Born-Alive acts require abortion providers to have equipment available to safely transport an infant, born alive in their clinic, to a hospital for proper care.

They are expected to give the same care to that newborn as a/he would receive in any other setting, meaning: https://twitter.com/womenhelporg/status/1253464199008849921

If a fetus is born alive before viability, there is no expectation for life-sustaining intervention. Theoretically, a clinic which provides only 1st trimester abortions will not need any of this equipment on-site, as a fetus can not currently survive at less than 21 wks.

Legal viability is currently 24 weeks. If a fetus is born before 24 weeks, the care given in a clinic would mirror that in a hospital: comfort measures for the child, with mom choosing whether or not to engage with her baby before natural death.

If a clinic is terminating

pregnancies post-viability, at a point greater than 24 weeks, then they should have equipment available to care for a child born alive in the same way a hospital would. Please note there are at least 8 clinics in the US which terminate post-viability:

https://laterabortion.org/sites/default/files/smfm_brochure_web_justclinics.pdf

(Note some clinics clarify they will do so for any reason, and one accepts taxpayer funding).

You will hear the argument, “but what about fetal anomalies”. Note that “Born Alive” bills only require a physician to give a child the care any other doctor would give, meaning that if

a child were born with a lethal anomaly...... it’s at the discretion of the parent and physician to decide how much intervention will be used- the same as if a parent learned a child had terminal cancer, etc. No doctor is going to be forced to intervene in a child’s dying process

because of these bills.

They will, however, be forced to provide care to children with survivable disabilities who’s parents had decided to abort them. They will also be required to sustain life for children who are born alive with no anomalies at all.

The idea that babies

are never born alive in abortion clinics is ludicrous- there is statistical data available proving this happens. Arizona requires the strictest reporting on abortion in the US. In 2018, 12 embryos or fetuses were reported born alive.

It happens. Period.

Now, statistics don’t give us the gestational age of these “embryos and fetuses” but if you look at the rest of the data, you see that 20% of all abortions are performed after 21 weeks. Extrapolating this out across the 50 states & DC, we can at least theorize the possibility

of 122 post-viability fetuses being born alive in the US. Now, I fully acknowledge is just loose math on my part, but it’s unreasonable to assume no children are ever born alive, who could be saved.

They will argue that it’s rare.

So what. This has zero to do with the legal

rights of the child involved, who is a completely separate human being from his/her mother. This has zero to do with a woman’s autonomy. The child is a citizen of our country, and entitled to emergency medical care. If you are in a business where there is an expectation this

could happen, even on rare occasions, you have an obligation to be prepared, period.

They will argue it’s a parenting decision- again, the child involved has legal rights to care which supersede parental desires. This has been a subject ruled upon by the USSC.

They will argue previous laws already covered this.

Previous laws had no penalty for abortion providers who refused care. A law with no penalty is pointless. It allowed abortion providers to decline caring for preemies born alive in their clinics. This law will remove the

potential for remaining passive.

The bottom line: babies are born alive in clinics, & have a legal right to care, regardless of the reason mom is seeking abortion. If a doctor declines to treat them in the typical way a baby their gestation is treated, they should be penalized.