Pro-abortion lawmakers in the Oregon Senate voted against bringing a bill to the Senate floor Thursday that would require Oregon medical professionals to provide the same standards of care to babies born alive during failed abortions as newborns delivered under usual circumstances.

Senator Diane Linthicum (R-Beatty) made a motion March 5 to bring SB 1554, the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, to the Senate prior to the end of the 2026 legislative session. Senator Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) affirmed the motion on the floor, highlighting the importance of being able to discuss this issue.

Senator Linthicum and Senator David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) gave strong arguments in support of SB 1554, highlighting the story of Oregon abortion survivor Amy Miles (who survived an abortion at 28 weeks), and emphasizing that the bill does not change access or laws on abortion, but rather ensures protection for babies who are born alive during the process.

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All 18 Democrats voted against the bill and all 12 Republicans voted in favor. The vote came after a similar effort was tried in the House last month, again with all Republicans voting in support and all Democrats voting in opposition. Included in those voting against the bill in the House was Rep. Cyrus Javadi (D-Astoria), a former Republican who became a Democrat last year and renounced his pro-life affiliation.

“Just as their counterparts in the Oregon House did last month, pro-abortion Senators stood with the extreme abortion lobby and rejected a common-sense piece of legislation to simply ensure that babies who survive abortion attempts are treated with the same standard of care as any other newborn,” Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Lois Anderson said. “Defining required standards of care for abortion survivors should be a common ground position for all reasonable people.”

“This is not a radical proposal. No matter their stance on abortion, 80% of Oregonians support these basic safeguards,” Anderson continued. “It is well past time to enshrine basic protections for abortion survivors here in Oregon, and it’s a shame that pro-abortion lawmakers have once again failed to do so when given the opportunity.”

Pro-life advocates have long sought to create more robust legal protections for babies who survive abortions.

• While the 2002 federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act defines babies who survive abortion as “persons,” the law does not specify standards of care.
• There are currently only nine states with born-alive infant reporting, and those states reported 275 cases of babies born alive during abortions between 2018 and 2024.
• Using extrapolated data based on information from Canada, and adjusting for a lack of consistent reporting requirements in the U.S., the Abortion Survivors Network estimates that an average of over 1,700 babies were born alive in America during failed abortions over a seven year span from 2014 through 2020.
• Infanticide is illegal, but pro-life advocates warn that a lack of explicit standards of care for abortion survivors leaves them vulnerable to medical neglect.

LifeNews Note: Ashley Sadler is Communications Director for Oregon Right to Life. Oregon Right to Life Education Foundation is actively involved in connecting churches with pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the state, as well as creating and distributing localized resource guides to ensure that abortion-vulnerable moms and families throughout Oregon have access to life-affirming options.