VICTOR JOECKS: Cortez Masto, Rosen vote in favor of infanticide

Killing children after they’ve been born doesn’t have anything to do with women’s health care. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen think otherwise.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The bill would require medical personnel to provide appropriate medical care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion. Once a baby is outside her mother’s womb, the abortion debate should be over.

But not according to Nevada’s two Democrat senators. Along with 42 of their Democrat colleagues, they voted against the bill, which needed 60 votes to advance. Despite three Democrats voting with every Republican, it only received 56 votes.

“I’ll always stand up to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” Rosen tweeted explaining her opposition to this bill and a separate proposal banning abortions after 20 weeks. Cortez Masto echoed that line, tweeting, “The rights of women to make their own health decisions shouldn’t be up for debate.”

Their argument equates a doctor denying basic medical care to a helpless newborn with a woman making decisions about her own health care. In reality, the former is cold-blooded murder. The bill would have mandated that doctors and nurses are responsible to provide care to the baby. It exempted mothers from criminal liability and allowed them to sue abortionists who don’t provide appropriate care. No wonder abortion doctors oppose it.

Between 2003 and 2014, the CDC reports that 143 babies died after being born alive during an abortion attempt. Because of spotty reporting, the number is likely low.

Providing medical care can save the life of a newborn after a botched abortion. It did for Melissa Ohden. Her biological mom had an abortion when she was seven months pregnant. Ohden’s little body was thrown away, but a nurse heard cries coming from the medical waste. There Ohden was — gasping for air, fighting for her life. Two nurses rushed her to the NICU, which saved her life.

Politically, Democrats can get away with this only because the mainstream media are in the tank for abortion. CNN described the bill as requiring abortion providers to help a “fetus that was born.” That’s a roundabout way of describing a baby, especially in a “news” report. What garbage. CNN eventually corrected the article. Full disclosure: I’ve written a couple of pieces for CNN Opinion recently.

This whole episode shows how disingenuous the “my body, my choice” talking point is. The scientific problems with that slogan are obvious. A preborn baby is inside her mother’s body, but the baby isn’t her mother. The preborn baby has different DNA. A baby’s blood type can even be different. The baby might even be a boy.

Even if you ignore that science, a baby covered by this bill is outside a woman’s body. Yet most Democrat senators believe that once a woman has chosen abortion, that baby should die even if the infant makes it through an abortion alive. This is the 21st century version of child sacrifice.

There’s not a nice way to put this. Rosen and Cortez Masto support infanticide. Shame on them.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.