Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said yesterday that the Senate "can no longer unanimously condemn murder."

Ernst was referring to Democrat Sen. Patty Murray's objection to the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, legislation that would ensure medical care for an infant who survives an abortion; the bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, required unanimous consent.

Murray did the bidding for her fellow Democrats. "We have laws against infanticide in this country," she said. We did.

When Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator, he pushed hard for legislation that would allow a child who survived an abortion to die unattended by medical staff. Just last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law that allows the child born alive following an abortion to die without any consequences to physicians or the non-physicians who can now perform abortions. Also last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam championed a bill that would permit infanticide.

Even if Murray believes the laws on infanticide are sufficient, why would she—and the Democrats—want to stop a bill that enhances legislation of great moral weight? If a child born alive does not have a right to life, then human rights are a chimera. Why worry about anti-discrimination laws if we begin by discriminating against children at the time of birth?

Murray was chosen to do the bidding of the Senate Democrats because she is a Catholic woman. In 2014, she sported her Catholic bona fides by staying up all night to draw attention to the issue of climate change. But unfortunately for the kids, her Catholic colors did not kick in yesterday. We have reached an alarming level of moral imbecility when politicians are more exercised about changing weather patterns than they are infanticide.