Especially after the recent presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, mainstream media outlets have been quick to deny abortion is happening in the ninth month and propagate the claim that infanticide is illegal in every state. Unfortunately, these statements are demonstrably false. Abortion in the ninth month is legal in 21 states and 15 states do not actively prevent infanticide. 

During the debate, President Trump stated that support for "abortion in the ninth month" is a "radical" position and that Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Tim Walz supported what Trump called "execution after birth." ABC News moderator Linsey Davis then seemed to want to enter the debate herself by inserting her own statement directed to President Trump.

She said, "There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born." Then Davis immediately invited Harris to respond.

Harris added, "Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not happening. It's insulting to the women of America."

While federal law states infants who are born alive after a failed abortion are "full persons" under the law, it does not require health care practitioners to give those babies medical care. Currently, it is up to the states to regulate late-term abortions as well as the legal protections for born-alive infants. In some states, the law allows unregulated abortion throughout pregnancy, and in others the law either indirectly permits abortions after birth or the authorities just passively allow it.

In Minnesota alone, Governor Tim Walz's Department of Health reports that there were at least six abortions in the ninth month and that 19 babies were born alive and left to die between 2015 and 2021. According to data from the state's 2021 report, five babies were born alive where in all five instances no life-preserving measures were taken and in only two instances were "comfort care measures" taken. However, these are just the reported cases. In the future, there may not be any further statistics from Minnesota, for in 2023, Governor Walz repealed Minnesota's "Born Alive Infant's Protection Act" where health care practitioners are no longer required to report about infants born alive and are certainly not required to provide life-saving efforts for them. He then signed the "Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act" that sets no limits on abortion. Currently, the state has no provision requiring medical professionals to hospitalize or render the same care to infants surviving abortions as any other child born alive. Instead, Governor Walz has helped create a legal landscape in Minnesota that permits abortion in the ninth month while setting conditions in the state that do not prevent infanticide.

The available data further contradicts Harris and the ABC moderator showing at least nine other states have recorded failed abortions where infants were born alive with no indications that life-saving measures were performed. According to a September 2024 report from the Family Research Council's Center for Human Dignity, the 277 known cases of babies being born alive during an abortion since 2006 involved states which are required by law to report such cases, such as Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. Currently, Michigan no longer has these reporting requirements. The report titled, "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors: Just the Facts," indicates the data from just these nine states suggests the actual number of infants born alive during an abortion is much higher.

Abortion in the Ninth Month
A diligent "fact check" will reveal that 21 states allow abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy and up to the moment of birth. According to data compiled by the Family Research Council and the World Population Review, these 21 states either allow unrestricted abortion throughout pregnancy or allow late-term abortions through a "health" exception. The states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Vermont, and Virginia.

Specifically, the states that allow unrestricted abortion in the ninth month are Alaska, Colorado, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont. Notably, of all these states, California, Michigan, and Vermont have state constitutional amendments protecting a "right" to an abortion at any point in pregnancy. In addition, Colorado, Maryland, New York, and Nevada all have ballot measures in 2024 attempting to amend each state constitution to enshrine abortion protections at any stage of pregnancy.

Abortion After Birth (Infanticide)
Despite claims infanticide is illegal in every state, there are 15 states that either offer no protections for infants born alive during an abortion or have recently removed such protections. The born-alive protection map from the Family Research Council shows that Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont all have conditions where infanticide could be passively permitted. Each of these 15 states:

• lack any requirement that health care practitioners must exercise the same skill, care, and diligence for infants who survive abortion that would be rendered to any child born at the same gestational age.
   
• have no hospitalization requirement to transport the surviving infant to a hospital.
   
• do not have any legal penalties for letting an infant die after a failed abortion.
   
• lack any reporting requirements.

Under these conditions, there is nothing to stop an abortion after birth if the mother and physician want it to happen.

However, many people would rather deny and dismiss these facts out of hand than acknowledge the dark reality of abortion. Many people even have no idea about the abortion procedure in general – how babies are torn apart in the womb by forceps or starved to death by a pill. It is understandable that many people do not want to closely examine such violence. So it follows that the thought of living, breathing, and born human babies being dispassionately left to expire, as if he or she had no intrinsic worth, becomes an unbelievable notion. This reality, which is all too easy to dismiss and ignore as fiction, must not be denied or obfuscated any longer.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "Sadly, children are being aborted long after they feel pain, even up to and during birth. The deliberate strategy to cover up this horrible fact is shameful. Late term abortion up to birth and infanticide cannot be ignored and must be stopped."

More information on abortion as well as Liberty Counsel's document "The Truth About Abortion" can be viewed here.

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SOURCE Liberty Counsel

CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org