The pro-infanticide party will, of course, be voting against an anti-infanticide measure. The only suspense is whether any end up crossing the aisle. We might get Bob Casey. Joe Manchin is always in play. Beyond that?

Sasse has taken care in the run-up to the vote to stress that his bill isn’t about abortion. That’s true inasmuch as it doesn’t restrict access to abortion but false, of course, in that it exposes the absurdity of the Democratic position on when a child’s life can and can’t lawfully be taken. Try to kill it in the womb and you’re fine; fail and have it exit the womb alive and, under Sasse’s bill, you’re legally obliged to seek hospital care for it. From executioner to savior in a matter of moments and inches, by dint of your own incompetence as a killer. It’s ridiculous, to which Sasse would doubtless say: Indeed. Children shouldn’t be killed for any reason, let alone a reason as arbitrary as whether it is or isn’t technically still being gestated when the attempt on its life is made.

So Dems will have to vote no. Protecting the right to kill a baby in utero means protecting the right to finish it off if things go badly.

.@SenSasse’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act implicitly requires Democrats to say whether they think allowing a newborn infant to die from lack of medical care constitutes licit “reproductive health care.” On the Senate floor, they are saying, resoundingly, “Yes.”

— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) February 25, 2019

The White House issued a supportive statement this afternoon:

The Trump administration has just issued a statement in support of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act: “A baby that survives an
abortion and is born alive into this world should be treated just like any other baby born alive.” pic.twitter.com/b7lhouxC1M

— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) February 25, 2019

Here’s Sasse answering a lie told by Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor today. Schumer claimed that the bill “would impose requirements on what type of care doctors must provide in certain circumstances,” but that’s not true. The “requirement” is merely that a physician treat a newborn who’s survived an abortion the way he or she would treat any other newborn. As a person, in other words. Obviously for Democrats that’s a non-starter. Over/under on the number of yays is 55. I’ll take the under. Stand by for updates.

Update: The pro-infanticide party prevails again.

Senate vote: Cloture not invoked on motion to proceed to S. 311 regarding abortion, 53-44. Democrats Casey, Jones and Manchin joined Republicans present in favor. Senators Cramer, Murkowski and Scott missed the vote.

Now voting on cloture on Miller nom to 9th Circuit.

— Senate Press Gallery (@SenatePress) February 25, 2019

The only surprise there is Doug Jones, who made his pro-choice beliefs clear on the trail before winning his Senate seat in Alabama. Either he’s shifting into pander mode ahead of his longshot reelection bid next year or he really did perceive a distinction between Sasse’s bill and abortion legislation.