House Judiciary Committee considers greater legal protection for newborns, unborn victims of assault

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PROVIDENCE — The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Wednesday, April 26, on two bills related to the protection of newborns and the criminalization of acts committed against unborn children during an attack on the mother. Pro-life advocates testified in support of both bills, seeing them as protective measures that would ensure the dignity of children before and after birth.

The first bill, titled the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, requires physicians to provide reasonable and appropriate medical care to newborn infants, including those born alive after an attempted abortion. According to Barth Bracy, executive director of Rhode Island Right to Life, the bill is intended to ensure that newborns are given the same rights and treatment as any medical patient regardless of the intent of the mother or attending physician and to outlaw so-called “after-birth abortions” advocated by some extremists.

“In the Born-Alive Infant Act, we’re talking about infanticide and of course we hope that no one would want to defend infanticide,” he said.

Representatives of Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice organizations offered testimony in opposition to the bill on the grounds that abortion facilities were not equipped to offer appropriate medical care to newborns and fewer physicians would be willing to provide abortions at risk of prosecution under the law.

The bill would also serve to strengthen protections and offer greater agency to parents in cases where a child is born at the threshold of viability or with medical conditions that make the child’s chances of survival difficult to discern.

The issue is painfully close for Rep. Ramon Perez (D-Providence and Johnston), the bill’s sponsor, whose wife, Mayra, gave birth in November. The child, the couple’s fourth pregnancy but first to be born alive, was born extremely premature and died shortly after birth.

“When we rushed to the hospital, they said the baby was alive,” said Perez, recounting the painful memories during an interview with Rhode Island Catholic.

The baby was born at 22 weeks and five days’ gestational age, a crucial period of development during which doctors and parents need to make the difficult medical decision of whether or not to attempt resuscitation or other measures that could possibly prolong or save the life of the baby depending on the child’s individual chances of survival.

According to Perez, he and his wife, Mayra, begged doctors to intervene and attempt to prolong their child’s life using any means necessary, but medical staff made the decision not to provide these measures. The child passed away after about 30 minutes.

“The thing is, they don’t give me the choice. They just took the decision for us. That’s what bothered us,” he said.

Though the medical facts of the particular case are uncertain, guidelines released by the American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics in 2015 classify births where the baby is between 22 and 24 weeks’ gestation as cases “associated with a high risk of mortality or significant burden of morbidity for the baby” and recommend that in such cases “caregivers should allow parents to participate in decisions whether resuscitation is in their baby’s best interest.” The guidelines classify births prior to 22 weeks gestation as cases in which “the baby has no chance of survival” and “initiation of resuscitation is not an ethical treatment option and should not be offered.”

Bracy emphasized the bill is not intended to penalize physicians, who often have to make difficult medical decisions, but to offer greater agency to parents, who would still retain the right to refuse medical treatment if their baby had no chance of survival.

The second bill, the Fetal Protection Act, would criminalize the killing or assault of an unborn child, exempting acts committed during an abortion requested by the mother or during medical treatment. The bill, which would apply during any point in the gestational period, is intended for situations when an unborn child is harmed during an attack on the mother.

“It is not a back door to keeping abortion from being legal,” said Rep. John Edwards (D-Portsmouth and Tiverton), who introduced the bill. “This would make violent acts against pregnant women who suffer harm to their babies have criminal repercussions for them.”

Bracy pointed to a 2015 murder that took place in Cranston as an example of a case where the law would apply. Aliss Collins, 32, was eight months pregnant at the time of her death.

“That’s the kind of case that the second act addresses,” he said. “It’s not speculative, it just happened two years ago here in Rhode Island.”

Representatives of Planned Parenthood offered testimony in opposition to the bill on the grounds that by attempting to define “fetal personhood,” the legislation would pave the way for stronger anti-abortion laws.

“There are two victims, and justice is served by recognizing that there two murder victims instead of one,” said Bracy.

Both bills were held for further study.