WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 25, 2019—Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, is urging U.S. Senators to vote “yes” in support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which is scheduled for a roll call vote this afternoon.
“The fact that this bill is even necessary is chilling to consider,” said Moore. “That somehow there would even be a question among elected officials whether it should be legal to leave a crying child to die on the table is shameful. Protecting the lives of living babies must not be a partisan issue. Children have intrinsic value that is defined not by their power, nor by the whim of doctors, but by the image of God each one of them bears.”
“Surely the Senate can and should, today, protect the vulnerable and banish this grotesque injustice. Americans deserve to know where their elected officials stand on infanticide. We should not be complicit in rendering imperiled children non-persons based simply on the circumstances of their birth.”
If passed, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would amend the federal criminal code to require any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an attempted abortion to exercise the same degree of care as is reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age and ensure that such a child is immediately admitted to a hospital.
The ERLC is committed to defending the vulnerable at every stage in life. If enacted, this law would help prevent infanticide by securing this most basic human right of life and appropriate medical care for infants born alive after a failed abortion.