By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
April 18, 2019
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday vetoed a law that would have given babies born-alive during an abortion a fighting chance, calling the legislation “unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients” and claiming that it addresses a practice that “simply does not exist.”
“Despite the Governor’s denial, CDC data does confirm babies are born- alive after botched abortions. From 2003 to 2014 there were between 376 and 588 infant deaths under the medical code that keeps track of infants who were born alive after the ‘termination of a pregnancy,’” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League.
He said testimonials from nurses and other abortion clinic workers have confirmed the killing of born-alive children and that the law, passed by the Senate and the House earlier this week, is necessary to clarify that a child’s entitlement to the full protections of the law are not contingent upon whether the mother wants the child.
“Does the right to an abortion mean the right to a dead baby?” Creech asked. “Of course not, but current law is not clear. The proposed legislation that passed the North Carolina General Assembly clarifies that any infant who is completely expelled from the mother and alive is a ‘person.’”
Read Rev. Creech’s full press release statement here.
Sen. Joyce Krawiec (R-Forsyth) and Rep. Pat McElraft (R-Carteret), who had each made passionate arguments for the bill, reacted to the Governor’s veto, calling Thursday “a sad day for North Carolina.”
“Caring for a living, breathing, newborn infant is too restrictive for Governor Cooper’s radical abortion agenda,” Krawiec and McElraft said in a prepared statement. “We thought Democrats would agree that children born alive should be separate from the abortion debate, but it’s clear that they want the ‘right to choose’ to even extend past birth.”
North Carolina Republican Communications Director Jeff Hauser called on the General Assembly to come together to override the Governor’s veto.
“The day before Good Friday, Governor Cooper has chosen to stand with infanticide and extremist groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL over life,” Hauser said. “It is grotesque to think that Cooper believes providing care to infants born alive during an abortion procedure is ‘an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients.’”
Cooper’s announcement echoed the arguments of Rep. Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe) and other bill opponents, who called it an attack on women’s health and unnecessary.
“There is no wrong that this bill is addressing. All it is doing is creating confusion and division. All it is doing is adding unnecessary and scary-sounding criminal penalties and lawsuit threats to our general statutes,” Fisher told the House on Tuesday.
Similarly Democrat Carla Cunningham of Mecklenburg County demanded of fellow lawmakers: “Who do you trust to act in a difficult medical pregnancy? Do you trust the politicians in this room? Or do you trust the doctors and nurses who are trained and are licensed and who dedicate their professional lives to healthcare?”
But Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry) reminded Cunningham that the only doctor in the House, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-Pitt), supported the bill.
Stevens admitted that lawmakers don’t know precisely what happens in North Carolina when a baby is born alive during an abortion, but she said that is all the more reason that the law is needed, as it requires medical providers to report incidents of infanticide or medical neglect.
“What we did say is that you have the duty to report — nurses, doctors, whoever sees something like this take place has a duty to report. And that is as important a part of this bill as anything else,” Stevens said. “So yes, who do I trust? I trust the medical profession, I trust the legislators who are watching and following this and making sure we read from the same standards.”
Stevens further reminded the bill’s opponents of its true focus.
“This has nothing to do with ladies’ reproductive organs, nothing to do with abortion,” she said. “This has to do with a living, breathing human being coming out of a body and then being put to death.”
Cooper will answer for his role in those deaths, Creech said.
“At the judgment of God, Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will be named and condemned along with the infanticide practiced by the Inca Empire, Carthage, Greece, Rome, and pagan European tribes of yesteryear,” Creech said. “The Governor’s reasoning would have served him better if he hadn’t sold his soul to leftists who promise to help keep him in power.”