Fighting for life

Richard A. Sokerka

In the last week, the pro-life movement gained some ground in one area but in another lost ground.

A victory for life came when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Trump Administration, as promised, is restoring Title X family planning regulations to prohibit grantees from co-locating with abortion clinics, or from referring clients for abortion. “The Protect Life Rule” requires clear financial and physical separation between Title X funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the U.S. Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said, “I applaud the Trump Administration for reaffirming that abortion is not family planning. Abortion ends the lives of families’ most vulnerable members, as well as damaging the spiritual, mental and physical health of mothers. We have long supported enforcement of the abortion funding restrictions in Title X, and we are pleased to see that the Trump Administration has taken seriously its obligation to enforce those restrictions.”

But also last week, the U.S. Senate, which had the opportunity to save baby’s lives, instead failed to advance the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act—legislation that prohibits infanticide by ensuring that a child born alive following an abortion would receive the same degree of care to preserve her life and health as would be given to any other child born alive at the same gestational age. The Senate rejected a motion to advance the bill on a vote of 53 to 44. In the Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and pass a bill.

Archbishop Naumann commented: “There should be no bill easier for the Senate to pass than one that makes clear that killing newborn babies is wrong and should not be tolerated. That even one senator, let alone 44 senators voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, is an injustice that should horrify and anger the American people and commit us to decisive political action. The American people, the vast majority of whom support this bill, must demand justice for innocent children.”

Stunned by the vote, Students for Life of America planned a series of rallies outside the offices of Democratic presidential candidates who voted against the bill. Among the 44 Democrat Senators who voted “no,” ensuring that babies who survive an abortion can be left to die, are six who are declared candidates for the 2020 presidential election, including New Jersey’s Corey Booker.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said, “It is a sad reflection of politics today that the Democratic Party cannot even agree that killing babies who are born alive after a failed abortion is wrong. This has nothing to do with protecting women’s ‘health.’ ”

What should have been a double victory for the pro-life movement was not to be. It portends that the fight to protect life in the womb will continue though the next election cycle and beyond before it is won by all of us who cherish life.