The Born Alive Act is another Republican scam

As Donald Trump grows more unhinged every day, retweeting Q-Anon conspiracy theorists and claiming that Democrats are in favor of murdering babies after birth (a despicable and cowardly lie from the liar-in-chief) Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania is up to his usual tricks, trying to piggyback on these lies to advance his own agenda.

In his latest newsletter to constituents, Kelly bemoans the fact that the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, “which would require children born-alive during a failed abortion to receive the same medical treatment as any other baby, has been denied more than two-dozen times by House Democrats.”

As has become de rigueur for this astonishingly mendacious party, Kelly is trying to portray Democrats as heartless baby-killers. No doubt he has been emboldened by Trump’s trumpeting of this insane bullshit. It’s a vicious, disgusting lie that has absolutely no basis in reality.

Unfortunately, a large number of Kelly’s constituents are simply going to believe him, because they watch Fox News, have no critical thinking skills, and are incapable of differentiating lies from truth.

The bill is intended to protect infants who somehow survive an abortion. It’s an incredibly rare circumstance, but despite that, the law is unnecessary for another reason: Doctors are already required by law to offer any living person full medical care. Also, this law was actually already passed in 2002. It’s called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. Rep. Mike Kelly doesn’t want you to know that, so be sure not to click on that link.

So what’s the point of the new legislation, then? Sen. Tammy Duckworth calls it a “political stunt”. The only difference between this law and the one that was passed in 2002 is that it provides fines and jail time for doctors who don’t provide care. Since this is a situation that scarcely ever happens, and since caring for human life is already part of a doctor’s duties, then what’s really the point? The point is (a) political grandstanding, and (b) creeping fascism. Once they’ve gained this toehold, they’re a step closer to criminalizing abortion completely. This was the conservative goal in installing Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, another professional liar who perjured himself so blatantly during his confirmation hearings that I was actually embarrassed for him.

What Republicans never seem to want to discuss is the fact that abortions go down when birth control and family planning is freely available, which is a major plank in any liberal platform. If Republicans really cared about abortion, they would see to it that the circumstances making abortions more likely–that is, extreme poverty, rape, lack of access to birth control or regular health care–are reduced as much as possible. The simple fact is that numbers of abortions go down when these things are available and up when they are not.

Republicans don’t care about abortion, unborn babies, women’s health, or–as we have seen all too clearly as of late–about anything except advancing their own power.

They’ll even sell out their own country to a hostile foreign government for a chance to get another four years in office.

Mike Kelly is a disgrace to the people of Pennsylvania for his unfettered support of a liar, traitor, and wanna-be oligarch. It’s too bad more people in PA can’t see him for what he is.