Extreme abortion plan now under investigation

There was a horrified reaction across America when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, defending an extreme abortion bill, said an infant who survives the procedure could be resuscitated and "a discussion" could be held about the baby's life.

The issue has fallen from the headlines, but the American Center for Law and Justice plans to "expose the truth behind this ghoulish bill and stop it before it comes back up in a future legislative session (thankfully it was tabled in committee this time)."

"We want to know whether the legislators supporting it have interests beyond 'women's health issues.'"

The Virginia bill, which failed, would allow abortion in the third trimester if a women's "mental health" is threatened, which effectively would legalize it in all instances.

ACLJ said the issue is no longer the left's "usual abortion distortion about when they think life begins."

"This is about a live baby, successfully delivered – intentionally or not – from his or her mother’s womb. This is no longer just abortion. It’s infanticide. And the governor supports it."

ACLJ filed Freedom of Information Act requests to force the state of Virginia to produce all records regarding the legislation.

"We will get to the bottom of what it's really about, and if and how much Planned Parenthood or others in the abortion lobby were involved in its creation," ACLJ said.

"We sent our records demands to Governor Northam’s office, as well as Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, and Attorney General Mark Herring. Each have been supportive of this and other similarly barbaric abortion legislation, and as you may have heard, all three are currently embroiled in other personal controversies – each unrelated, yet perhaps telling about their respect for human rights and dignity – at the moment."

Northam was discussing in an interview with WTOP radio in Washington what would happen, under the bill, if a baby survived the abortion.

"The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother," he said.

"By Governor Northam’s own admission, that living, breathing baby would still not be afforded the basic rights and protections of a human being, until someone else decided whether that living breathing child deserved them or not," ACLJ said.

The organization noted the governor's office tried to make his comments less offensive in a statement released later.

"No woman seeks a third trimester abortion except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities, and the governor’s comments were limited to the actions physicians would take in the event that a woman in those circumstances went into labor."

But ACLJ said that doesn't stack up.

"1) Abortion studies have concluded that abortions for these reasons make up only a small portion of late-term abortions. 2) How could he have been talking about a 'nonviable pregnancy' when he said the 'infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired?' A nonviable pregnancy would by definition not be an 'infant' who could be 'resuscitated.' 3) His defense of his comments was to say they are about a baby with disabilities?"

ACLJ said that in the U.S. Senate, 44 pro-abortion Democrats also blocked legislation that would have assured babies of lifesaving care should they survive the abortionist's procedures.

"We’re digging into these pieces of legislation to see who was really behind them – both in Virginia and in New York – and which lawmakers have been bought and paid for by the abortion industry," ACLJ said.