The new Republican House majority wasted no time putting its pro-life stamp on the 118th Congress, and Democrats could not be more angry about it. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) followed up two GOP measures with a startling accusation against the party.
He alleged that Republicans are attempting to “impose government-mandated pregnancies on the American people.”
For the record, the first of two new measures passed by the House condemned violent attacks on pro-life organizations and called for a thorough investigation of the crimes. Only three Democrats found it in their hearts to support this common-sense measure.
The second, the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” required that babies who survive abortion attempts receive proper medical care and legal rights.
In other words, a baby who is born deserves medical attention. Far from a radical idea, this is basic human decency.
Republicans pointed towards comments made by former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as to why the law needs to be clarified to protect babies who survive abortion procedures. The Democrats appeared to support taking the lives of the survivors outside of the mother’s womb.
Election Denier Hakeem Jeffries says rescinding Biden's 87,000 new IRS agents, holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable, and requiring lifesaving care for babies born after botched abortions is "an extreme MAGA Republican right-wing agenda." pic.twitter.com/hKmONTBztb
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 12, 2023
Republicans lined up to endorse protections for children born alive, and the measure passed.
But Jeffries was having none of that.
The House Minority Leader slammed the effort to protect babies born alive as an “extreme MAGA Republican right-wing agenda.” Addressing his weekly press conference Thursday, Jeffries slammed the GOP’s intentions to “impose a nationwide ban on abortion.”
Jeffries said the party will do “everything possible” to ban the procedure altogether and called abortion “that innate reproductive freedom.” He added that Republicans desire to “criminalize abortion care.”
Meanwhile, the new House majority has not taken a single step in that direction, but that hardly matters to Jeffries or his party colleagues. What does matter to Democrats is to demonize Republicans, and 210 of them shamefully voted against the bill to protect newborns.
One Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas voted in favor of the measure while another, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, cast his vote as “present.”
Republicans are correct in their call for protecting the most innocent, and it is encouraging to see the new House majority make this stand a priority. It is also revealing how Democrats are repulsed by any effort to protect the unborn and just-born.
