House Passes Born-Alive Bill to Protect Babies Who Survive Abortions

by Zachary Mettler | January 23, 2025 | Government Updates

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill which would strengthen protections for babies who survive failed abortions.

However, an identical bill failed in the Senate on Wednesday, with Senate Democrats filibustering the legislation.

In 2002, Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act which granted legal protections to infants who survive abortions. The act “codified in law that a newborn, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, is to be legally recognized as a person from the moment of birth if he or she show any sign of life.” However, that bill did not provide any measure to enforce the protection for these infants.

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 21) would add “clear expectations of care, hospital transfer requirements, mandatory reporting, private rights of action for moms, and reasonable criminal penalties for health care professionals who violate the law.”

The House passed the Born-Alive bill in a 217-204 vote on Wednesday.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson applauded the bill’s passage in a statement:

The Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act is a matter of common sense and human dignity. Basic morality demands that a doctor provide medical care to a child born alive during an attempted abortion, just as they would for any child born prematurely.

Tragically, House Democrats opposed the bill, voted for infanticide, and opted to deny medical care to crying newborns on operating tables struggling to live. Every newborn child deserves to be protected. It truly is that simple.

On Wednesday, the Senate took up a vote to file cloture (end debate) on the Born-Alive bill. The vote failed 52-47, with all Democrat Senators voting against the motion, filibustering the bill.

Any bill – except for one bill per year during the budget reconciliation process – needs 60 votes in the Senate to break the filibuster and invoke cloture.

Senator James Lankford, R-OK., introduced the Born-Alive bill in the Senate last week. In a statement posted on X after the cloture vote, Sen. Lankford said,

I am disappointed that every Senate Democrat voted against my Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, making something that should be commonsense, completely partisan for the first time. This bill is straightforward and would save lives. I believe every life is valuable and that no one is disposable.

Sen. Lankford spoke in favor of the bill from the Senate chamber:

Just because a baby can’t defend herself, doesn’t mean she’s disposable—it means she’s vulnerable. My bill would have protected the lives of the most vulnerable. pic.twitter.com/FJP3Tf7Ft3
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 22, 2025

Senator Bill Cassidy, R-LA, also spoke in favor of the bill:

Thank you, @SenBillCassidy, for the reminder: "We're talking about not an abstraction. We're talking about a living, breathing person, a little girl, little boy who comes into the world after a failed abortion."

These newborns deserve proper medical care. pic.twitter.com/i5y7XKcBTq
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) January 22, 2025

Senators who support abortion spread lies about the bill, calling it “offensive,” “heartless,” an “intimidation of reproductive health care providers,” “absurd,” “anti-choice,” a “war on women’s reproductive freedom,” an “attack on reproductive care,” “anti-women,” “anti-family,” “anti-science,” an “attack on women,” and a “criminalization of doctors.”

None of this is true.

As we’ve explained, the Born-Alive bill has nothing to do with limiting abortion access. The bill would simply require health care practitioners to provide newborn infants who survive abortions with appropriate medical care.

Again, the act provides protections to already born infants – it does not restrict abortion access. That’s why every Senator and representative – pro-life and pro-abortion – should have supported the Born-Alive bill.

Indeed, hundreds of babies have died after a failed abortion in recent years. When a baby is born alive during a failed abortion, abortionists usually give the baby “comfort care” – the newborn is wrapped in blankets and left to die; no life-saving interventions are attempted.

To be clear, that’s infanticide.

Focus on the Family has endorsed the legislation, alongside a long list of our allies, including March for Life Action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Concerned Women for America LAC, National Right to Life, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Live Action, Americans United for Life, Family Research Council, Students for Life Action, Alliance Defending Freedom, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Heritage Action, Family Policy Alliance, Human Coalition, Liberty Council Action, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, among others.

We are grateful the Born-Alive legislation passed the House of Representatives, and we grieve that the legislation failed in the Senate.

We won’t stop working until all babies – born, preborn, and newborn – are protected under law.

Related articles and resources:

Senator Introduces Bill to Protect Babies Who Survive Failed Abortions

Fact Check: Some babies are executed after they’re born.

Photo from Shutterstock.