By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
May 3, 2019
The fate of North Carolina babies born alive during botched abortions rests with members of the House of Representatives following Tuesday’s vote by the Senate to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
“We’re so glad the Senate pulled together to reverse the Governor’s bad decision, but I fear the battle will be more difficult in the House,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. He said some lawmakers who voted for the bill earlier this month have said they will now vote to sustain the Governor’s veto.
“Sadly, politics takes precedence over the principle of precious life,” Creech said as he urged Christians to pray for their lawmakers.
SB 359, filed partly in response to efforts in New York and Virginia to legalize infanticide, would make it a felony for doctors to deny appropriate medical care to babies born alive after a failed abortion and would require nurses and other staff to report the incidents.
Once again defending the measure in the Senate, sponsor Joyce Krawiec (R-Davie) reminded her colleagues that the bill is “nothing except requiring care for a newborn child, separate from its mother, born alive, breathing, heart beating.”
“It simply says that child should be given medical care like any other human being,” Krawiec said. “It’s a sad day when we have to come back here because we have a governor who decided that making a political statement was more important than saving born-alive babies.”
She said the governor’s claims that laws are already in place to protect newborn babies and that the bill was thus unnecessary, are completely disingenuous.
Coming to the Governor’s defense, Sen. Floyd McKissick (D-Durham) said lawmakers are “trying to cure a problem that doesn’t exist” and that the law is feeding a false narrative.
That has been the tactic of bill opponents from the introduction of the measure — refusing to acknowledge data from the Centers for Disease Control that shows that between 2003 and 2014, at least 143 babies died after being born alive during botched abortions, a number the CDC believes is an underestimation since only a few states have laws requiring that the deaths be reported.
eTuesday’s vote came a day after five of the state’s prominent pro-life organizations held a press conference calling for lawmakers to stand up for newborns.
“When N.C. Gov Roy Cooper issued his Easter veto of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act, he vetoed the lives of innocent babies, and he instead chose to support infanticide,” Tami Fitzgerald told onlookers on the lawn of the Legislative Building in Raleigh. The executive director of the NC Values Coalition was the first of five speakers to call on the General Assembly for a veto override.
“Roy Cooper didn’t just veto a bill. He vetoed babies, babies who are innocently born alive as a result of a botched abortion,” Fitzgerald said.
Also addressing the crowd on Monday were the Rev. Creech; Jill Coward with Concerned Women for America; John Rustin with the N.C. Family Policy Council; and Barbara Holt with N.C. Right to Life.
The Rev. Creech compared the governor’s action in vetoing the protection act to that of the King of Egypt when he ordered midwives to kill born-alive infant sons of the nation of Israel. He called the practice of allowing these babies to die without medical help “execution by default.”
For a video of Monday’s noon press conference, check out the Family Values Coalition’s Facebook page. Or listen to the audio for more information.
Stay tuned to the Christian Action League website for follow-up stories as the House takes up the issue. If all 120 members are present, passing the override would require 72 votes. Earlier this month, the bill passed the House, 65-46, with nine lawmakers absent or not voting.