Anti-abortion bill would drive out healthcare providers, doctors say

An anti-abortion law proposed by Republican lawmakers would needlessly torment the mothers of gravely ill children and drive much needed specialists out of the state, doctors argued at a Senate Judiciary Committee held Tuesday afternoon.

The bill, HB 233, requires that health care providers take “all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to the preserve the life and health” of a newborn infant. Proponents argue the bill ensures health care providers give life saving treatment to infants who survive late-term abortions. Others fear this legislation would interfere with the grieving process for families of fatally ill newborns.

The bill advanced from the House in late February after Democrats left the chamber in protest and the house speaker locked them out, easily allowing Republicans to get a two-thirds majority.

The prime sponsor, Rep. Jordan Ulery, a Hudson Republican, said the legislation protects the life of infants, citing an instance of an unlicensed medical school graduate in Pennsylvania who delivered unwanted babies during the third trimester and then killed them.

Read more: https://www.concordmonitor.com/bill-hearing-born-alive-39726402