Virginia’s Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would have protected babies born alive during botched abortion attempts from infanticide by requiring medical providers to administer life-saving care to the child.
HB-304, also known as the Infant Born-Alive Protection Act, was introduced in Virginia’s House of Delegates by former Trump election attorney Wren Williams, who now serves as a first-term Delegate from Patrick County. While the Infant Born-Alive Protection Act made it through the GOP-controlled House, it was blocked by Democrats in the State Senate, where the rabidly pro-abortion party maintains a slim majority.
“The Virginia Senate Democrats just killed our Infant Born-Alive Protection Act (HB304),” Williams said in a press release. “This bill had already passed the House of Delegates, and would have required any child born alive or surviving a botched abortion to be protected and administered life-saving aid.”
According to Williams, he filed the anti-infanticide bill in direct response to former Democrat Governor Ralph Northam’s “horrifying” 2019 statements in favor of the practice. At the time, Northam was touting a late-term abortion bill supported by Virginia Democrats, and admitted during a radio interview that if a baby were born alive during an attempted abortion, he or she would be kept “comfortable” while the mother and doctor had a “discussion” about whether or not to murder the child via infanticide.
“This bill was a direct response to former Governor Ralph Northam’s 2019 statement on air, where he medically explained how an ‘abortion’ would be performed at and after the point of birth. Northam said, ‘I can tell you exactly what would happen: The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.’”
Williams went on to offer some “moral clarity” to Virginia’s Democrats on the issue, and said that infanticide has become a central theme of the Democrat Party, which uses abortion support as a litmus for politicians.
“Let me provide some moral clarity: That is not even abortion we are talking about anymore. What former Governor Northam described is infanticide. It is horrifying. And for all the talk about how Ralph Northam’s on-air comments were a ‘misspeak’ or ‘taken out of context,’ this vote proves that guaranteeing a legal path to murder infants at and after their birth is a feature, not a bug of the Virginia Democrat Party.”
“Guaranteeing the human rights of our children and outlawing infanticide should not be controversial. Infanticide should not be a partisan issue. For my part, I will never stop fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable among us who have no voice. And I will always stand for the sanctity of human life.”