Barack & Abortion: Naive, or Worse?
How interesting it is, then, to learn that there's a piece of red tape that Barack historically opposed. But how disappointing that it's at the expense of a possibly living baby.
Debating the Born Alive Infant Protection Act on April 4, 2002 (transcript here), on pages 32-33, Barack seems primarily concerned with the inconvenience to the abortionist of having to call in another doctor to make sure that a baby who was supposed to be dead as a result of the abortion wasn't able to be saved. (HT: Erick Erickson at RedState).
In Barack's view, it's apparently inconceivable (no pun intended) that a doctor who is willing to perform an abortion wouldn't do anything in his power to save a baby that was alive as a result of his own mistake. In Barack's words, "if there are children who are being born alive, I, at least, have confidence that a doctor who is in that room is going to be sure that they are being looked after" (transcript, pp. 33-34).
Hm. Naive, or worse? As a lawyer, surely Barack knew that Illinois law permits claims for "wrongful life" (see footnote 10 in link) -- in other words, a doctor who botched an abortion (by failing to end the baby's life) could be liable in a lawsuit.
It's no surprise that Illinois would permit such a claim -- in many ways, it's a plaintiff lawyer's paradise. But it strikes me that it would be one more reason that a second opinion would make sense -- it's not a great idea to leave all determinations about a baby's viability in the hands of the doctor who was supposed to have executed the abortion.