Proposed Democrat law in Maryland would allow babies to be killed within 28 days of birth.
Louis Seagray
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According to analysis from a pro-life attorney, Maryland Senate legislation would allow babies to die for up to 28 days after birth.
The Pregnant Person’s Freedom Act of 2022 is also known as Senate Bill 669. However, the problems go beyond using the word “person” in place of accurate references to pregnant women.
Not sure why do we have to specify a generic term for who can get pregnant
The legislation, sponsored by Democrat Senator William Smith, will be heard on March 15.
“[T]he bill also proposes a revision of the fetal murder/manslaughter statute that would serve to handcuff the investigation of infant deaths unrelated to abortion,” attorney Olivia Summers of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) wrote in her analysis.
The law prohibits women and medical professionals from being investigated and prosecuted for “failure to act” in relation to a “perinatal death.”
“In other words, a baby born alive and well could be abandoned and left to starve or freeze to death,” Summers wrote, “and nothing could be done to punish those who participated in that cruel death.”
In her view, the language in the law is unclear, so it could be interpreted as a law that would “prevent investigations into the death of infants at least seven days AFTER their birth, and may extend to infants as old as four weeks!”
“Perinatal” is not defined in the Maryland Code, Summers said. As defined in a law passed in 2020, “perinatal care” includes prenatal, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal care.
A WebMD’s MedicineNet, a website owned by WebMD, defines it as “between the 20th and 28th week of pregnancy” to “between 1 and 4 weeks after delivery.”
Likewise, Oregon’s city of Portland was the first to allow public employees to take paid time off after having an abortion. As a result of a unanimous decision by the Portland City Council earlier this month, the city’s bereavement leave policy has been updated.
Among the benefits available to public employees is paid bereavement leave in cases of pregnancy loss, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, termination, and loss incurred during fertility treatment.
“Termination” in this instance was likely meant to include abortions for cause, such as a fatal genetic deficiency, or some other trauma that would not allow the fetus to survive.
But it’s not hard to see how this could be misused.
The Oregonian reports that Portland City Council members began examining bereavement leave policy last summer after employees complained that they didn’t feel represented or able to take leave under the old policy.
Prior to its recent amendment, the policy only granted paid leave to those who were biologically or legally related to the deceased.
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