President Trump on Wednesday announced that he will be signing a “Born Alive Executive Order” to protect babies who are born alive after a failed abortion.

The president made the announcement in a pre-recorded video address for the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

“We believe in the joy of family, the blessing of freedom, and the dignity of work and the eternal truth that every child, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of God,” President Trump began. “I will always protect the vital role of religion and prayer in American society, and I will always defend the sacred right to life.”

“Today I am announcing that I will be signing the ‘Born-Alive Executive Order’ to ensure that all precious babies born alive, no matter their circumstances, receive the medical care that they deserve. This is our sacrosanct moral duty,” President Trump then revealed.

“We are also increasing federal funding for the neonatal research to ensure that every child has the very best chance to thrive and to grow,” he noted.

Federal legislation on this issue has recently failed in the U.S. Senate

The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was introduced in the Senate on January 31, 2019 but subsequently failed in a vote of 56-41. Three Democrats joined a unified Republican voting block in support of the bill. The bill needed 60 votes to advance.

Though a law titled the “Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002” prohibits abortionists from killing a born child struggling for life, the 2019 version would have added requirements that an abortionist give age-appropriate medical care to an infant born alive after a failed abortion. An abortionist who fails to do so would have been subject to criminal penalties of “a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.”

In the now infamous case of the trial of Kermit Gosnell, an OB-GYN testified at his trial that if a baby is born alive after a failed abortion, the abortionist only provides “comfort care” so it will “eventually pass.”

According to a spokesperson for Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who introduced the bill, the 2019 update was aimed at cases where an abortionist would just “back away” following a failed abortion to allow the infant to die.

The executive order that the president will sign has yet to be released, but according to the Catholic News Agency, it is “expected to mirror the attempted federal legislation on the issue.”

Photo from Shutterstock/Evan El-Amin

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