Abortion opponents are hailing new findings that a majority of babies born on the brink of viability can survive, saying science is increasingly backing up their efforts to ban abortions earlier in pregnancy.
Nearly seven in 10 infants born at 22 and 23 weeks gestation and given active care survived, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. Survival rates were 60 percent among infants born at 22 weeks and 70 percent among infants born at 23 weeks.
The study underscores advances in the area of neonatal care, as premature infants have become more likely to survive at earlier stages. While the Supreme Court has said states can’t ban abortions before the point of viability, that benchmark has shifted over the last few decades, fueling anti-abortion efforts to restrict the procedure.
On Wednesday, South Carolina became the 17th state to pass a bill banning abortions past 20 weeks gestation, legislation known as a “pain-capable” measure because it’s based on when a fetus may be able to experience pain.
The Susan B. Anthony List and other anti-abortion groups have pushed a similar federal measure, which the House passed last year but which Democrats blocked in the Senate. SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said the JAMA study, showing fetuses could be viable earlier than previously thought, should put more pressure on likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to say whether she supports any later-term abortion bans.
“The pain-capable bill is a line we have set in the sand, and a line GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has agreed to,” Dannenfelser said. “Hillary Clinton has declared that the ‘unborn person’ has no constitutional rights.’ Would she support either of these bills …. the American people have a right to know the answer in this year of decision.”
