ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 12 — The U.S. House of Representatives voted to define an unborn child that has been born and is fully outside a woman's body as having been “born alive.”
The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act would amend the legal definitions of “person,” “human being,” “child” and “individual” to include an unborn child that is either breathing or has a heartbeat once out of the womb.
The goal of pro-life legislators supporting the bill is to protect unborn children who have survived abortion attempts.
”It's long overdue that this become law,” said pro-life U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, who wrote the legislation. “It just seems like common sense that when a baby is born, no matter what the circumstances of the birth may have been, even if it was a botched abortion, that the child be treated with basic human dignity.” An identical bill sponsored by pro-life U.s. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is pending in the Senate.