Republicans challenge Democrats with "living-born" bills

Republican lawmakers across the country are mobilizing behind President Donald Trump's efforts to associate Democrats with "infanticide", bold Democratic governors vetoing "live-born" bills that animate the party's base before the 2020 elections.

Bills approved this week by the GOP-led legislatures in Montana and North Carolina would penalize health care providers for failing to care for an infant surviving an abortion attempt. The measures, which also affect legislatures in Texas and elsewhere, are being pushed by anti-abortion groups that have quickly seized bills in New York and Virginia to ease restrictions on abortions in the third quarter.

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"The pro-life activists of the legislature really make things uncomfortable for governors," said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group allied with the Trump administration. "Now they have a politically delicate situation with these pro-life bills directed to their office."

The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, who is due to be re-elected next year in a state that Trump won by 3.6 percentage points, Thursday vetoed the bill as lawmakers of the day. 39, state adopted two days earlier. A spokesman for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who is considering a presidential race as a moderator of bridge construction, said he'd probably do the same.

"This useless legislation would criminalize doctors and other health care providers for a practice that simply does not exist," Cooper said in a statement after vetoing the bill.

Democrats and abortion rights activists say the GOP and Trump – who have said Democrats "make fun of babies' post-natal execution" – use incendiary language to spread misinformation about third-trimester abortions, which are rare and often lead to serious health problems for pregnant women. woman or the fetus. Democrats argue that the law already prevents doctors from killing babies and that the so-called "live" measures would prevent them from providing proper care and add emotional pain to already difficult medical decisions.

Similar bills in Congress have been rejected or blocked, but the Republicans intend to advance the record of the 2020 elections. Trump has conquered the evangelicals, a key group of the GOP, with its strong anti-abortion stance and his attempts to reduce funding for Planned Parenthood. Conservatives, who seek to portray Democrats on abortions so extreme that they tolerate "baby killers," believe the issue can motivate voters and attract Hispanics – divided over abortion – and suburban women who helped fuel Democrats' gains in mid-term.

Cooper's veto appeared as an immediate hotspot in North Carolina, a battleground for the presidency and control of the Senate in 2020. Democrats are convinced of the need to overthrow Senator Thom Tillis (RC). next year to try to win back the Senate. The state government, GOP, has accused Cooper of aligning with abortion providers "infanticides and extremists."

Cooper, who in 2016 has just narrowly defeated an unpopular Republican president, is betting that his veto will not hurt his reelection effort.

"Two decades ago, you had never seen a politician in North Carolina take such a step," said Mitch Kokai, senior policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank in Raleigh. "But I guess Cooper is doing the political calculation that there are enough supporters of the pro-choice movement concerned about this legislation and its links to the pro-life cause that he thinks that this will not hurt him. "

Texas and six other states are discussing similar bills, based on a model of National Right to Life legislation, that would impose fines and jail time on doctors and nurses who neglect a child who survives an abortion. The Texas bill is about to pass – the State House and Senate have to reconcile slightly different versions of the bill before it is sent to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who tweeted his support.

The third quarter abortion political storm was triggered earlier this year by a vote in the New York Legislature aimed at easing the procedural restrictions and by graphic commentary from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. defending a similar bill in his state. Democratic presidential candidates were confronted with questions on the subject during the election campaign.

"What happened in New York and Virginia is considered extremely extreme," said Quigley of SBA List. "You have Beto [O’Rourke] and Bernie [Sanders] and people who run for president must speak of a late abortion. It's going to be a problem that hurts them. "

Democrats are largely united on the right to abortion and have tried to highlight the actions of the Trump administration aimed at reducing access to family planning and contraception. Nevertheless, some Democrats are worried about their party's strategy to counter the Republican message on these bills.

"[Democrats] should be more and more concerned, not only by this policy, but by … a model that takes a national message, often confused, and finds a way to locate it and turn it into a weapon, "said an aide. When you take a national object and locate it, the Democratic governors are ill at ease, the Republicans win. "

The Senate Democrats had blocked earlier this year an attempt by Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) To introduce a "living born" bill before the measure was largely defeated by political parties end of February. Three Democrats – Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Doug Jones of Alabama and Joe Manchin of West Virginia – voted for. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House have gathered signatures to force the vote.

State measures so far have been widely adopted with the votes of the GOP. However, Democratic legislators have supported them in conservative areas of the country.

"The painting painted by [the bill] Judith Zaffirini, one of the two Senate Democrats who voted for the bill in a statement, said Senator Texas. The idea that a doctor, as a result of a failed abortion, witnesses a fight for the life of a newborn child doing nothing to help is incomprehensible and odious. "

But many lawmakers in the Democratic State have argued that the bills were intended to score political points or discourage doctors from offering abortions. Democrats in North Carolina have argued that Republicans have never pushed for a vote even though they held legislative supermajorities last year.

"Let me say that not one of us in this room supports infanticide," said Texas State Representative Donna Howard, a Democrat who organized the boycott of the bill in the House Tuesday. "The disinformation perpetuated by this bill is dangerous and is the exact type of rhetoric that leads to threats of violence against suppliers."

Democrats say Republicans give a false picture of how often and why abortions occur later in pregnancy. In Texas, for example, no child survived an abortion attempt between 2013 and 2016, the only years for which health department data are available. And if a doctor harms a baby, lawsuits can be brought under current law, as was the case for abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted of murder in 2013.

Bills "born alive" would criminalize negligence, which would mean that prosecutors would not necessarily have to prove a premeditated intent to harm to bring the case. Second, they provide for severe sentences – in the Montana bill, for example, doctors and nurses could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Anti-abortion groups are convinced that the measures would withstand court challenges, contrary to the laws of other states that prohibited the voluntary termination of pregnancy before fetal viability – the standard established by Roe v. Wade. Some abortion advocacy groups said they would probably not try to block these measures in court, decrying the bills as "alarmist tactics."

"Newborns are already protected by the legislation in force. This legislation is therefore totally useless, "said Elisabeth Smith, senior advocate for state policy at the Center for Reproductive Rights.