Republican lawmakers defended their bill that would require abortion providers to care for babies who survive abortion attempts or face prison, telling the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday that the measure would uphold the sanctity of life. Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke and Senate President Roger Roth say it would leave no doubt that health care providers must do everything they can to keep babies alive if they are born during a failed abortion attempt. Committee Democrats countered that babies are rarely born alive during failed abortion attempts and that there’s no record of it ever happening in Wisconsin. Furthermore, they argued that if such a scenario did occur, doctors would be ethically bound to care for it and killing it would be homicide under current state law. Governor Tony Evers told AM 1170s Between the Lines program this week the bill was meant as a distraction from more important issues. “Its a political issue. They’re trying to distract people from the important work that they need to do in ramming these bills through,” Evers said. “….going through committee and through the bodies, the assembly and senate, in a very short period of time clearly its a distraction.” Under the bill , providers would have to care for babies born alive following an abortion attempt. Not doing so would be a felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a provider convicted of killing such a baby would face life. National data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest few babies are born alive as a result of an abortion. The CDC recorded 143 instances in which live births resulted from abortion attempts between 2003 and 2014. It’s unclear if any happened in Wisconsin. State officials don’t track such occurrences.
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