U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R- Ala. has introduced legislation with U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. that would penalize healthcare practitioners who fail to provide care for an infant that is born-alive from an abortion attempt.

But opponents say this type of legislation is unnecessary and that it “vilifies” healthcare providers.

The bill, known as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would establish enforcement for the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Established in 2002, this law ensured that infants born alive at any stage of development receive the same legal protection provided to other human beings, according to its text.

“In 2002, Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act which codified in law that a newborn, regardless of the circumstances of their birth, is to be legally recognized as a person from the moment of birth if he or she show any sign of life,” reads a release from Britt’s office.

“The 2002 law did not provide any measures to enforce the protection of these infants, which has allowed the current practice of leaving a child to die after a botched abortion to continue.”

Under the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, healthcare providers who do not “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence” that they would provide to any other infant born are liable to be fined or imprisoned for up to five years.

Infanticide, the crime of killing a child within a year of its birth, is illegal in all states, and “any federal prohibition on any form of violence, including homicide, would be extended to an infant born alive after abortion,” according to previous comments made to PolitiFact by Mary Ziegler, a University of California, Davis law professor and abortion historian.

David Cohen, a Drexel University law professor who specializes in the intersection of constitutional law and gender, told PolitiFact that once a person is born, “you have all the protections of every criminal law, every civil law, including laws against murder, including laws against assault, including medical malpractice laws, etc.”

In previous legislative sessions, Alabama lawmakers have unsuccessfully attempted to pass a similar bill on a state level.

But Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, associate professor of Pediatrics at UAB Medicine, previously told AL.com that these bills are based on a fallacy because clinics in Alabama perform abortions up to 21 weeks gestational age, which is before babies can survive outside the womb.

“It’s basically a theoretical scenario that is medically implausible,” Ladinsky said.

Ladinsky acknowledged that an infant delivered before 22 weeks gestational age may have a heartbeat for a short time, but “no matter what we do or try to do, [with] the technology we have and our knowledge in the United States today,” doctors are unable to keep an infant alive if born before prior to 22 weeks in utero.

According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 93% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation, 6.1% were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and 1.1% were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation.

“The [Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act] maligns and vilifies providers and patients to push a false narrative about abortion later in pregnancy,” Dr. Kristyn Brandi, a board member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, told Vox in 2019.

Brandi added that in the modern medical landscape, the situation is so uncommon, it is essentially nonexistent.

“This is a part of the false narrative around this bill and abortion later in pregnancy,” she told Vox.

Other cosponsors of Britt’s bill include Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.Dak.) and Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Roger Wicker, R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Hoeven (R-N.Dak.), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Curtis (R-Utah), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.Dak.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Kennedy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), Mike Rounds (R-S.Dak.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.).