Trump signs an executive order to safeguard abortion survivors known as the “born alive” order.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that federally financed clinics give life-saving medical care to babies born alive after abortions.
During an address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast earlier this week, Trump announced the plan, although he was vague on the details.
The White House stipulates in the order that the medical care requirement will be enforced and that funding will be prioritised for initiatives that either study advances to life-saving care or train medical workers to offer that type of treatment.
The ruling states that “any newborn born alive, whatever of the circumstances of his or her birth, has the same dignity and rights as every other individual and is entitled to the same protections under federal law.”
Pro-life supporters, who have united around Trump in the run-up to November, applauded the bill.
After Virginia Governor Ralph Northam stated in 2019 that doctors should be permitted to refuse life-saving care to infants who survive abortions, the topic became a focal point in Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
“When we talk about third-trimester abortions, we’re talking about cases where terrible malformations are possible. “There could be a nonviable foetus,” he remarked.
“I can tell you exactly what would happen if a mother was in labour. The baby was going to be born.
The baby would be kept safe and sound. If the mother and family chose, the infant would be resuscitated, and a conversation between the physicians and the mother would follow.”
As he prepares to appoint another Supreme Court nominee, Trump’s focus on abortion is expected to increase his popularity among social conservatives.
Aside from Northam’s remarks, testimony from David Daleiden’s civil trial recently revealed that Planned Parenthood observed at least one infant born after an abortion, and maybe more.
Gianna Jessen, who claims to have survived a botched saline abortion, was one of the people who the injunction was designed to safeguard.
Jessen thanked Trump for his efforts in a video released this week.
NARAL is a pro-choice organisation. According to a news release, America reacted to Trump’s initial declaration by accusing him of spreading false information and using a word — “born alive” — that is “not established in medical science.”
President Trump’s use of dangerous disinformation in a power grab for the Supreme Court, not to mention using executive powers to impose his own extreme ideology when he can’t get his agenda through Congress, is “downright cruel and a slap in the face to the American public,” NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said.
The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act, which would have penalised doctors who refuse to offer life-saving care, was defeated by House Democrats earlier this year.
While Democrats have maintained that existing legislation protects infants, that legislation has been hailed as a measure to ensure that infants receive care.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund vice president Jacqueline Ayers claimed Trump was attempting to fix a “nonexistent” problem.
She stated, “Healthcare providers already have an obligation to provide proper medical care.”
In his first term, former President George W. Bush signed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, establishing that newborns born at any stage of development are entitled to the same protection as anybody else.
That statute, as well as EMTALA, which demands emergency medical care, are used in Trump’s order to determine whether federally funded programmes are in compliance.
“Some institutions refuse the required medical screening examination and stabilising treatment or otherwise do not offer potentially life-saving medical treatment to extremely preterm or handicapped children, even when parents request for such treatment,” according to the ruling.
“Hospitals may refuse to treat extremely preterm newborns — those delivered alive before the 24th week of pregnancy — because they fear the infants will not survive, will have long-term problems, or will have a poor quality of life.
Active treatment of severely preterm infants, on the other hand, has been found to increase their chances of survival.”
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