It passed the House on March 12 by a voice vote and cleared the Senate yesterday by unanimous consent.
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), supported the action noting “Some newborn infants, especially those who are born alive during abortions, have been treated as non-persons.” NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said, “This bill says that every infant born alive, even during an abortion and even if premature, is a full legal person under federal law.”
In a March 12 statement, the Bush Administration said that it “strongly supports” the bill, which “would ensure that infants who are born alive, at any stage of development, are individual human beings who are entitled to the full protections of the law,” and “would provide guaranteed legal protection whether or not the infant’s delivery was natural or the result of an abortion.”
See the AP coverage: https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020719/ap_on_go_co/congress_abortion_2