Alabama House passes 'born-alive' abortion bill

[turbinetree]

"Infanticide” is a manufactured controversy started by anti-choice conservatives who want to limit reproductive freedom.

Elham Khatami
May 22, 2019, 10:12 am

Days after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban into law, the state legislature took things one step further, passing a bill Tuesday that would criminalize doctors for failing to treat an infant “born alive” after an abortion or an attempted abortion.

Under the controversial bill, which now moves to the state Senate, doctors would face jail time of 20 years for failing to “exercise reasonable care to preserve the life of a child born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion.” The measure is not rooted in scientific evidence or medicine, nor does it attempt to solve a common problem. Indeed, babies born before 23 weeks of pregnancy rarely survive, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Under current Alabama law, abortion is banned at or after 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The issue of infants being “born alive” and then supposedly killed, otherwise known as “infanticide,” is largely a manufactured controversy started by anti-choice conservatives who want to limit reproductive freedom. As Alabama Democrats pointed out on Tuesday, the state has no record of any such instances. Furthermore, the majority of abortions nationwide are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

There are very rare cases in which the life of a fetus and the pregnant person are both at risk, with the only solution being to induce labor, even if it means that the baby will not survive. Under the Alabama bill, doctors would be forced to try to save the infant’s life or face punishment.

https://thinkprogress.org/alabama-reproductive-rights-passes-born-alive-abortion-bill-36ba9506d719/

Name state's in the United States that are "third world" and full of shit......................

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alabama

[rampartc]

1. they believe some incredible things

[DFW]

2. This is mullahs in suits and ties looking to jail and kill people

Their excuse is just one they find convenient.

By the way, "state's" is a Republicanese plural. In English, we just write "states."

[cynatnite]

3. I'm a little reminded of something that happened during my time in medical...

This was years ago, a few decades...

A patient was admitted on our floor with bone cancer. It had spread throughout his body and he was in agonizing pain. We could barely touch him. He was an elderly gentleman, too.

The family refused to sign a DNR and the patient was not able to give consent for a DNR. He was considered incompetent. A code would mean literally shattering his sternum and all of his ribs.

Anyway, the doctor pulled us aside and said that should his heart stop, it would be what we called a "slow code". It meant that we took our time, we walked and didn't run. It basically meant that while doing what was legally required, it didn't mean that we had to rush it. We would let the patient die while following the law at the same time.

Anyway, this awful bill made me think of that.

I fucking hate these abortion laws.

[gratuitous]

4. If you're a doctor practicing in Alabama under these laws

How many doctors are going to limit their treatment of women of child-bearing age, or stop treating women altogether because the risk of treating a woman who doesn't know she's pregnant exposes the doctor to the risk of a long prison stretch? Or a woman who comes in experiencing a miscarriage? You want to put your license and your freedom on the line assisting her?

I couldn't blame any doctor who up and quits treating women under these draconian laws.

[zipplewrath]

6. It be illegal

If anyone found out, it easily could be illegal to not take female patients.

[jmowreader]

5. Here's what I can't figure out.

Alabama has so many needs. They need new infrastructure, more schools and to fix the ones they have, jobs, more industries...all these things they could be doing to help the residents of Alabama. Instead, they waste their time on this.

I believe if I was an Alabama state legislator right now, I would be dropping a bill to appropriate $3 million to paint Bryant-Denny Stadium gray as the color of the brickwork offends the herd of Naugas that live on the University of Alabama campus, When it is revealed that the Nauga is the beast from which we get Naugahyde, I would be asked why I was wasting the legislature’s time. “I must ask why the legislature is wasting its time with abortion bill after abortion bill when this state has real needs that we haven’t just pushed to the back burner, we’ve taken them off the stove, walked them out of the kitchen and dumped them in the hog trough.”