Abortion survivors call out opposition to Born-Alive bill on Capitol Hill: ‘This is infanticide’

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Abortion survivor celebrates House passage of Born-Alive bill

Sarah Zagorski, who survived an abortion attempt in 1990, celebrates the House passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Abortion survivors cheered the passage of a measure that will require the immediate medical attention of babies who are born alive after failed abortion attempts.

The House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by a vote of 220-210 Wednesday, with all 210 "no" votes coming from Democrats. The measure states that any infant born alive following an abortion attempt or that survives the abortion is a "legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States." Doctors and healthcare workers would have to keep the child alive as a "reasonably diligent and conscientious healthcare practitioner would render to any other child born alive." 

A child born at an abortion clinic that does not have adequate care facilities would be responsible for transporting the child to a hospital.  

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Abortion survivors like Sarah Zagorski celebrated on Capitol Hill and recalled her own emotional journey.

Zagorski wasn’t breathing when she was delivered by a New Orleans abortionist in 1990 at 26 and a half weeks, she told Fox News Digital. The doctor, she said, even advised his mother "to let her die on the table." 

"Thankfully, she resisted his coercive efforts and said, ‘I’m going to sue you if you don’t give my daughter medical care…" Zagorski said of her mother. 

A guitar is held high at the U.S. Supreme Court with a Pro-Life message on the annual March For Life Rally in Washington D.C. (iStock)

That threat "scared him enough to give her the care she needed," according to Zagorski. 

"I’m very thankful to my birth mother, but my message today is, women should never be in a situation where they have to fight coercive abortion physicians in the abortion industry," Zagorski said. "And this bill will protect women, and it will also protect babies like myself." 

"The bottom line is this is infanticide," she continued. "We’re talking about a baby that has been delivered already. There’s no excuse for anyone voting ‘no’ on this legislation. This isn’t about ‘abortion rights.’ This is about a baby that is outside of the womb. This is something we should all have common ground upon."

Some Democrats who voted "no" blasted the bill as "extreme."

"Today, instead of joining Democrats to condemn all political violence, [House Republicans] chose to push their extreme anti-choice agenda," Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted Wednesday. "Democrats believe everyone deserves the freedom to access reproductive health services – without fear of violence, intimidation or harassment."

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Democratic House Whip Katherine Clark claimed the name of the bill was "deliberately misleading and offensive to the women who face pregnancy complications and the doctors and nurses who provide their care." Several other Democrats argued that having to immediately take a child to the hospital after treatment was too risky and harmful.

Sarah Zagorski, who survived an abortion attempt in 1990, celebrates the House passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on Capitol Hill Wednesday. (Fox News Digital)

But pro-life activists like Jill Stanek described the bill as a common sense piece of legislation that requires a baby is given the same care, regardless "if it is wanted or not."

"I came today because I've been fighting this fight for over 25 years now," Stanek told Fox News Digital after the vote.

Stanek said she worked for a year at an Illinois hospital as a registered nurse in the Labor and Delivery Department in 1999, when she discovered the hospital was aborting babies born alive. One of the babies, she remembered, was a second-trimester baby with Down’s syndrome.

"He was about 22 or 23 weeks old," she said. "He was about the size of my hand." 

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"I'm pro-life, but it's kind of personal too," Stanek said. "I'm here on behalf of that little baby I held. I couldn't bare the thought of him dying alone, so I cradled him and rocked him for the 45 minutes he lived, and that was a life-changing event." 

The U.S. Capitol building is lit at dusk in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017. (Reuters)

Stanek said that while earlier versions of the Born Alive bill had "no teeth," the measure that just passed the House could place civil, criminal, and financial penalties on abortion doctors and staff who don't provide the quick care a baby born alive needs.

"It would mean that this kind of thing won't happen anymore, theoretically," she said.

The House also passed a measure Wednesday condemning political violence against pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. The House voted 222-209 in favor of the resolution, with nearly all Democrats voting no. Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center executive director Janet Durig cheered the news, telling Fox News Digital about how her center was attacked in June when vandals smeared red paint and graffiti over the walls. 

"But there were feelings at first when I arrived, and I saw - I sort of felt the hatred of those who hate what we do," During said. "And the sad part is those who hate what we do, actually don't understand what we do. I'm convinced of that. They don't understand that a woman who chooses life, should have a right to keep her baby, and people like us will help them find a job, help them with material support, help them emotionally, so they can come and talk with someone all the time and help them through what they're going through."

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"Truthfully, by the end of the day, even though it was a very sad moment, to have someone hate us enough to vandalize us and hate what we do, there was so many good people who came, including the police in D.C. who helped us immensely, and neighbors and donors and supporters, and even some of our clients showed up," she continued.

The vandalism came right on the heels of the infamous leak that the Supreme Court was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade. The justices later overturned the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24.

Fox News' Peter Kasperowicz and Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.