The shocking moment a Florida Planned Parenthood lobbyist defended doctor-assisted INFANTICIDE when babies are born alive after botched abortions

Planned Parenthood rep: Decision about whether to save a baby born alive 'should be between the patient and the health care provider'

Lawmaker: 'I think that at that point, the patient would be the child struggling on a table. Wouldn't you agree?'

Bill text: 'An infant born alive during or immediately after attempted abortion is entitled to the same rights, powers, and privileges as any other child'

Florida Planned Parenthood lobbyist Alisa LaPolt Snow testified against a 'Born Alive' infant protection bill that would give human rights to babies born after a botched abortion. She said doctors in abortion clinics should not be required to take such babies to a hospital, instead leaving the 'choice' of what to do up to them and their patients

In a hearing Tuesday before the Florida House of Representatives' Civil Justice Committee, state legislators were dumbfounded as Planned Parenthood lobbyist argued that pregnant women and health care providers should be permitted to terminate the lives of babies who are born alive after botched abortions.

Alisa LaPolt Snow, a former Associated Press and Gannett News Service reporter who now lobbies for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, argued against legislation giving babies who survived abortion attempts the same legal rights and protections as other children.

H.B. 1129, the Infants Born Alive Act, Snow said, 'inserts politics where it doesn't belong' and 'attempts to interfere with a woman's ability to make her own personal medical decisions.'

The bill was introduced by State Rep. Cary Pigman, a board certified Emergency Medicine physician. It has nine co-sponsors.

'It is just really hard for me to even ask you this question,' Republican State Rep. Jim Boyd said during the hearing, 'because I’m almost in disbelief: If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that's struggling for life?'

Snow replied, 'We believe that, you know, any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.'

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This November 2005 Daily Mail front page told the news that 50 babies live through botched terminations in Britain ever year. Annual March For Life demonstrations in the US are met every year by smaller numbers of pro-abortion demonstrators like this one who marched in 2013 in San Francisco. The 2013 protests marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized the practice of terminating pregnancies

Florida Republican State Rep. Daniel Davis (L) was shocked that Planned Parenthood doctors 'do something other than resuscitate and save' a baby born alive after a botched abortion. When a Planned Parenthood lobbyist said the decision should be left up to patients and doctors, Rep. Jose Oliva (R) insisted that the 'patient' doctors should be most concerned about is 'the child struggling on a table'

She restated the same answer in response to a question from State Rep. Jose Oliva, another Republican. 'That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider,' she insisted.

'I think that at that point,' Oliva countered, 'the patient would be the child struggling on a table. Wouldn't you agree?'

Snow seemed to concede the point. 'That's a very good question,' she said. 'I really don't know how to answer that.'

The Weekly Standard first published video of the proceedings online on its political blog.



Next in the line of emotional inquisitors was Republican Rep. Daniel Davis.

'What happens in a situation where a baby is alive, breathing on a table, moving,' Davis asked. 'What do your physicians do at that point?'

'I do not have that information,' Snow replied. 'I am not a physician, I am not an abortion provider. So I do not have that information.'

The Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates is the state public policy office representing Florida¿s five affiliated organizations and their 24 abortion clinics. A lobbyist hired by the group argued against a legislative proposal to protect the lives of babies born despite their mothers' attempted abortions

VIDEO Planned Parenthood lobbyist argues for right to post-birth abortion

Davis pressed her. 'I understand that you're not a physician but you do represent physicians who do perform this activity,' he said.

'Can you tell me what happens when a baby is alive on the table? At that point, what do they do with the baby that is struggling to live?'

'I don't know,' Snow responded, adding that 'we don't know even how prevalent this situation is.'

Daniel Davis framed the debate in stark terms. 'What you're saying if you oppose it is, you have a living baby, struggling to survive, and you do something other - I don't even want to talk about what you do - but you do something other than resuscitate and save the baby.'

Two committee Democrats joined Republicans in defending the legislation.

Rep. José Javier Rodríguez insisted that the measure was not politically motivated, and would not hijack medical decisions from trained physicians.

'This bill really has been about protecting medically needy infants from potential situations of neglect,' Rodriguez said.

Responding to opposition to the Babies Born Alive Protection Act, Florida Rep. Mike Clelland said, 'I've been pro-choice my whole life, and I can't think of a more sensible bill in this regard'

Rep. Mike Clelland, another Democratic legislator, remarked that 'I've been pro-choice my whole life, and I can't think of a more sensible bill in this regard.'

'Does Planned Parenthood have an objection,' Clelland asked Snow rhetorically, 'to a doctor being obligated to provide advanced life support in an abortion clinic setting to a child born alive?'

'I mean, I guess you do or you wouldn't be here, right?'

Clelland also asked how Planned Parenthood could take issue with requiring a doctor 'to transport a child born alive to a hospital where it seems to me they would be most likely to be able to survive.'

Citing 'logistical issues,' Snow said her organization was concerned about 'situations where it is in a rural health care setting, the hospital is 45 minutes or an hour away, and it's the closest trauma center or emergency room.'

When his turn came to debate the measure, Boyd asked, 'Who cares if it's a rural health clinic?'

Lawmakers, he said, must 'intervene if we have to, to make sure that the struggling child survives.'

'I can't imagine that we're having this conversation,' Boyd added.

People participate in the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC in January 2013. The anti-abortion marchers marked the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, and then-Pope Benedict expressed support for the demonstrators

Digesting graphic testimony about the fate of unwanted children who manage to survive an abortion, Republican Rep. Ross Spano said the experience 'makes me sick to my stomach, frankly.'

'Who we are and what we do with our children is so absolutely fundamental to what we are as a community and as a state and as a civilization,' Spano said.

'And if we can't take a stand to protect the most vulnerable, God forbid who we are and where we're headed.'