Surviving Fetuses Would Get Rights under Pending Federal Legislation

Krol, Eric, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Byline: Eric Krol Daily Herald Political Writer

It's a rare outcome in one of the rarest and most controversial abortion procedures.

Detecting midway through a pregnancy that a baby will be born without a heart, lungs, brain or other organs vital to survival, a doctor induces labor hoping the fetus is expelled from the mother's womb already dead. In a very few cases, the baby lives, if only for an hour.

That scenario has abortion rights foes building political momentum for a federal measure that could open up a new wrinkle in the complex debate: At which stage is a fetus, by definition, considered an individual?

The Born Alive Infants Protection Act pending in Congress would for the first time extend federal legal protection to fetuses that survive abortions, labor-induced or otherwise.

The measure, which is co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Inverness, effectively would require hospitals to provide medical care to babies who survive abortion. The care …

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Publication information: Article title: Surviving Fetuses Would Get Rights under Pending Federal Legislation. Contributors: Krol, Eric - Author. Newspaper title: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL). Publication date: July 29, 2001. Page number: 1. © 2009 Paddock Publications. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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