A former Planned Parenthood employee is calling on congressional Democrats to hold a vote on legislation aimed at providing medical care to abortion survivors.
Kathi A. Aultman, a former medical director for Planned Parenthood, called on House Democrats to move forward with the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
“They think that this bill is just one more encroachment on abortion, and it’s absolutely not,” she said in a congressional hearing organized by House Republicans.
The bill requires health care practitioners to “exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to another child born alive at the same gestational age” and to immediately admit the child to a hospital. It also forbids the criminal prosecution of a mother of a child born alive for any potential violation of the bill and allows a woman who undergoes an attempted abortion to sue practitioners for civil damages.
Democratic leaders have sought to block the bill from coming to the House floor. Republicans are attempting to adopt discharge petition, which would guarantee an up-or-down vote. The petition has 201 signatures, 17 short of the 218 needed. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.) commended Aultman, as well as other pro-life doctors and nurses who testified at the hearing. – READ MORE