House passes Trent Franks' bill to require treatment of babies born alive during abortions

WASHINGTON -- The House passed a bill authored by Arizona GOP Rep. Trent Franks on Friday that would require health-care providers to treat babies who are born alive during abortion procedures.

Franks' bill, which passed 248-177, was one of two approved by the GOP-controlled House in response to the controversy over videotapes released starting this summer appearing to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of tissues from aborted fetuses for research.

The other bill would suspend federal funding to Planned Parenthood for a year while Congress continues its investigations of the group. That bill passed 241-187.

The Arizona delegation voted along party lines on both bills, which passed on a mostly partisan vote.

Five Democrats voted for Franks' bill and no Republicans voted against it while one Democrat voted "present." Two Democrats voted to withhold funding to Planned Parenthood, while three Republicans voted against the measure and one Republican voted present.

Neither bill has much chance of becoming law because Republicans don't have enough votes in the Senate to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Plus, President Obama has vowed to veto both bills and Republicans lack the votes to overturn those vetoes.

Debate over the two bills was emotional, with Republicans recalling their horror at watching the tapes made secretly by an anti-abortion advocacy group while Democrats responded that the bills were an attack on women's health.

"Kermit Gosnell was just the top of the iceberg of the abortion industry's unspeakable cruelty to those little children of God," Franks said, referring to the Philadelphia doctor convicted of killing three babies born alive during abortions. "The veil has been pulled back."

Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz of Palm Desert, Calif., an emergency room physician, responded that Franks' bill was "unnecessary and dangerous" because it already is illegal to kill a child born alive during an abortion and the bill would interfere with the relationship between doctors and their patients. Legislation passed in 2002 established that a fetus born alive during an abortion is a child that must be protected.

"This is another attempt by the anti-choice bully politicians to restrict a woman's right to choose and doctors' ability to provide sound, compassionate and safe care for women," Ruiz said.

Nationwide, Planned Parenthood provided 900,000 cancer screenings, 400,000 Pap tests and 500,000 breast exams in 2013, according to statistics released by House Democrats.

Franks' bill would require that if a baby is born alive during abortion, health-care providers must "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health-care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."

Health-care providers and others are required to report any violations to law enforcement. Violators of the law face a maximum of five years in prison, while those who intentionally kill a child born alive during an abortion could face murder charges.

The Senate is to take up the abortion issue next week when it debates a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.

The House version of the bill, sponsored by Franks, passed that body in May. The legislation is premised on the belief by some that a fetus can begin to feel pain after five months of development.

Contact Bill Theobald at wtheobal@gannett.com or follow on Twitter @BillTheobald.