Ahead Of The Roe V. Wade Anniversary, Durbin Condemns Republicans' Sham 'Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act'

January 22, 2025

Ahead Of The Roe V. Wade Anniversary, Durbin Condemns Republicans' Sham "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act"

WASHINGTON - Ahead of the 52^nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke out against Republicans' so-called Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that would threaten health care providers with jail time and make it harder for women to access comprehensive and compassionate health care.

Durbin said, "As a result of Roe, America's women took a giant step forward in gender equity-the decision in Roe afforded women the right to choose whether, when, and how to start a family. But after nearly 50 years of progress, in June 2022, the Supreme Court overruled Roe in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization [ruling], dragging women's rights half a century backward. Following that decision, we saw Republican-led states open the floodgates to abortion restrictions-laws that, in some cases, have had deadly consequences for women who could not access the critical health care they needed."

Republicans' Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which the Senate is scheduled to vote on tomorrow, creates new standards of care for physicians providing reproductive health care that are not based in medicine, fact, or science. The goal of the bill is to target and intimidate reproductive health care providers. This bill offers an extremely sloppy and dangerous solution to a problem that simply does not exist.

Durbin said, "Instead of addressing the health care crisis that Dobbs has unleashed, Republicans are instead looking to make it even harder for women to access comprehensive and compassionate health care."

Despite Republicans pushing this legislation, there is already a law that ensures that any child born in America-regardless of the circumstances surrounding that birth-is afforded equal protections under the law.

"In 2002, the House and Senate passed-on a bipartisan basis-the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Do you know who signed that into law? Then-President George W. Bush. Put simply: it is already illegal to kill a child that is born alive in America. And in the rare cases where a doctor does harm a baby in violation of state and federal laws, they are held legally accountable. The year was 2013, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a Pennsylvania doctor, was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder for murdering babies after botching abortions. Gosnell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, under existing law, and he is currently serving that sentence at Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon," Durbin said.

Durbin went on to state that despite Republicans' claims, abortions later in a pregnancy are incredibly rare. When they do occur, it is most often because of a heartbreaking fatal fetal diagnosis, because a woman's doctor has told her that she may not survive the pregnancy, or because a woman lives in a state that prevented her from getting an abortion earlier.

Durbin continued, "Republicans would rather have you believe that vast numbers of women are intentionally waiting until the final days of their pregnancy to have abortions. This is a cruel political contrivance. These are women who often have already had baby showers, picked out names, persevered through morning sickness, back pain, swollen ankles, and countless doctors' appointments and tests-these are women who wanted their babies."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said the following when the House passed this bill last Congress: "The offensively named 'born-alive' legislation is another cruel and misguided attempt to interfere with evidence-based medical decision making between patients and their physicians… Laws that ban or criminalize evidence-based care and rely on medically unsupported theories and misinformation are dangerous to families and their clinicians. This bill negatively affects all obstetric and gynecologic care."

Durbin then described the story of Meredith Shiner, an Illinoisan, who was thrilled to learn in 2019 that she and her husband were expecting their first baby, a little boy. However, at 22 weeks and six days, Meredith woke up with terrible abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital, thinking she had a bladder infection.

Durbin said, "She [Meredith] didn't realize the seriousness of what was happening until a doctor told her she was in labor. The prognosis was grim. Having the baby at 22 weeks and six days meant that although the baby would be born 'alive,' the chances of survival were almost nonexistent. Knowing medical interventions would be futile, Meredith and her husband made the difficult decision to take the minutes they had with their son to hold him, touch him, and look at him until he gently passed away, as their doctors provided him with palliative care. This bill is written in such an overly broad, vague way that had it been law, those same doctors who provided compassionate care to Meredith, her husband, and their son could be subject to up to five years in prison."

Durbin continued, "In these heartbreaking situations, it is not time for politicians to dictate the course of medical treatment, as this bill would do. Those wrenching decisions-those personal, tragic moments-must be left to medical professionals and the individuals in their care. It is the only compassionate outcome."

Durbin concluded, "This week, we lost a lifelong advocate for women's rights-Cecile Richards. Cecile spent her life fighting to keep politics out of health care decisions and defending every woman's right to decide when and how to start or expand their family. We lost Cecile to glioblastoma-the same kind of brain cancer that took John McCain, Beau Biden, and Teddy Kennedy. If Senate Republicans truly cared about saving lives, they would be working with us to expand access to health care, increase funding for medical research that results in new cures and treatments, and implement policies that address our nation's abysmal record of infant and maternal mortality."

Video of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here.

Audio of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here.

Footage of Durbin's questions in Committee is available here for TV Stations.

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