MONTGOMERY — State Rep. Ginny Shaver’s (R-Centre) HB 491, a “born-alive” bill intended to prevent infanticide, was given a favorable report on a voice vote by the House Health Committee on Wednesday.
HB 491 would require a doctor to administer care to a child born alive after an abortion attempt. The bill now is eligible for debate and consideration before the full House.
Shaver has previously explained, “There is no such thing as post-birth abortion. Think about those three words. That’s infanticide.”
“That’s what it is and what my bill does is in this situation where a child survives an abortion attempt and is born alive, it would require a physician to exercise the same reasonable care to preserve the life of the child that is born alive. When this happens, if there is any sign of breathing or any other sign of life … there would then exist a doctor-patient relationship between the doctor and the child so that he would be required to exercise the same degree of physical skill and care to make an effort to reasonably preserve the life and health of that child,” she continued.
In the committee meeting, Shaver said she will introduce a substitute when the bill is on the House floor that would make some changes stemming from last week’s public hearing.
One change would be to include a definition of abortion suggested by the medical community in the bill. She said this definition is the same as the one in Rep. Terri Collins’ (R-Decatur) HB 314, which the House already passed.
Another proposed change will be a “good faith clause” removing liability from doctors and hospitals attempting to comply in good faith with the bill.
The bill was introduced by Shaver after the recent embrace of infanticide by Democrats across the country, including notable public instances in New York and Virginia. Democrats in the U.S. House have blocked attempts to even consider the federal Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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