On Wednesday September 23, 2020, President Donald J. Trump announced at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast that he will be signing a Born Alive Executive Order. The President said the order ensures that any baby born alive after a failed abortion will receive medical care, no matter the circumstances or complications surrounding the baby at birth.
“We believe in the joy of family. The blessing of freedom and the dignity of work. And the eternal truth that every child, born and unborn, is made in the Holy image of God,” the President said. He reminded those watching that he would always protect the vital role of religion and prayer in American society.
According to The Hill, the order (the text of which has not been released yet) is unnecessary because a similar federal law already exists, and in the instances the executive order seeks to address, doctors and abortion rights groups say don’t happen often.
However, a 2019 report from The Heritage Foundation argues that the current federal policy fails to protect where some suggest it does. A summary of the report says:
Current federal policy insufficiently protects babies who are born alive following an attempted abortion. While current law recognizes that all infants born alive are “persons,” babies who survive an abortion attempt are left vulnerable because the law provides for no requirements that health care practitioners treat the infant with the same degree of care afforded to any other newborn. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would remedy this problem by requiring that proper medical care be given to infants who survive an abortion and establishing criminal consequences for practitioners who fail to do so.
In a pre-recorded message played at Wednesday’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, President Trump said, “this is our sacrosanct moral duty,” referring to the protecting of the precious lives of the attempted aborted babies. He also announced increased funding for neonatal research so that it would ensure that “every child has the very best chance to thrive and to grow.”
Trump quoted Pope John Paul II, “Let the good news of Christ radiate from your hearts and the peace that he alone gives remain forever in your souls,” and thanked the many Catholics that live their lives by John Paul II’s words bringing hope, joy, light, and grace into the world.
Former Director Exposed Planned Parenthood
Former Planned Parenthood Employee of the Year award winner Abby Johnson who resigned as a clinic director in October 2009, claimed in her speech at the Republican National Convention in August that President Trump has done more for the unborn than any other president. Johnson said she resigned from Planned Parenthood shortly after assisting with an abortion and seeing the unborn child in the womb fight to get away from the instrument the doctor was using to end its life. In 2019, Pure Flix released a movie about Johnson’s story titled Unplanned which received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association. To date it has grossed over 21 million dollars worldwide, despite being effectively banned from being shown in movie theaters in Canada.
Abortion Survivors Speak Out
Faitit.com reported earlier this year that three abortion survivors, Melissa Ohden, Claire Culwell, and Josiah Presley, sat down with Fox & Friends to share their survival stories and exposed the truths about late-term abortions.
Ohden was eight months in the womb when her mother went to hospital to terminate Ohden’s life. After a failed attempt administered by the medical staff using a saline solution that is designed to fill the amniotic sack and burn the unborn child to death, she was delivered five days later. The medical staff discarded her little body because they assumed the solution worked and she was stillborn. A nurse heard her cries and saved her life.
Presley endured a procedure that involves ripping the baby apart in the mother’s womb. The unsuccessful procedure left him with a deformed arm. Five months after the procedure, his mother realized he was still alive in the womb. Presley says that, “people are people at conception, and we should care about their personhood then, not after they’re born, because this is what we’re left with when we have those kinds of arbitrary criteria for personhood.”
Culwell’s mother had a dilation and curettage late-term abortion at month five of her pregnancy. Culwell is a twin. She alone survived because, after discovering one baby was still alive, her mother wasn’t able to follow through with a second late-term abortion attempt due to risk of infection. Culwell says her life has been filled with multiple physical complications and asks “Where were my rights as a woman? What were my rights in the womb?”
SCOTUS Nomination Announcement This Saturday
Abortion laws and the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade is on everyone’s mind as Trump sets out to appoint the next supreme court justice. Highlighting the significance of this appointment, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. said, “This is an explosive political moment. America is engaged not just in a battle for the White House, but a battle for the balance of power in all branches of government.”
Following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last Friday September 18, 2020, President Trump has said in recent election rallies and on social media that he will announce his Supreme Court Nominee this Saturday at 5pm. At rallies this week the President has stated that his nomination will be a woman and that there are five candidates he will chose from.
One of those candidates, pro-life judge Coney Barrett, has said “it’s very unlikely at this point” that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.