The North Carolina House failed to override the governor’s veto of a bill that would have protected babies who survive abortion from infanticide.

State House lawmakers failed to override Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (SB 359), which would have required abortionists to provide the same level of medical treatment to a baby who survived an abortion as any other infant at the same gestational age. The legislation would have also required the infant survivor to be transferred to a hospital.

As pro-life media outlet LifeNews reported, after Cooper vetoed the Born-Alive legislation, North Carolina State Senate Republicans appeared to have sufficient Democrat votes to override the veto, 30–20. On Wednesday, however, the State House “failed to secure the 2/3 vote needed to override, sustaining the veto on a 63-75 margin.”

NC Values Coalition said in a statement the failure of the override vote is “unthinkable”:

Our Statement on #SB359 veto override vote today: pic.twitter.com/2bMZ5RKCph — NC Values Coalition (@NCValues) June 5, 2019

“It is unthinkable and morally reprehensible that North Carolina lawmakers would vote to let an innocent newborn infant be set aside and left to die,” the group stated. “In North Carolina we are now unfortunately left to trust the care of an infant born alive to the abortionist who failed to terminate that life just moments earlier.”

The coalition added:

One thing is clear: Elections have consequences, and we do not have enough pro-life legislators in the current General Assembly to get even a sensible bill passed that would protect babies who are BORN from the abortionists who want them to die. Some Democrat legislators told our lobbying team that they are “pro-life,” yet they voted against the Born Alive veto override. Saying you are pro-life is not enough to make you pro-life. You actually have to vote pro-life.

Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of NC Values Coalition, said, despite the failure of the override vote, the coalition “will not cease in advancing bills to protect the innocent babies inside and outside the womb.”

“Medical advancements clearly show infants experience pain during late-term abortions,” she added.

Upon vetoing the Born-Alive measure, Cooper said the bill is “unnecessary” because infanticide “simply does not exist,” words that are consistent with Planned Parenthood’s talking points about such legislation.

In March, Planned Parenthood President Dr. Leana Wen wrote in a letter to the Wall Street Journal editorial board there is “no such thing as infanticide in medical care.”

Nevertheless, as the nation discovered during the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell — convicted of murdering babies born alive after abortion by snipping their spines with scissors — government and health departments often look the other way when it comes to inspecting abortion clinics.

Gosnell had been operating for decades in his West Philadelphia “house of horrors” abortion clinic without inspection. His murderous practices were only discovered haphazardly during a prescription drug bust in 2010.

To this day, even after the Gosnell murder conviction, Planned Parenthood — America’s largest provider of abortions — continues to vehemently oppose legislation that attempts to ensure abortion clinics are required to hold to the same health and safety standards as other outpatient clinics.

Wen told PBS NewsHour recently that state laws, such as those that require abortion clinics to have the same health and safety standards as other outpatient facilities, are “restrictions” that are “burdensome” and “just impede medical care, and have no basis in medicine.”

Illinois lawmakers just passed a bill that not only repeals the state’s partial birth abortion ban, but also allows abortion clinics to go unlicensed and without health and safety inspections.