Gov. Kristi Noem signed into law a new bill that requires medical professionals to save the lives of babies who survive an abortion procedure.
House Bill 105, an act "to maintain the life of any child born alive" has now been passed in South Dakota. Gov. Kristi Noem on Wednesday signed into law a new bill that requires doctors who perform abortions to provide care for any child that survives the procedure. According to the Christian Post, the legislation received overwhelming support as it passed through both houses of the state Legislature.
Gov. Noem said of the new South Dakota law requiring doctors to save kids who survive abortions,
"The pro-life cause continues even after a child is born, and this bill will guarantee the right to life for every baby that is born alive. We expect doctors to treat all children equally, even those born in horrific circumstances. That's basic human decency."
House Bill 105 calls to mind the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which Sen. Ben Sasse sponsored in January of 2019, a law that was drafted "to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion." Now, South Dakota's unborn can be protected under House Bill 105.
House Bill 105 puts the obligation "to every physician who performs or attempts to perform an abortion that results in a child being born alive." It explains that every physician wil then have a physician-patient relationship with the child that survives the abortion process under the new law of the state and covers all of the duties involved in that relationship.
According to Black Hills FOX, House Bill 105 will also empower women to sue any doctor, medical professional, or abortion facility that violates the law and can lose their medical license. Under the law, the Department of Health is required to report the number of children who survive attempted abortions.
The new legislation was immediately opposed by various organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, that declared their opposition through a recently released statement. In it, the organization claims that the bill "unnecessarily place(s) politicians between a person and their doctor" and will "force obstetricians and pediatricians to deviate from their best medical judgment and administer futile and painful treatment against the wishes of the parents, under the threat of civil litigation."
Joining ACLU's opposition to the law requiring doctors to save kids who survive abortions or House Bill 105 are the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The law requiring doctors to save kids who survive abortions was first introduced in Janaury and passed the tate House of Representatives in an overwhelming vote of 59 to 3. Earlier this month, it passed the state Senate with another overwhelming vote of 32 to 3. Primary sponsors of the bill include Republican Representatives Fred Deutsch of Florence and Al Novstrup of Aberdeen, South Dakota.
