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MassLive: Mass. Reps. Pressley, Trahan, Clark condemn House approval of GOP’s ‘born alive’ abortion bill

January 23, 2025

Three Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts have condemned a Republican-authored abortion bill that critics say is redundant and attempts to punish doctors who perform the procedure.

The comments by U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, Katherine Clark, D-5th District, and Lori Trahan, D-3rd District, came after the House voted Thursday to approve its version of a “born alive” abortion bill, according to The Hill, a publication that covers Congress.
If it’s eventually signed into law, the bill would require health care providers to render “the same “same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence” for a child who is born alive during an attempted abortion as they would for a child who is born during childbirth, The Hill reported.
The bill passed the House on a 217-211 vote, according to an official roll call. Eleven lawmakers did not vote for the bill. One was marked present.

All nine members of Massachusetts’ all-Democrat U.S. House delegation voted against the bill.

In a statement, Pressley, of Boston, said the bill imposes new criminal penalties and reporting requirements on health care providers. Such a move “[injects] politicians into the patient-physician relationship,” and it “disregard[s] medical expertise with the intent to bully and scare.
As it’s currently written, the bill “[interferes] with parents’ ability to hold and comfort their child with a terminal diagnosis, mandating invasive and ineffective medical intervention,” The Hill reported.

Critics of the legislation also have argued that it’s unnecessary because it’s already illegal to kill infants who are born alive during an abortion in the rare instances such births occur, according to The Hill.

The House’s vote came the day after Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked similar legislation on their side of Capitol Hill, Politico reported.

In a speech from the House floor, Trahan, of Westford, criticized the House’s slender GOP majority for “[failing] to call a vote on a single piece of legislation to address the pressing needs of hardworking families.”

“So, what’s the priority for the Republicans this week? A vote on … the so-called ‘Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act,’ a bill that will give politicians here in Washington the power to monitor women’s pregnancies and criminalize doctors and nurses who provide lifesaving care to women in need. I wish I was kidding,” Trahan said.

Clark, the No. 2 House Democrat, made clear the vote was a personal one.

“When my doctor told me my pregnancy wasn’t viable and that I needed an abortion procedure, I was devastated,” she posted to X. “What have Republicans achieved by injecting politics into these moments of grief? A country where one-third of counties don’t have a single OB/GYN.”

In a letter to Senate lawmakers urging them to oppose the bill, the American Civil Liberties Union said the legislation “[makes] up a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Physicians “are already required to provide appropriate medical care by law and to follow ethical guidelines,” the ACLU wrote.
“The real aims of this bill are clear: to target abortion providers by applying harsh penalties and uncertain standards to cut off access to necessary care, and to distort public perception of compassionate abortion care by suggesting that doctors do not provide high-quality care to their patients,” Madison Roberts, a senior policy counsel for the ACLU, wrote.
One Republican lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, of Minnesota, argued that the bill is “not about abortion” but instead focuses on “medical care for babies,” The Hill reported.
The House’s vote came on the eve of Friday’s March for Life in Washington, D.C. Thousands are expected to attend at the 52nd annual event on the National Mall.

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Original story HERE.

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