In The News

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen called on House leadership Monday to consider a bill requiring health providers to provide medical care for a child born alive after an abortion procedure.

Allen, R-Augusta, is one of 48 original co-sponsors of House Resolution 962, the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.” Democrats have refused to consider the resolution 20 times, Allen’s office said in a news release.

Allen was given the floor Monday and asked that the House Judiciary Committee release the bill to the floor for consideration. His request was denied because it lacked bipartisan support. Allen continued by asking that the bill be immediately scheduled “so we can stand up and protect the sanctity of human life,” but he was no longer recognized to speak.

The bill requires physicians or health providers performing an abortion to use the same care to save the life of a child born at the time of an unsuccessful abortion as they would with a child of the same gestational age. Reporting incidents is mandatory and the penalty for violators is up to five years in prison.

Little data is available about how many children have been born at the time of an abortion procedure, and much is anecdotal. Activist Gianna Jessen has testified to Congress about surviving the saline abortion her 17-year-old mother had in 1977 in about the 30th week of her pregnancy. Jessen was born weighing 2½ pounds and with cerebral palsy.

The head of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, said a similar Senate bill addresses a problem that does not actually exist.

The bill “criminalizes doctors for a practice that doesn’t exist in medicine or reality,” said the organization’s president, Leana Wen.

According to abortion statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 1 percent of all U.S. abortions are performed after 24 weeks, when a fetus is considered viable and could survive outside the womb. Guidelines for doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics say not to attempt to resuscitate until the 23rd week, prior to which very few have survived.

Allen has supported limiting abortions since taking office. He has voted to eliminate taxpayer funding for abortion, prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and when a fetal heartbeat is detected, and to defund and have Congress investigate Planned Parenthood.