Urge your legislators to pass legislation to ensure that babies born alive during an abortion receive the same degree of professional skill and care to protect the newborn as would be offered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.
- Legislation should establish requirements for the degree of care a health care practitioner must exercise in the event a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion.
- A health care practitioner who is present should be required to (1) exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to another child born alive at the same gestational age, and (2) immediately admit the child to a hospital.
- Legislation should also require a health care practitioner or other employee to immediately report any failure to comply with this requirement to law enforcement.
- A person who violates the requirements is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.
- An individual who intentionally kills or attempts to kill a child born alive should be subject to prosecution for murder.
- Legislation should bar the criminal prosecution of a mother of a child born alive for conspiracy to violate these provisions, for being an accessory after the fact, or for concealment of felony.
- A woman who undergoes an abortion or attempted abortion should be able to file a civil action for damages against an individual who violates this legislation.