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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2001

Fitzgerald co-sponsors Born-Alive Infants Protection Act
Bill recognizes fully-born babies as ‘human beings’

WASHINGTON, DC...U.S. Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-Illinois) announced
today that he is an original co-sponsor of legislation reaffirming the equal
legal status of all fully-born living infants, regardless of the
circumstances of their births.

The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, introduced in response to disturbing
stories at a Chicago-area hospital and other hospitals around the country,
reaffirms that all babies born completely outside their mothers’ wombs are
human beings entitled to protections under federal law. Fitzgerald joined
Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), the measure’s chief sponsor and the
author of legislation banning partial-birth abortions, to propose the bill.

"It is dismaying that, in this country, we need legislation to reaffirm our
cherished and longstanding ideal that all living babies, regardless of
circumstance, are human beings entitled to the protection of law," said
Fitzgerald. "Unfortunately, recent experience demonstrates that even this
fundamental principle is no longer resolute."

Last year, two nurses at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, testifying
before a congressional committee, described instances in which fully-born
children—hearts beating, gasping for air—were left alone to die without any
post-natal care. One nurse, Jill Stanek, told the House subcommittee that one
live baby was abandoned in the hospital’s soiled utility room and
accidentally thrown in the trash. Ms. Stanek was in Washington again today to
testify before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, which
was scheduled to consider the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act this
afternoon.

"The nurses’ accounts are chilling. This should not be allowed to happen—let
alone be an acceptable way to practice medicine—in this country," said
Fitzgerald.

"The U.S. Congress has the opportunity to state emphatically that fully-born
babies are human beings who deserve the protection of the law. I hope my
colleagues in the Senate will pass this important bill as soon as possible,"
he concluded.

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