Texas Gov. Greg Abbott just signed his state’s new law mandating under criminal penalty that a doctor give lifesaving treatment to any baby who survives an abortion and is born alive.
“In some states leaders support abortion until the last minute of pregnancy — even after a child is born. Not in Texas,” Abbott said in a tweet. “I formally signed the Born Alive Act to make it illegal to kill a child who survives an abortion. It also ensures the baby receives needed medical care.”
The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, mandates that abortion providers provide the same basic medical care to babies who survive botched abortions that they would any other patient. Any doctor found to be in violation of the law faces third-degree felony charges and a fine of up to $100,000. The bill passed the Texas House 93-to-1 with 50 abstentions, and passed the Senate 21-to-10 with bipartisan support.
Despite there being hundreds of known survivors of abortion who've advocated for bills exactly like this one, the measure was met with plenty of opposition from pro-abortion Democrats, one of whom called the measure a “malicious and purely political attack against women and doctors.”
“The aim of HB16 is clear: further stigmatize abortion, misinform the public, intimidate physicians, and interfere with a woman’s ability to seek medical care,” declared state Rep. Donna Howard on the House floor back in April. “To debate this bill would legitimize its false information. We refuse to waste limited time we have here by entertaining malicious and purely political attacks against women and doctors.”
Abbott signed the Texas measure into law just as the Colorado state legislature nixed its own version of the bill, which would have required that doctors “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child born alive at the same gestational age” or face a $100,000 fine.