The Louisiana Senate approved a bill Friday that requires a second doctor to be present in any abortion performed after 20 weeks gestation, so if the fetus is “born alive,” regardless of its stage of development, there will be a medical provider prepared to “utilize the available method or technique of abortion most likely to preserve the life and health of the unborn child.” Given prior approval by the Louisiana House, the bill awaits Gov. Mike Foster’s signature if it is to go into effect.
This bill bears great similarity to the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” that was introduced last week in both houses of Congress, both defining “born alive” as “the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or shows signs of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation or the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles.”
