Glad to Have BAIPA

Carol Platt Liebau | February 05, 2009 3:23 PM

Here is a shocking story of a baby girl who was born alive in a Florida abortion clinic, where her mother had gone to "get rid" of her. According to the linked account, the clinic owner (who has no medical license) cut the baby's umbilical cord, and the little girl was put in a plastic biohazard bag and dumped in the trash.

These stories make one grateful that there is a federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act. They also make then-state senator Barack Obama's objections to the Illinois version of such a law look more than a little, um, callous.

No, the baby in this instance wasn't born alive as the result of a botched abortion (the mother in question was being prepared for an abortion). But it does raise some troubling questions about how many otherwise viable infants are dying in abortion clinics across America, in one way or another.