I think another relevant question to ask is this:
What percentage of those defects and deformities that made the later-born infant's condition incompatible with sustained life were caused or inflicted during a late-term abortion procedure.
Appreciate the reasonable responses. I think that could sometimes be relevant, but it’s a pretty rare set of circumstances, IMO.
If the cause of death was inflicted during a lawful abortion, I’m not sure how often that is relevant to post-birth care decisions or lawfulness.
The percentage of abortions at 21+ weeks is 1%, 24+ weeks is less than 1%. Partly because it’s less safe, partly because it’s legal in fewer places, and partly because of the morals of terminating a viable fetus that doesn’t pose an abnormally high risk of harm.
(The 21-24 week range is relevant because as
@NashVol11 pointed put, dragging out the death of a body that can’t sustain life is actually inhumane and there’s no government interest in mandating resuscitation efforts).
Failed abortions resulting in a live birth are also a rarity. So the situations that are relevant to the discussion are a minority fraction of 1% of all abortions.*
That small number is because it’s essentially reserved for unexpected issues: sudden onset, life-threatening maternal conditions like pre-eclampsia and newly detected deformities of the fetus that are incompatible with sustaining life, etc.
In that way, it’s little different than the end-of-life decision of a surviving parent or spouse of a cancer patient or victim of an unexpected stroke who can no longer breath on their own or who is brain dead.
Count me out on punishing people who just had to make those decisions, or adding the fear of punishment to their calculus just to address, at most, a handful of cases that already meet the definition of homicide in all 50 states. Count me in on being a condescending prick to those who go straight to making those people and their providers out to be murderers even though they themselves don’t care enough to learn what the issues are.
* - I haven’t seen a credible number but have OBGYN and family medicine provider contacts and they’ve only seen it in books.