The final vote tally on The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act this week in the House of Representatives tragically demonstrates that all Congressional Democrats but two are in favor of denying life-saving medical care to newborn infants who survive abortion attempts. 

Elective abortion is always a galling act of violence against a vulnerable human being. The intended outcome of an abortion is a dead human child. Science clearly illustrates the humanity of preborn children, yet abortionists poison and dismember over 2,500 children every single day in our nation alone. The fact that we legally license the mass killing of innocents is our nation’s gravest and most pressing problem, and we must put every effort and resource towards ending it. 

One of the saddest things about this week’s House vote is that it doesn’t actually stop any abortions. It only ensures that children accidentally born alive during an abortion procedure are offered the medical care legally mandated in literally any other situation. But that was somehow too much for congressional Democrats. 

It’s sickening to think of one of these surviving, helpless newborns lying on an examination table in pain, gasping for air in need of medical attention. Meanwhile, alleged medical professionals refuse to tend to the dying child, leaving it to its misery. How twisted and cruel. But this isn’t surprising in our 21st century America. It is tragically logical that politicians who endorse senseless butchery in the womb also endorse depriving newborns of lifesaving care outside the womb. After-all, as the famous Yale bioethicist Peter Singer argues, why should newborns be offered more legal status than preborn children? 

Representative Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act “extremist, dangerous, and unnecessary.” She decried the five-year prison sentence for abortionists who violate the law. How fundamentally broken is our system that a member of our national legislature is debating a bill on providing infants with life-saving care while her major concern is protecting doctors who deny that care?

Some House Democrats even went so far as to couch their pro-abortion zealotry as a consequence of Christian faith. Democratic Representative Hillary Scholten of Michigan said before the chamber, “As a pro-choice Christian who chose life, this issue is personal to me … I am guided by passages like Jeremiah 1:5, which states, ‘I knew you before I formed you and placed you in your mother’s womb.’ It doesn’t say in the government’s womb …” 

Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee similarly invoked her religious beliefs: “As a person of faith, I believe it should be between that woman, that family, that God, and that doctor.” These comments illustrate a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christianity teaches about the value of human life. 

The Bible teaches that humans are made in the image of God and condemns the killing of innocents. Who is more innocent than a precious baby? 

Contrary to what Democrats like Reps. Bonamici, Scholten and Jackson Lee said, this bill is necessary because children do survive attempted abortions. Just last year, Florida provided data showing that eight children were born alive during attempted abortions. Data from Canada also suggests a .21% failure rate for abortion overall, meaning that for every 1,000 abortions committed, 2.1 children survive. In some states it is legal to let them die. So we must protect those children that do survive.

I think of my recent Live Action Exclusives interview with abortion survivor Claire Culwell. A soft-spoken, lovely young woman, Claire’s twin was killed by an abortion – but she survived. She is one of dozens of outspoken abortion survivors today who are living witness to the beautiful humanity and unlimited potential of every life. How can we look at Claire, and hear her story, and still refuse to act to protect future Claires?

Protecting children, both inside and outside the womb is common sense. Vast majorities of Americans agree that all infants, regardless of where or how they were born, should be given life-saving medical care. And there is no argument that the child can in any way be considered part of the mother’s body.

Although the United States Senate has fifty-one Democratic members and forty-nine Republican members, at least two of the Democratic members, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, have each described themselves as “pro-life” and voted for similar legislation before. This measure should be brought up in the Senate, passed with a bi-partisan majority, and sent to President Biden’s desk for signature. 

If the Senate refuses to act, Democrats will be punished for their deadly fidelity to the abortion lobby when Americans next go to the polls. If they cannot protect children outside the womb, they cannot be expected to stand up for anyone — and Americans are realizing it. Legislation like this is just the beginning of what our nation must do to protect innocent human life.

Lila Rose is the founder and president of LiveAction.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.