Last updated on August 9th, 2023 at 09:02 am<\/p>\n
The California Legislature is moving forward with legislation, AB 2223, that the author (Democrat Assembly member Buffy Wicks) states is designed to prevent any investigation or prosecution of a woman (called a \u201cbirthing person\u201d in California\u2019s woke parlance) for a pregnancy-related outcome. Critics (including this IFamNews author) contend that the imprecise language of the legislation opens the door to legalizing infanticide. The bill is a product of Governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s \u201cCalifornia Future Of Abortion Council,\u201d part of a package of legislation designed to firmly cement California as an \u201cabortion sanctuary\u201d in anticipation of a US Supreme Court ruling to overturn or substantially scale back its decades-old rulings that created a federal right to abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pro-life\/pro-abortion line of debate is well established and I won\u2019t review the many reasons why it is unwise to expand the \u201cright\u201d to abortion in California. But AB 2223 goes well beyond this familiar context and contains language that raises many red flags, covering not only circumstances when an unborn child in the womb is killed by abortion, but also children who have been born alive<\/em><\/strong> and subsequently experience a \u201cperinatal death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The killing of a child that has been born alive is infanticide. This is murder in every state in the union. Is California really<\/em><\/strong> on the verge of legalizing infanticide? Notwithstanding the repeated statements of the author of the legislation to the contrary and the findings of so-called media \u201cfact checkers,\u201d the imprecise language of the legislation certainly opens the door to this possibility. Let\u2019s examine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As introduced, the provision of AB 2223 that causes concern is in Section 7a of the bill: \u201cNotwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is a \u201cperinatal death?\u201d The bill does not say, so we are left with other definitions for guidance. Medical definitions vary, but all of them include the death of newborns up to seven days after birth and some \u2013 such as that contained in the California Welfare & Institutions Code \u2013 as long as a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a firestorm of protest erupted about the implications of AB 2223, the author went into damage control to assure people that the \u201cperinatal death\u201d language of the legislation would only impact babies who died after birth of natural causes related to the pregnancy. She pointed to two cases where women were initially charged with criminal neglect for causing their children to be stillborn from drug abuse during the pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Wicks\u2019 reliance on these two cases is misplaced and unpersuasive. As noted above, AB 2223 covers \u201cstillbirth\u201d as a separate cause from \u201cperinatal death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a recent hearing of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the author amended her legislation seeking to quell the \u201cinfanticide\u201d debate by clarifying that the bill only applied to a perinatal death \u201cdue to a pregnancy-related cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, many legal observers find this \u201cclarification\u201d to be anything but clarifying. The California Catholic Conference had submitted language to Assembly member Wicks and her staff \u201cto protect innocent newborns\u00a0and allow coroners to investigate infant deaths.\u201d Wicks refused the amendment, leading the Bishop\u2019s Conference to remark, \u201cwe are incredibly disappointed that the imprecise language remains.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wicks and her pro-abortion allies have mounted a public relations counter-offensive, using their many supporters in the media to run cover. Recent \u201cfact check\u201d articles by outfits such as PolitiFact, Reuters<\/em>, the Sacramento Bee<\/em> and the Associated Press<\/em> flatly declare that concerns about infanticide are \u201cfalse.\u201d Of note, however, even the leftwing media must acknowledge that because the legislation fails to define \u201cperinatal death,\u201d it will be up to a future court decision to determine the actual scope of AB 2223.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably no judge would say that AB 2223 absolves anyone of the intentional killing of an otherwise healthy newborn baby. But what about an unhealthy<\/em> baby? Does a \u201cperinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause\u201d allow the mother and her caregivers to refuse to provide needed care to a baby with a disability, deformity or underlying medical condition? Can such a child be killed \u2013 by neglect or otherwise \u2013 in the name of making California an \u201cabortion sanctuary\u201d state?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s up to the California Legislature to deal with this issue because Assemblywoman Wicks has refused the entreaties of people of good will to do so. Unfortunately, there is no indication that they will address this highly-concerning issue. Yesterday AB 2223 was heard by the Assembly Health Committee. Thousands of Californians traveled to Sacramento to oppose the legislation. Assembly member Wicks once again refused to adopt language to ensure that no baby born alive in California could be killed after birth. Democrats \u2013 who constitute a super-majority of the Legislature \u2013 closed ranks to support the abortion industry and the bill passed the Health Committee on a straight party-line vote. Absent a surprise development, it will likely soon pass the full Assembly, the Senate and then be signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the answer to the question is \u201cYes.\u201d California really<\/em><\/strong> is on the verge of legalizing infanticide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gavin Newsom fancies himself as America\u2019s future president. He says that the California he is building is a model for the nation. Take him at his word. It\u2019s a model all right \u2013 a model of pure evil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite assurance to the contrary from the Democrat author of AB 2223 and liberal media “fact checkers,” the imprecise language of the legislation could result in California legalizing infanticide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":134176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Despite assurance to the contrary from the Democrat author of AB 2223 and liberal media \"fact checkers,\" the imprecise language of the legislation could result in California legalizing infanticide.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"808","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,805,808],"tags":[475,18329,12486,18328,536,5215,9330,5725],"class_list":["post-138827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-foreground","category-life","tag-abortion","tag-abortion-industry","tag-abortion-legislation","tag-buffy-wicks","tag-california","tag-culture-of-death","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-infanticide"],"yoast_head":"\n